to let it out.
She heard distant knocking downstairs as she verbally approved her own email, ‘Yep, good,’ and pressed the send button; the small click that began her twenty-working-day wait. Pip hated waiting. And it was a Saturday, so she had to wait for the wait to begin.
‘Pips,’ came Victor’s shout from downstairs. ‘Front door for you.’
With each step down the stairs, the air became a little fresher; from her bedroom’s first-ring-of-hell heat into quite bearable warmth. She took the turn after the stairs as a sock-skid across the oak but stopped in her tracks when she saw Ravi Singh outside the front door. He was being talked at enthusiastically by her dad. All the heat returned to her face.
‘Um, hi,’ Pip said, walking towards them. But the fast tap-tap of claws on wood grew behind her as Barney barged past and got there first, launching his muzzle into Ravi’s groin.
‘No, Barney, down,’ Pip shouted, rushing forward. ‘Sorry, he’s a bit friendly.’
‘That’s no way to talk about your father,’ said Victor.
Pip raised her eyebrows at him.
‘Got it, got it, got it,’ he said, walking away and into the kitchen.
Ravi bent down to stroke Barney, and Pip’s ankles were fanned with the dog-tail breeze.
‘How do you know where I live?’ Pip asked.
‘I asked in the estate agents your mum works in,’ he straightened up. ‘Seriously, your house is a palace.’
‘Well, the strange man who opened the door to you is a hot-shot corporate lawyer.’
‘Not a king?’
‘Only some days,’ she said.
Pip noticed Ravi looking down and, though his lips twitched trying to contain it, he broke into a big smile. That’s when she remembered what she was wearing: baggy denim dungarees over a white T-shirt with the words TALK NERDY TO ME emblazoned across her chest.
‘So, um, what brings you here?’ she said. Her stomach lurched, and only then did she realize she was nervous.
‘I . . . I’m here because . . . I wanted to say sorry.’ He looked at her with his big downturned eyes, his brows bunching over them. ‘I got angry and said some things I shouldn’t have. I don’t really think you’re just some kid. Sorry.’
‘It’s OK,’ Pip said, ‘I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to step in and fight your battles for you. I just wanted to help, just wanted her to know that what she did wasn’t OK. But sometimes my mouth starts saying words without checking them with my brain first.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ he said. ‘That arsehole comment was pretty inspired.’
‘You heard?’
‘Feisty Pip was pretty loud.’
‘I’ve been told other kinds of Pip are pretty loud too, school-quiz Pip and grammar-police Pip among them. So . . . are we OK?’
‘We’re OK.’ He smiled and looked down at the dog again. ‘Me and your human are OK.’
‘I was actually just about to head out on a dog walk, do you want to come with?’
‘Yeah, sure,’ he said, ruffling Barney’s ears. ‘How could I say no to that handsome face?’
Pip almost said, Oh please, you’ll make me blush, but she bit it back.
‘OK, I’ll just grab my shoes. Barney, stay.’
Pip scooted into the kitchen. The back door was open and she could see her parents pottering around the flowers and Josh, of course, playing with his football.
‘I’m taking Barns, see you in a bit,’ she called outside and her mum waved a gardening-gloved hand to let her know she’d heard.
Pip slipped on her not-allowed-to-be-left-in-the-kitchen trainers that were left in the kitchen and grabbed the dog lead on her way back to the front door.
‘Right, let’s go,’ she said, clipping the lead to Barney’s collar and shutting the front door behind them.
At the end of her drive they crossed the road and into the woods opposite. The stippled shade felt nice on Pip’s hot face. She let Barney off the lead and he was gone in a golden flash.
‘I always wanted a dog.’ Ravi grinned as Barney circled back to hurry them on. He paused, his jaw moving as he chewed on some silent thought. ‘Sal was allergic, though, that’s why we never . . .’
‘Oh.’ She wasn’t quite sure what else to say.
‘There’s this dog at the pub I work at, the owner’s dog. She’s a slobbery Great Dane called Peanut. I sometimes accidentally drop leftovers for her. Don’t tell.’
‘I encourage accidental droppage,’ she said. ‘Which pub do you work at?’
‘The George and Dragon, over in Amersham. It’s not what I want to do forever. Just saving up so I can get