might have been about to happen before bloody Elmo had come bursting into the kitchen and interrupted them. When he’d checked with Ellie earlier that she could look after Elmo if he was held up at the hospital, she had said it was fine, she wasn’t seeing Joe tonight.
Which could only be good news. Wherever Joe might be this evening without her, it served him right.
***
‘Hey!’ Spotting the figure heading her way, Ellie waved wildly with both arms.
When they reached each other she said, ‘I can’t believe you’re making me do this.’
‘Don’t be like that. It’ll be great.’
‘It won’t be great! You’ve already told me it’s going to be horrendous. You just want me there to share the agony.’
But Ellie was smiling; she couldn’t help herself. Roo had called her twenty minutes ago, desperate for support. Brian, in his late forties and terminally dandruffy, was the kind of person you really hoped wouldn’t sit next to you on the bus. A fellow volunteer at the charity shop, he was a nonstop chatterer and somewhat eccentric; he also drove everyone insane with his misplaced enthusiasm for… well, just about everything you could possibly think of.
‘OK, it’s true,’ Roo admitted. ‘But he doesn’t have any friends. He joined this amateur dramatics society to try and make some, and it didn’t work. What could I say?’
It was the opening night of Brian’s first play, being held in a crumbling church hall in Crouch End. This afternoon he’d proudly presented Roo with two tickets for the performance. ‘They’re his friends and family tickets,’ Roo had explained during her begging phone call, ‘and there’s no one else he can invite. Please, please, say you’ll come with me.’
Vowing to become a good person was all very admirable, but Roo wasn’t above taking other people down with her. ‘Because if it’s just me,’ she’d pointed out, ‘Brian might get it into his head that it’s some kind of date. And he’ll insist on walking me home afterwards.’
Ellie shielded her eyes from the sun, watching as Elmo wrestled playfully with a pair of terriers for control of his ball and ended up rolling down the grassy slope. ‘What time do we have to be there?’
‘Eight o’clock, curtain up. But Brian says if we want good seats to get there by seven.’ Roo was tilting her head to one side. ‘Now is this who I think it is?’
Ellie followed the direction of her gaze and felt her stomach give a little squeeze. Seeing Zack unexpectedly had that effect on her.
Then again, it had also been known to happen when it wasn’t unexpected.
She nodded. ‘That’s Zack.’
‘I guessed. And that’s what I call a body.’ Roo raised a mischievous eyebrow. ‘Don’t look so shocked. I’m not going to do anything.’ She grinned. ‘Just pointing it out, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
In case she hadn’t noticed. Oh God, wouldn’t that have made life easier. ‘Hi!’ said Ellie over-brightly as Zack approached them. ‘How’s Geraldine?’
‘Pretty good, all things considered.’ He nodded at Roo. ‘You’re Roo? We meet at last. I’ve heard all about you.’
‘Same.’ Roo perched her sunglasses on the top of her head and beamed at Zack. The next moment Elmo came racing up, his tongue lolling and his tail going like a propeller.
‘You said you were bringing him for a walk,’ said Zack, ‘soI thought I’d meet you here.’
‘And am I glad you did,’ Roo exclaimed. ‘If you hadn’t made it back in time, Ellie might have said she had to stay at home and look after your dog. But you’re here, so it’s OK, we can go out tonight!’
‘So much for my get-out clause.’ Ellie looked at Zack. ‘Thanks.’
There was the tiniest of pauses. Then Zack said, ‘Where are you going?’
‘To the theatre. To see a play. It’s going to be awful.’
‘We don’t know that for sure,’ said Roo.
‘We kind of do.’ Ellie shook her head. ‘You said Brian was playing the part of a singing Spanish juggler. You also told me he’s pale blue, tone deaf, and can’t juggle.’
‘Well, we’re going and that’s that.’ Roo put her dark glasses back on. Taking Elmo’s lead from Ellie, she handed it to Zack. ‘We need to go home and get changed first too. Bye then.’ She flashed him another smile. ‘See you again sometime.’
‘I bet you’re jealous.’ Ellie rolled her eyes good-naturedly at Zack. ‘If only we’d had a spare ticket you could have joined us, but apparently they’re very in demand.’
‘It’s a sell-out.’ Roo called over her shoulder as she