Page 68 of The Good Boy

I can’t argue with that, and it’s annoying, so I change the subject as I get up and go to the mirror. I look at the scarf hanging limply around my neck, and instead tie it in my hair with a big bow at the front like a 1940s factory girl. I meant it as a kind of joke, but actually I like it. If I had a lipstick in that shade...

“Here,” Nanna hands me a lipstick in that shade. Shrugging, I put it on.

“So, you’re saying that if I draw more and put on a pink scarf, Rory will turn back into a dog?” I ask. “In that case, job done.”

“No, I’m not saying that it will return Rory to his dog form. Honestly, I don’t think there is a way to do that. What I’m saying is that last night you started drawing again, and today you have a spring in your step and a little color. It suits you, sunshine girl.”

She’s not wrong. After Claudia invited herself into Miles’s place, flaunting her Victoria sponge, I had felt pretty low. And then I did something unprecedented, something I never do. I decided not to feel pretty low.

Rory watched as I took out most everything from the under-stairs cupboard until I found my big sketchbook and an art box full of different-colored pens and pencils. Most of the pens had dried up, but the pencils just needed sharpening, and before long I wasn’t thinking about Claudia feeding Miles strawberries at all. I was only thinking about what was on the page, losing myself in the flow of color and form. I was absorbed so intensely that I didn’t realize until I took a break how good it felt. How much likemeI felt. How much I wanted to make the clothes that I had designed on the page and wear them. Top-notch questing even if I do say so myself.

“And, say what you like about this whole Rory debacle, although the situation is not exactlyideal...”

“Understatement of the year,” I say.

“It has been good for you,” Nanna goes on. “It’s got you out of your comfort zone.”

“And taken me on a coach ride to the land of What the Hell NOW?” I add. Still, Nanna Maria is giving me insightful advice, which means I might have to admit that I don’t know what I’d do without her. So, I’m relieved that Rory comes stumbling in through the door, stinking like a student’s house party, at just the right moment to prevent any more unscheduled personal growth.

“I’m back!” he announces, as if his presence wasn’t enough of an indicator. “I went to the crystal shop with the tappy-card thing and I asked them for some incense like you told me to, and Ellie, the crystal shop lady, said, ‘What kind?,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t even know what incense is,’ so Ellie burnt a whole load of the whiffy sticks and we sniffed a lot of them. I couldn’t decide, so Ellie said, ‘Why not get a pack of each?,’ and she gave me her phone number in case I wanted to know more about crystals.”

“I have a feeling that Ellie might have led you astray,” I say, narrowing my eyes at him. “Are you high?”

“I think I am quite high, yes,” Rory tells me, swaying from side to side a bit. “I am definitely higher than you, and that was weird at first because you were always higher than me and, like huge, sort of like the biggest, most important thing in the world, like massive. And now you are ateeny-tiny little woman.” He wobbles toward me and boops me on the nose. “Teeny-tiny.”

“Okay, point made,” I tell him. “Sit down and I’ll get you a drink of water.”

“Got any biscuits?” Rory asks. “I could murder a packet of bourbons.”

“And now my dog’s got the munchies,” I tell Nanna Maria. “Surely getting your dog stoned must be the low point, and from now on the only way is up.”

Of course, the law of the universe dictates that the moment you question whether or not your circumstances could possibly deteriorate any further, they always do. A rookie mistake that I realize about 0.3 seconds later when Miles and Claudia enter the shop. Oh god, did she stay the night with him?

“Oh, this is marvelous!” Claudia says, clapping her hands together and laughing with joy as she turns on her heel, taking in the full splendor of the parlor. “What fun, it’s so kitsch! I love it!”

Obviously, I take offense at once. Or at least I would do, if it wasn’t for the fact that Claudia’s intentions are pure, and she is clearly delighted with everything she sets eyes on, including Nanna Maria. She’s thrilled to bits, the bloody perfectly nice woman. And by the way he’s smiling—Miles is thrilled to bits with her.

Bloody Claudia in her ditsy floral sundress that makes her look like a heroine from a Hallmark movie being all lovely. Typical of me that my secret archnemesis would be adorable. Wait, maybe I’m the bad guy in this story? Bloody hell.

“Hi, Genie.” Miles shoots me an apologetic wave before I can analyze that thought any further. “When Claudia found out your nan was a psychic shereallywanted to come and have a reading done, made me promise to bring her in on our lunch break, before she went home yesterday.”

She did not stay the night, thank god. Of course, lots of thingscan happen outside the bedtime hours, but somehow it’s easier not to think of them if the sun is still out.

“I said, ‘Let’s wait and book it with Genie. No need to just turn up unannounced,’ but...”

“I didn’t want any special treatment!” Claudia says. “So here we are!”

She bounces over to Nanna, like Tigger but with really good hair.

I look from Miles to Claudia and back at Miles. I don’t know what’s going on, but Claudia is bringing some serious girlfriend energy.

As Claudia looks around I raise a questioning eyebrow at Miles. He shrugs.

“The thing is,” Claudia tells Nanna very seriously, “I’ve sort of met someone. And I’d like to know if it might go somewhere.”

Claudia doesn’t look at Miles as she says this, but she doesn’t need to. The fact that she’s talking about him, and whatever happened between them, is obvious in the coy tilt of her head and the way she twists her hands into her pockets.

“Well, then, let me tell youfor surewhat the future holds for you, my dear.” Nanna Maria beams at Claudia. “Come and sit with me, give me your hands.” Nanna Maria glances at me and then at Rory, who is about to fall asleep standing up. “Miles, you’d better wait outside with Genie and Rory. A reading requires total privacy. Besides, I think Rory could do with a few lungfuls of fresh air.”

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