Page 42 of You Belong With Me

She was going to seal the deal and incautiously bragand Elliot came to Derbyshirethen thought, you want that pumped into the bloodstream? Declan – Jessica –Daily Mail? Not only that – mercy-dashing over to see her would be taken as confirmation of the story.

‘I’m pleased for you,’ Declan said. ‘I don’t know why Jess and co can’t let it go. Well, I do. They’re jealous.’

‘Is that it? Edie did a shit thing so she shouldn’t have good things happen to her?’

‘Yeah, I think so. That and they all fancy your bloke.’

‘Not them, too. He has too many people fancying him. It’s not good for a man. I made a point of not fancying him when I met him, as a political decision. Look how that’s going.’

Declan laughed. ‘You remind me of this girl back home, at sixth form. She won a place at Cambridge and completely aced every exam, and people got really chippy aboutwho does she think she is, and she’d not done anything. I worked out that what pissed them off is that she didn’t show off or lord it over them, so they had nothing to criticise. Getting a lot of that energy from their disapproval of you. Your crime is being happy with a guy and never showing off about it.’

‘Apart from one-off drunk Instagrams. Thank you,’ Edie said. ‘You’re welcome to pass on to Team Jessica that we’re still together. If they’re going to ignobly glory in my romance going down in flames, it can at least be when it actually has.’

‘Understood. By the way, I don’t know if’ – Declan cleared his throat – ‘you told anyone at work about what happened on Friday? No worries if you did. I’m just girding my loins for the blowback. The gifs of Michael Fassbender inShame. Or something less flattering.’

‘Of course not!’ Edie said, startled he’d even suspect it. ‘And I won’t – you have my word. You don’t deserve them being divs about it. Decent citizens don’t stir things like that up for each other – I should know that better than anyone.’

‘If this isn’t too much for the first day we’re working together, can I tell you something, Edie Thompson?’ Declan said, in his charming brogue. ‘I think you’re a really lovely person.’

‘Thank you!’ Edie said. ‘The feeling’s mutual.’

A moment passed.

‘Do you know what, if you’d told me last year in the worst of it that I’d ever be sat with someone from Ad Hoc telling me I was a lovely person, I’d have called it science fiction,’ she said.

Declan paused eating his pain au raisin to chortle at this. ‘Life has a way of surprising you,’ he said. ‘Sometimes I’d like it to surprise me a bit less. I’m sure you’d like my life to have surprised you a bit less, too.’

Edie laughed, and they shared a look, the ‘Smooth Passage’ ferry look, when you acknowledge you’ve made a connection.

22

Edie had yet to return the favour and fly across water to visit Elliot, and yet seeing him in the capital was enough to make her feel out of place, a gauche tourist in a foreign land. His London wasn’t her London as she remembered it: it was a parallel version, the playground of the rootless and very rich.

When they were confirming plans for the weekend, Elliot said, with throwaway grandeur that made Edie squirm: ‘Tell me what time you’re getting in – I’ll send a car to St Pancras for you.’

He did a good job of impersonating a grounded, regular individual most of the time, but on basic analysis, he wasn’t one and hadn’t been for some time. Edie tried not to flinch at reminders: all relationships were a process of discovery about the other, right?

Elliot wasn’t to be deterred by Edie’s blushing protestations about swaglording, however.

(‘Right then, let me phrase this differently: let me save us an hour and a half.’)

The original plan of dinner and drinks had been revised by Fraser. He prevailed on Elliot to introduce Edie to his newgirlfriend, Molly. They were throwing a party at a hotel out west, celebrating Fraser’s promotion. He was in financial services, and Molly was a fashion buyer, and Edie didn’t fully understand what these things entailed. Several friends from home were visiting, too, including Fraz’s best friend, the apparently legendary, disreputable Iggy, and the pull was too great to resist.

Elliot had made extensive apologies to Edie, but Edie wasn’t at all fussed, as long as they were together.

They’d thrashed this out on WhatsApps in different time zones. Elliot was back in L.A.;The Voidfilm had wrapped, but he was needed for something called pickup shots. He was on set in sun-bleached studios in Burbank, wearing black contact lenses, a suit of dark green Neoprene, his face drawn on with felt-tip markers for the CGI, as revealed by the scowling selfies he’d sent.

Edie was being suffocated by a cloud of mango e-cigarette and enduring someone sodcastingFamily Guyin a queue for the No.58, as not revealed by selfies she didn’t send.

Elliot

Being completely honest with you, I’m not sure about Molly. Bit … superficial, maybe? She posts Instagram stories where she’s kissing Aperol Spritzes to Drake songs. Her family were all over me in an odd way when we met at Fraser’s birthday, too. But Fraser’s gone all in. So. Fail He May, Sail We Must.

Edie

Hah. I’d love to meet her. And I always enjoy Fraser’s company. PS odd how?

Elliot

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