Page 129 of You Float My Boat

‘Yeah, that girl is absolutely Coco-Pops,’ Stella snorted. ‘One day you’re going to end up with a rabbit boiling away on your stove.’

‘Ugh, Stel. Don’t say that. Don’t even think it,’ I frowned, and looked back up at Charlie.

For the first time I noticed how still he’d gone, the smile had completely vanished and the pinkish sheen of exertion was now kind of greyish. If his fists hadn’t clenched, I might not have questioned it any further. But, coupled with the panicked way his eyes narrowed, twisting knots kicked up from nowhere and stirred deep in my belly.

‘Charlie?’

Stella’s eyes shot to mine and back to Charlie. ‘She was lying, right? Evie was lying?’

‘Yes.’ He nodded, ‘Of course. I mean, I didn’t ask her to meet me, there’s no way … Of course, she was lying.’

His words should have made me feel better, but they didn’t. There was something about his tone. Why is it you can always sense thebut?

His hand reached around to the back of his neck, ‘Um …butshe just made me say I’d take her out if we lost today.’

‘What?’ Stella and I blurted in unison.

I replayed it. I needed to make sure I’d heard correctly. Stella was of the same opinion given the way she was now looking at me.

‘What do you mean? Made you?’

His eyes were filled with sincerity, ‘No, it’s not a big deal, it’s not like how it sounds. She said she’d finally leave me alone if I went out with her. It was only if we lost though, and we didn’t so it’s okay.’

Yep. I’d heard, my eyes flicking to Stella again, who looked as confused as I did.

‘But you agreed to go on a date with her?’

‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘To get her off my case.’

‘Sorry … what?’ interrupted Stella, because it was clear we needed a lot of clarification. ‘Say again? You were going to go on a date with that psychotic lunatic?’

‘No, of course not. No. Don’t be stupid. I was never going to go,’ he scoffed, like he couldn’t understand why we were having difficulty grasping what he was saying.

‘But you told her you would,’ I repeated, because I was also having difficulty. A lot of it, to be exact. ‘Youtold Evie you’d go on a date? Charlie, a date with someone who’s been terrorizing you so much that you asked me to be your fake girlfriend. Which I did. But you were going to go on a date with her anyway.’

‘It wasn’t a date. I just said I’d meet her if we lost. Lost,’ he repeated slowly, like I was remedial, or hard of hearing. I was definitely hard of something.

‘But you didn’t know what the outcome of this race was going to be.’

‘No, but –’

‘You could have lost.’

‘But we didn’t –’

‘But you could have. Which meant you’d be voluntarily meeting Evie.’

‘I guess. But I wasn’t going to go.’

‘Right, but you still agreed. And did you think for a second how I might feel about it?’

‘No,’ he replied so quickly he may as well have slapped me in the face. ‘I mean, no because I never thought we’d lose. We didn’t lose, so it’s irrelevant. I don’t know why you’re so upset. She agreed to leave me alone if I won. Leaveusalone. Job done.’

‘But she clearly isn’t leaving you alone,orme alone,’ I snapped, ‘she just accosted us in the pub!’

‘Violet –’

My brother had never had the best timing in the world. Therefore, I never got to hear Charlie’s response because that was the moment Hugo decided to make an appearance.

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