Page 25 of You Float My Boat

‘Nope. It’s exactly the right amount of keenness. Especially if that ex of his sees. Shows you know his coffee order.’

I nodded, once again she was correct.

‘You know, between the two of us, we make a pretty decent whole girlfriend.’

She slung her arm over my shoulder and leaned in. ‘You mean whole fake girlfriend.’

The twinge in my chest flickered again. ‘What do you think he drinks?’

‘Probably something boring like black filter. What does your brother drink?’

I shrugged, ‘Dunno, but I saw him put butter in his coffee at Christmas, and I’m not ordering that.’

‘Butter?’ Stella’s face said exactly what I was thinking.

Disgusting. Or‘A total waste of butter,’as my mum told him.

‘Yeah, apparently helps with body fat or something. Boat Race training, I guess.’

We moved forward in the queue another foot, as three customers walked out carrying steaming cups.

‘Do you think they’ll win this year?’

‘I hope so. They’ve been training hard enough. It would be nice if the boys won for their final year. Shame we won’t get to see many of the races before though.’

‘Yeah, there’s no way Cece will let us out of rehearsals.’

The people in front of us turned around as Stella let out a loud snort, and I almost dreaded what was aboutto come out of her mouth given the mischievous look on her face.

‘Do you think Charlie will want you to be waiting with a warm towel by Chiswick Bridge?’

I shook my head, ‘No, don’t be silly. That’s two and a half months away, and term will have finished. We’ll be done by the Boat Race. This is a one-term thing.’

She forced her mouth down so it drooped at the edges. ‘Sorry to hear you guys are breaking up. I’ll make sure we go out and commiserate.’

‘Thanks,’ I grinned back, just as we reached the front of the queue and the impatient-looking server waiting for our order. ‘One flat white, please. And one …’ I pointed at Stella to give her order because I’d probably get it wrong and annoy this gentleman even more than he clearly already was.

I should have known she’d add a black filter coffee.

‘For Charlie,’ she winked.

Five minutes later we were making our way towards Radcliffe. All my concentration was going on not spilling coffee down myself, while also ignoring the nervous knots which were beginning to make their presence known the nearer we got, so I didn’t hear the booming of my name until it was close enough to deafen me.

‘VIOLET. Vi … Violet. VIOLET.’

Stella and I spun around to find my brother running towards me, completely oblivious to the scene he was causing. I was tall, but Hugo was Goliath, and several people stopped to move out of his way or watch him jog past.

‘My god! Is that the result of butter in his coffee? Or has he been eating little children too?’ mumbled Stella.

‘I dunno …’ I muttered to her, as Hugo stopped in front of us, looking more annoyed than I’d seen him in a while. Two girls walking past nearly collided with a lamppost because they were too busy craning their necks to look at him.

‘Hello, what are you doing over this side of town?’

‘What?’ he frowned. ‘What does that mean?’

‘Nothing, I’ve just never seen you around here before,’ I replied, with a shrug. ‘Shouldn’t you be in the gym or something? Wouldn’t want your muscles to shrink.’

Next to me, Stella snorted loudly enough that it earned her a deep scowl, but that was it. He knew better than to retort. Because Stella and I had grown up together, she had also been present for Hugo’s transformation from a gangly beanpole with a mop of curly hair once his obsession with the gym hit, before the even bigger obsession with rowing.

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