Shops your reputation is going to be in serious trouble.’
‘Oh no, my secret’s out,’ exclaims Jack in mock horror. ‘Please don’t tell them about my obsession with fossils; I’ve always hidden it so well.’
‘Well now it sounds as though you have the mad professor hair to match.’
‘How rude.’ Jack is still laughing. ‘But I don’t think you can top that date.’
‘I bet I can,’ I tell him, though I wish I couldn’t. ‘The last, but definitely not least awful, was Mick. He was good-looking, funny … ticked all the boxes. He was in several of my classes, seemed really patient and good with kids.’
‘Sounds perfect. What was wrong with this one? Was he a secret prank caller – or no, I’ve got it, he was a fraudster and cheated people out of their money in his spare time?’
‘Idiot!’ I laugh. ‘That would be a bit of an escalation from a fossil fancier. No, nothing as dramatic as that. But it was pretty weird and stressful at the time.’
‘I can’t stand the suspense,’ Jack says.
‘Mick wasn’t bad in himself; his annoying rugby-playing friend Pete was the problem.’
‘Ah, the toxic friend situation.’
‘Yep, that’s the one. Wherever Mick and I went, Pete had to come too. It was kind of weird. I sort of accepted it at first as I thought maybe he was lonely or something. I even suggested one of my friends came along too so we could go out as a group.’
‘Did that work?’
‘No, Pete was such a loud, irritating chauvinist pig, with views he seemed to have borrowed from the Victorian era, my friend ended up leaving early.’
‘So when did you realise it just wasn’t going to work?’
‘I stuck it out for a few months.’
‘You’re very patient.’
‘Yep, perhaps too patient. In the end when Pete was on yet another date with us, in which he upset the waitress for the umpteenth time, he added insult to injury by putting his hand on my thigh during dinner. I just snapped.’
‘Cheeky sod!’
‘Yes and to make things even worse, when I confronted Mick about it, he said I was “lying, because Pete would never do such a thing”! I ended up suggesting that as Mick was so fond of Pete he should date him instead of me, and I stormed out of the restaurant.’
‘Sounds very dramatic, but well done you!’
‘Yes it was.’ I laugh a little at the recollection. ‘Now I’m telling you about it I just can’t understand why I ever went out with him in the first place, but he was kind of subtle and there was always what seemed to be a valid reason why Pete needed to come along.’
‘You can’t blame yourself for being too nice,’ says Jack.
‘I guess not, but I feel such an idiot.’ Maybe that’s why I put up with Ryan for so long. I think I had always known there was another side to him that might be kind of shallow, but it had taken my illness to force it to the surface where I could no longer ignore it. Although I’m not surprised I was fooled; at times he had been really considerate. I just don’t know – I’m so confused.
‘Don’t say that, because you’re not. Besides …’
He’s quiet for a moment, and I wait, wondering what he’s going to say. ‘I think any guy would be very lucky to go out with someone like you.’
That means a lot. I don’t know what to say. ‘But you haven’t even really met me.’
‘True, but I’ve had enough experience to know how to recognise a kind and genuine person when I hear one.’
‘Don’t – you’ll make me big-headed,’ I say, embarrassed. But secretly I’m singing inside. Because in the damaged and cynical world we are living in, which seems to be totally falling apart, it’s really good to have someone who thinks you’re doing something right somewhere along the line.
Chapter 10
Jack
A couple of days later I’m quite upbeat, waiting for Sophia to drop some more food at my door. I’m confident that this time I’ll get to actually see her. Whilst socially distancing of course. I don’t need loads of stuff because she was so kind getting me extras last time, but I’ve asked for some essentials like Ambrosia rice pudding. I must confess it isn’t as good as Mum’s, but with her living over a hundred miles away and us being in the middle of a lockdown, it’s the closest I can get.
My phone shouts out and I grab it, wondering if it’s Sophia.