Page 78 of Not That Impossible

“Yes.” He shovelled a mouthful in. “Of course it is,” he said around a big lying smile.

I was his personal trainer. We’d see if he was still smiling about it when I added an extra three sets of squats to our session later.

“Look at this,” I said, and flipped the camera.

“What am I looking at, exactly? Because it looks like you’re at the newsagents.”

“I am!”

I held the phone closer to the papers.

“Jasper!” Adam yelled. “You’re on the front page!”

“Oh my god, calm down,” I hissed.

“No! This is a big deal! I’m so proud of you!”

“Sorry,” I said when someone nudged me out of the way, reaching around to grab a copy ofTheTelegraph.

I moved down the aisle to the magazine section, and toggled the camera back to my face, grinning at the tiny Adam on my phone. “Thanks,” I started, and then froze when someone said, “Morning, Ray.

“Did someone say Ray?” Adam said.

Ofcoursehe heard that.

“Shhh.” I ducked and scurried around to the other side of the aisle where they stocked random stuff like stationery, balloons, and ant traps. I went on tiptoe and peered over the top shelf.

Ray was at the counter. He was talking to the owner, Miss Lawson.

“Over there,” she said, pointing right at me.

“Shit.” I pretended to be very interested in the box of batteries I found myself standing in front of.

“What’s going on?” Adam hissed. “Is that Ray? Is Ray there? Turn the camera. I want to see.”

“Will you shush?”

“Why are you hiding?”

“I don’t know, okay? Ipanicked. I don’t know, it feels weird that I wrote about him and now—oh god, he’s coming over. Why? What does he want? Adam, what do I do? I—”

I broke off and stood there, wide-eyed, watching Ray’s approach.

I was holding the phone up already, so I surreptitiously thumbed the camera to toggle forward.

Our gazes clashed and Ray hesitated.

We looked at each other for a moment. Then he said, “Excuse me,” and grabbed a three-pack of batteries from the box. He turned and walked away.

Air leaked out of me.

I watched as Ray paused by the Cadbury Creme Eggs, seemed to have a mental debate that lasted approximately five seconds, then grabbed one.

“What’s he doing?” Adam’s voice said.

I took it off camera and lifted it to my ear. “Standing in the queue. He’s buying batteries, and a Creme Egg.” Ray leaned to the side and took something from one of the small stands by the till. “And a packet of chewing gum. He’s an impulse buyer, and—oh no.”

“What?”

---