not sure why I feel something that is suspiciously like relief. She’s my friend, nothing more. And I need to get a grip. It’s nothing to do with me what – or how – she dates.
‘What happened?’ I say, carefully.
‘Oh God,’ Jess says, then regales me with the tale of Theo turning up plastered, dumping her in a corner, then getting off with someone else – making me roar with laughter.
‘I honestly think dating is some sort of torture,’ I say.
‘You’re not joking.’ Jess pulls the blanket up towards her nose and turns to face me, laughing. She wipes a smudge of black mascara stuff from underneath her eye.
‘I bet you can’t beat that, though?’
‘Mine’s quite tame compared to that,’ I say. ‘I went on a blind date organised by a friend from uni once, when I’d just started working at the law firm. We were working such long hours, it was impossible to meet anyone.’
‘Go on. So what happened?’ Jess shuffles slightly on the sofa, so a cushion drops onto the floor. I pick it up and hand it back, and she hugs it, looking at me expectantly.
‘Well, you know how everyone always has the old made-up emergency call thing?’
‘You mean when you tell your friends to ring up and invent a disaster so you can make a quick exit?’
I nod.
‘I was sitting in a bar in Clerkenwell, waiting for this girl to turn up. She walked up to the window, looked in, spotted me, picked up her phone and pretended to take a call.’
‘What happened then?’
‘She never came back.’
‘Oh, Alex, you poor thing.’ Jess reaches out and pats me on the thigh. ‘I wouldn’t have left you sitting there like a lemon, I promise.’ Her eyes are soulful. ‘So what did you do?’
‘Waited an hour, ate my entire body weight in olives, then went home.’
‘And she definitely wasn’t coming back? It wasn’t an actual emergency or anything?’
I shake my head. ‘Apparently she took one look and decided no thanks.’
‘Brutal.’ Jess gives a low whistle.
‘Yeah, not great for the self-esteem.’
‘That’s dating in London for you,’ Jess says, picking up the remote control and fiddling with it. ‘But then you met Alice, and it all worked out okay in the end.’
‘Well, okay until she dumped me, yeah. I mean basically great, apart from the whole thanks but no thanks element.’
I look at her with a dubious expression and she claps a hand to her mouth, realising what she’s said.
‘Oh my God, Alex.’ Jess is laughing in horror. ‘I am so sorry.’
We end up staying up for hours, watching a rom com that Jess has found on Netflix, drinking gallons of tea and eating toast. At one point Emma comes home, looks into the sitting room and says hi. I feel like a bit of a shit because I give her a quick wave of hello and Jess carries on talking. I don’t know what to do about the whole Emma thing, and I don’t want to think about it this evening. I just shove it to the back of my mind, and decide I’ll leave it there until tomorrow.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Alex
28th April
A few weeks pass. I still haven’t worked out what to do about the whole Emma situation. Right now I’m opting for the very mature, completely self-aware ignore the whole thing and hope it’ll go away approach. Emma hasn’t been around that much, which helps. I think she’s got a lot on with work. I’ve got a mountain of assignments to do, and another placement coming up, so the days pretty much pass without me even being aware what’s going on. I’m still finding time to take the odd walk with Jess, but she’s got loads going on at work as well. It’s like the nicer the weather gets, and the more we’d want to actually enjoy it, the less time there is for us to get outside, which is a shame because I’ve been thinking maybe I could ask Jess for some advice on what to do about Emma.
But not this weekend – because whatever the weather, we’re all outside for the whole of Sunday. Well, me, Jess and Becky, anyway. Matt, one of my old friends from when I worked with Becky, has been living with stage four leukaemia for the last year, and a couple of friends are running the London Marathon to raise money for Cancer Research.
‘All you have to do is stand by the side of the road in Shadwell at the official cheering point