Page 76 of The Good Boy

“Thank you for giving me a pep talk,” Claudia says, filling my glass as we sit on the sofa. “I was about to completely lose it and you kind of made me remember this is dinner on a Thursday, the stakes are low. Or at least they should be.”

“Oh, you’re welcome,” I say. “I am familiar with things goingterribly wrong all the time. There comes a point when you just learn to roll with it.”

Claudia pauses for a moment, as if she is working out how to say something.

“You must think I’m really lame,” Claudia says out of the blue.

“What? No? No! You? Lame? No way, siree,” I tell her. “No, why would you think that?”

“I’d think I was a lame if I were you,” Claudia says. “A needy, desperate-for-friends, lame girl who is trying way too hard to be likable, right?”

“No,” I protest, “I am just the opposite of you, that’s all. I have lived in one place all my life. I know everything about this town and everyone in it. It must be really hard arriving in a new town, not knowing anyone. If anything, I think you are brave.”

“Really? Thanks.” Claudia looks up at me with a sideways smile. “I just really want the job to work out, and Scarborough to work out. I thought it would be fine; my family and my mates were like, Are you sure? You won’t know anyone and you might hate it. I thought it would be just like going to uni, you know? I’d just meet people. But I’ve been here two months and I only know the guys at work and you and Rory, and that’s just because I basically foisted myself on you because you’re Miles’s favorite person and Miles is the coolest person I’ve met so far.”

“He said that?” I ask, not realizing I’ve pressed my palm to my heart until after I’ve done it.

“He didn’t have to,” Claudia says, a little wary. “He talks about you all the time.”

“Well, anyway,” I say. “Clearly you are the coolest person at work. A hot geologist, whatever next?”

Claudia chuckles.

“I know it’s so naff, but I’d love if you and I could be friends,” she says.

“I think we will be,” I tell her. “Scarborough is a great place to live once you get to know it. Miles and I will show you around.”

“Are you coming back to finish this dinner?” Miles calls from the other room. “Rory’s stopped bleeding. Mostly.”

“Coming!” I call back.

“Can I ask you something before we go back in there?” Claudia says, her hand on my arm. “It’s just, I sort of tried asking Miles out the other day, but I think I was too subtle because he didn’t seem to notice. And I wondered if it’s because... well, are you and Miles...?” She lets the question hang so heavily I can practically read it in the air. “Because I would never try and get in the middle of anything romantic between you two.”

“Romantic! No, we aren’t romantic. No romance happening here!” I know I should add one of Claudia’s “yet”s to the end of that sentence, and I know if I did that she would back off instantly. But the “yet” doesn’t come. I am trying to see a future with me and Miles, and whenever I try and picture it, it’s always him and Claudia.

“So you wouldn’t mind, then?” Claudia asks.

“Mind what?” I say like an idiot.

“Well, seeing as he didn’t seem to get the memo last time, I thought tonight I would formally ask him on a date.”

“That would be totally fine,” I tell her. Inside I’m screaming like a banshee.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“First aid completed!” Miles calls again from the kitchen.

Claudia’s eyes are wide with excitement.

“Oh my god, I’m going to strike while I’m a bit tipsy and ask him on a date tonight!”

“Like right now, tonight?” I ask her. “In front of me?”

“Yes, while I have the courage.” She claps her hands together. “Miles isn’t my boyfriend...yet!”

I’m still trying to digest what Claudia has just told me as I follow her back to the kitchen.

On paper, at least, there couldn’t be a better match for Miles than Claudia. She’s age appropriate, they like the same things. But clearly Miles and I are meant to be together, right? That’s where all this has been leading, hasn’t it?

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