my beloved Harold with kisses. Then, as a slight afterthought, I look up at Matt and say, “Wait. Are you OK?” I rise to my feet and take in his appearance properly. He’s got a new graze on his cheek and a twig sticking out of his collar and looks generally disheveled. “What happened?” I demand again.
“There was an incident,” says Matt shortly. “With a Great Dane.”
“Oh my God!” I say, horrified. I’m already feeling a surge of fury toward this Great Dane. I can picture it, with its monstrous slavering jaws and killer instinct. “Did it attack Harold? You need to tell me exactly what happened—”
“The Great Dane was blameless,” says Matt, cutting me off. “Harold was…Harold.”
Oh, right.
For a moment I’m halted. Maybe I don’t want to know exactly what happened, after all. I glance down at Harold, who gazes up with his usual bouncy, mischievous expression.
“Harold.” I try to sound chiding. “Did you get Matt muddy? Were you naughty?”
“Naughty is an understatement,” says Matt, and he’s drawing breath as though to say more when his phone buzzes.
“Sorry,” he says, glancing at it. “I’ll just get this. I’ll be quick.”
“Just look at that dog,” says Nell as Matt walks away. “Completely unrepentant.” She adopts a sprightly Cockney accent. “ ‘Weren’t me, guvnor. Weren’t me. It were the other feller what started it.’ ”
“Shut up!” I say, a little indignant. “That’s not Harold!”
“It’s so Harold,” says Sarika, giggling.
“ ‘Law-abiding citizen like me, guvnor?’ ” Nell continues, on a roll. “ ‘Start a fracas in a public vicinity? Me, what only wants a quiet life? I tell you, it were the other feller.’ ”
She raises her eyebrows comically high, and I have to admit, she does look a bit like Harold at his most bright-eyed and innocent. “Oh, hi, Matt,” she adds, and I look up to see him returning. As he sits down, he lands with a bit of a thud, and for a few moments he’s motionless, staring ahead.
“Sorry about your shirt,” I say guiltily, and he comes to.
“Oh. It’s fine.” He reaches for the twig in his collar and looks at it absently for a moment before dropping it on the ground. “Listen, Ava. I know we booked a table for brunch on the tenth, but that was my parents on the phone again. They’re convening a big meeting that day at the house. I’ve tried to get them to shift it, but…”
“At the weekend?” says Nell, in carefully neutral tones.
“We hold a lot of family meetings at the weekend,” says Matt. “Away from the office. It’s more private, I guess.”
“Well, don’t worry,” I say supportively. “Brunch was just an idea. You go to your parents’, that’s fine—” I break off as I see both Sarika and Nell making weird faces at me behind Matt’s back.
They’re surely not trying to say—
I can’t just ask myself along to his house. Can I? Should I?
Now Sarika is whirling her arms wildly and pointing vigorously at Matt. Any minute she’ll clonk him on the head by mistake.
“And…er…maybe I could come along!” I add in a self-conscious rush. “Meet your parents properly!”
“Do what?”
Matt peers at me, apparently astounded. He doesn’t exactly sound enthusiastic. But now I’ve suggested it I’m not backing down.
“I could come along!” I repeat, trying to sound confident. “Not for the meeting, obviously, but for coffee or whatever. Get to know your family better. You know, bond with them.”
“Bond with them!” Matt echoes with a bark of laughter, which is a bit weird, but I’m not going to unpick it now.
My attention is suddenly drawn by Nell making jabbing gestures at Harold, followed by a finger across the throat. Oh, right.
“And I won’t bring Harold,” I add hastily. “He can stay at home.”
“Really?” Matt seems newly astonished. “It’s a long drive to my parents’ place, Ava. You’ll leave him at home all day?”
“He can stay with Nell. You don’t mind having Harold, do you, Nell?”
“Of course not,” says Nell. “Good idea, Ava.”
Matt doesn’t say anything. He sips his coffee while all three of us watch him curiously, his eyes distant with thoughts. Then, as though coming to, he exhales.
“Well, if you want to,” he says at last.
He still seems a bit blindsided by my suggestion. Honestly, what’s the big deal? It’s only his parents and family home and business and whatnot. It’ll be fun! I mean, it might be fun.
I mean, it could be.
Fifteen
Positive, positive, positive!
As we drive down the M4 two weeks later, I’m determined to be upbeat. The sun’s shining,