want to hang out with me when you could be balls deep in Patrick Parker?’
‘Wouldn’t he be balls deep in … never mind,’ I replied, frowning at the sex maths. ‘He’s got a meeting with his publisher. I’m seeing him later.’
‘What about Lucy?’ Ade suggested.
‘She said something about dinner with the antenatal girls tonight,’ I replied, screwing up my face.
‘Sumi?’
‘She said she’d try but she’d probably be working late.’
‘She’s cancelled on me loads lately, work must be chaos,’ he acknowledged with a nod. ‘Question. Do you think roller skating would be a good date? Show Eva I’m fun?’
‘Oh my god, you really are in love,’ I laughed happily. ‘Yes to skating. It’ll be lovely, you’ll hold hands, very romantic.’
‘What if she falls over and breaks her leg?’ he asked, face crumpling with concern.
‘You’ll take her to the hospital and have a great story to tell the grandkids.’
‘Christ,’ he sighed. ‘Is this how it is? All the time?’
I smiled at my friend through the screen. ‘Is what how it is?’
‘This,’ he rolled onto his back and held the phone over his face. ‘I’m desperate to see her, can’t stop thinking about her, can’t stop talking about her. And so far I’ve gone through my entire wardrobe five times and can’t find a single thing to wear tonight.’
‘And the worst part is that feeling that it could all go to shit any second,’ I agreed. ‘Like, oh my god, don’t let me say the wrong thing and fuck this up. One minute you’re high as a kite and the next you’re ready to chuck yourself under a bus.’
‘Thanks for the heads up,’ Adrian replied, his voice weighted with sarcasm. ‘I haven’t got to that part yet.’
I cleared my throat and put on a strangled smile.
‘Maybe you’ll be lucky and that’s just a girl thing,’ I suggested. ‘You don’t run through conversations after you hang out and worry about what you said?’
‘Can confirm, I do not,’ he said. ‘Perhaps that’s just a Ros thing.’
‘I’d better go,’ I said, suddenly desperate to get off the phone. ‘I’ve got to call a load of children and ask their mums if they can come and play on my podcast.’
‘Sweet,’ Adrian said as I heard a keyboard clacking in the background. ‘Is it too much if I send her flowers at work today? It’s too much, isn’t it?’
‘Send them tomorrow,’ I instructed gently. ‘You’re already seeing her tonight. Flowers in the morning will be a nice surprise.’
‘See her tonight, send flowers tomorrow,’ he repeated, closing his laptop. ‘Thanks, mate. I’m so glad you’re back. Sumi would have laughed in my face.’
‘And I didn’t?’ I replied, waving goodbye.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
At seven o’clock on the dot, I walked into Good Luck Bar to meet Sumi for dinner, only there was no Sumi waiting for me. Instead, I found a smiling John waving from the bar and beckoning me over to an empty high stool right in front of him.
Shrugging my arms out of my backpack straps, I trotted over to the only space left, straightening the sleeves of my T-shirt and giving myself a surreptitious sniff as I went.
‘Evening,’ John said, placing a large wine glass in front of me and filling it with Sauvignon Blanc.
‘Evening,’ I replied, gratefully lifting the glass in his direction and taking a sip. I had made a deal with myself to stop drinking in the week but it wouldn’t do to be rude.
‘Good news,’ he said as he put the bottle back in the fridge. ‘That’s on the house. Bad news, Sumi isn’t coming.’
‘What do you mean she isn’t coming?’ I asked, immediately checking my phone.
‘She’s caught up but she didn’t want to tell you because she didn’t want you to spend the evening sat on your own in that shed,’ he recited from his own phone before slinging it back by the till. The cracked screen made my heart hurt. So little regard for the precious. ‘I thought it was a bit rude to refer to your place as a shed but you know her better than I do.’
Yes, I do, I thought to myself. I picked up the wine.
‘No, she’s being literal. I’m living in a converted shed at the bottom of my parents’ garden.’
He crossed his arms and leaned against the back of the bar.
‘Is it a nice shed?’
‘It is not.’
‘Then why are you living there?’
I looked at him over the rim of the wine glass. This drink was not free. This drink had a very high price tag indeed.
‘Haven’t got