Page 26 of The Christmas Express
And then Joss says . . .
‘So, Cali and Luke, you’re not going to suddenly confess you’ve been hooking up again on this trip, are you?’
Whooooooa! Again? My eyes widen, my lips twitch with a smile that I force away. As Cali and Luke stutter and stumble over their words, Sara snickers and Joe mutters, ‘Bloody hell.’
‘No,’ Cali says, her voice high, and a laugh that sounds like a peacock wail comes out.
‘Absolutely not,’ Luke says, a little too loudly. Alright, mate. Funnily enough, Cali looks like she’s thinking that too, her forced laughter having cut short. ‘That was a long time ago. I’m sure we’ve both moved on.’
He won’t look at Cali now, and his effort not to do so is just as obvious as when he couldn’t stop looking at her. Fascinating.
Beside me, Cali does her super-fast nodding again. ‘Yeah, yes, totally moved on. Very happy.’
‘You seeing someone?’ Sara asks.
Cali picks up her glass of wine and knocks some of it back. ‘Um, yep.’
‘What’s their name?’ I ask.
She blinks at me like she forgot I was here. ‘He’s called Luke.’
‘He’s called Luke?’ repeats the Luke that’s with us on the train.
‘Yep. He’s not you.’ She does a mini version of the peacock laugh again. ‘He’s not some imaginary boyfriend I’ve named after you or anything. Haha. He’s REAL.’
Oh God, poor thing. I’m sure her Luke is very real but right now Cali looks like she wants to jump out of the window, run up to the front of the train, and then just lie down in front of it. I hope she doesn’t though because this is the most alive I’ve seen the group since I boarded the flight yesterday morning.
‘How long have you been together?’ this Luke asks.
‘Eight months, I think. Ish.’
Eight months? And they didn’t know about him? I look around at them for signs that at least some of them know this guy of hers. What’s going on?
‘What does he do?’ I ask, when the conversation starts to dry up again.
‘ . . . London.’
‘He does London?’
‘No, sorry.’ Cali shakes her head. ‘I don’t know why I said that. I mean he lives in London. He works in an office.’
‘Doing what?’
‘It’s . . . a secret.’
‘Like secret government work?’ Joe leans forward.
‘No. I can’t talk about it. Mmm, this salad is delicious.’ She prongs a lettuce leaf. ‘So, what about the rest of you? Anyone seeing anyone at the moment?’
Sara shrugs. ‘No one serious.’
Across the aisle, Joss shakes her head while Joe nods and says, ‘Yep, my girlfriend is . . .’ I somehow fade him out though as I watch Luke over my glass, who is staring at his plate, fiddling with his cutlery, and eventually nods.
‘Yep,’ he says in a small voice.
Cali chews her lip, like she wants to say something to him.
I’m about to ask him about his new (new?) partner, when something clicks into place for me. ‘Can I take it the famous house-share is no longer? I’ll be honest, this doesn’t feel like a conversation between people who live in each other’s pockets any more.’
