Page 27 of In the Long Run
‘If you didn’t, you wouldn’t care if she liked you or not.’
Shit.‘That’s not true.’
‘So, here’s what we’re going to do.You’re going to knock on the door.Say you thought she might like a coffee.Ask if she’d like a lift to Run Club.I’ll be waiting in the car.’
Ah, that’s why she snatched the keys from me on the walk upstairs.Celeste raises her hand, pounds on the door loud enough to wake the whole damn building, slaps my chest and runs down the stairs.
‘Celeste!’I hiss but she’s long gone, her cackle fading like the dawn colours outside.
‘Yes?’A man opens the door wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with the phrase ‘I licked it so it’s mine’ stamped all over them.A large tattoo of an eagle covers one side of his chest.This must be Caleb, Gen’s flatmate.He’s not what I was expecting, or what Eugene described.
I’m going to kill Celeste.And Yeti.He probably dared her to do this, because those two have a weird cat-and-mouse dynamicgoing on that I donotwant to think about.If they ever got together it would be either the best thing or totally apocalyptic.
‘You must be Caleb.I’m sorry to disturb you so early.I was hoping to speak to Gen?’
He scratches his stomach.‘I’m Lawson.’
Not Caleb then.Which means … not my business, no matter how much the pain in my chest disagrees.
‘Um …’ When I was a Battery Captain, I was in charge of 125 soldiers.I’ve led training exercises.I’ve seen soldiers do a whole bunch of dumb shit and always known what to say, how to act.I’m good under pressure.But right now?I’ve got nothing.The difference is that I’ve always kept my personal feelings out of those situations.
‘Um …’ Shit.I said Gen’s name already.Can’t pretend I’m at the wrong apartment.
‘You’re Knox!’the man shouts.‘Gen!Get your ass out here.Your hot soldier is waiting for you.Caleb!Babe, wake up.He’s even hotter in 3D.’
Her hot what now?
This is all too much.I thrust the coffee towards Lawson.‘Can you please give this to Gen and tell her I’ll see her at Run Club?’
I don’t give him a chance to answer.
I’m down the stairs when I hear Gen ask what’s going on.
The answer is that I freaked the fuck out.
And I can’t afford to do that.
11
GEN
‘I thought you said it was only a small group,’ I say to Bernie and Meredith as we watch the crowd clustered in the car park of Pelican Reserve.I’m still holding the coffee Knox got for me before he ran away.It’s empty but it’s helping me keep my hands from trembling, because there are at least fifty people in front of us.All Mere’s hard work on promo has clearly paid off.
‘It was last week,’ Bernie says.
‘Helps that the Annas posted about it, even though they couldn’t make it today,’ Mere says.
Four big vans – the kind that hold twelve people each – pull into the car park and more men and women spill out.Some wear matching khaki shirts with crests over their hearts.Others are in normal workout gear.They trail behind Yeti like overgrown ducklings following their mother.
Yeti greets me with a hug and kiss on my cheek.In my peripheral vision, Knox crosses his arms.I thanked him for the coffee when I arrived, but there was a weird vibe to our interaction.
‘I brought reinforcements,’ Yeti says.‘These guys are here on course so they can’t come every week, but the more the merrier, right?’
‘Absolutely,’ Bernie says before introducing himself.
‘Is this the hot soldier?’Meredith mutters in my ear.Peoplehave got to stop saying that out loud.Also, she clearly wasn’t quiet enough, because Yeti throws his head back and unleashes a booming laugh that makes the leaves of the gum we’re standing under shake.
‘I’m one of them.’He winks at Meredith.
