up and down and raised an eyebrow.
‘I was going to come up and see you later,’ he said.
‘Really?’
‘Yes. Do you remember I told you I was into go-karting? I was going to go down to the track this Sunday and have a go. I wondered if you and Kirsty and your friends fancied coming along.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘It’s a great laugh. You’d really enjoy it. And I think your mate Paul would like it too.’
‘OK. I’ll ask him.’
‘And his girlfriend.’
‘What, Heather? She’s not his girlfriend.’
‘Whatever. Ask them all. The track’s near Orpington. In fact, there are a couple of tracks – one for beginners, one for more experienced karters. I guarantee you’ll have a good time.’
Jamie nodded. ‘OK, it sounds good. I’ll ring Paul and Heather and let you know tonight.’
Chris opened his car door. ‘Nice one.’
Jamie watched him drive off up the road. He was happy – truly happy. And what better way of spending a summer Sunday than going out with a group of friends and doing something you’d never done before? He was sure Paul and Heather would be interested. And Kirsty too.
He got into his car and wound down the window. As he drove to work he forgot all about rats and hoaxes. He turned up the radio and sang along.
Seven
The city exits were clogged with traffic, thousands of people leaving the fume-filled greenhouse that London had become as the summer went on, heading for the countryside and the coast. It took almost an hour to get out of London into the spaces of Kent. Jamie drummed his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. Kirsty rummaged through the glove compartment, trying to decide what CD to put on. Paul and Heather were in the back seat. They sat with their legs touching, and they were holding hands, their fingers tightly entwined.
Jamie spotted this in the rearview mirror when they were stuck in gridlock on the outskirts of the city. He turned around, smiling. Kirsty turned to see what Jamie was staring at.
‘Bloody hell! You two! When did this happen?’
Paul and Heather exchanged a look. ‘We weren’t going to tell you the details,’ Paul said. ‘It’s quite embarrassing.’
‘Oh come on. You’ve got to tell us.’ Kirsty turned round as much as her seatbelt would allow. She was thrilled – but also a little disappointed. She’d always hoped that if and when Paul and Heather got together it would because of her matchmaking efforts. Now, it seemed, they had gone and done it without her help.
‘I went to that big Waterstones in Oxford Street on Wednesday night.’ Paul squeezed Heather’s hand. ‘I was just browsing, looking around, you know, trying to find a good book…’
‘Come off it,’ laughed Jamie.
‘Oh, OK. I hold my hands up. I’d read in the Sunday Times that it was a good place to meet women. Intelligent, cultured women. A couple of years ago Tesco was supposed to be the cool place to hang out and meet other single people, but now, apparently, it’s bookshops. So I thought, why not give it a go? What have you got to lose? Besides, I really did need something to read.’
‘So there you were, lurking around the shelves,’ prompted Kirsty.
‘Yes. Actually, I felt pretty stupid. I didn’t know which section to go to. Was there some sort of code I needed to know? I wandered from cookery to economics to modern fiction to crime. I saw a couple of nice-looking women looking at travel books. I was about to go and talk to one of them – she had a book about China and I was going to ask her something inane about whether she’d ever been there – when her boyfriend appeared. So I went for a coffee, and I thought, I’ll have one more go – one more look around – and then I’ll go home.
‘I finished my coffee and went back to the fiction section. I grabbed a book and took up a position on one of the sofas. Then this woman appeared from behind the bookshelves. A vision. It was Heather. It turned out she was there doing exactly the same as me.’
‘Heather!’ Kirsty spluttered.
‘Yes, and I was having about as much luck as him,’ she said.
‘Ah yes,’ said Paul. ‘But your luck was about to change.’
She smiled, leant forward and kissed his cheek. ‘It certainly was. To cut a long story short, we went home together.’
‘And we’re going to hold our wedding at Waterstones,’ said Paul.
Heather slapped his arm lightly. ‘Fool.’
‘For your love.’
Jamie