‘I think that one’s yours,’ she said, pointing to a British Airways plane to their right. He was flying BA to London, then on to Los Angeles. ‘Oh, I meant to say, I met your pal, Ross, today. He said to tell you goodbye, and that he was taking your place as striker on the football team, and that he still doesn’t believe you and I never hooked up. He tells me that every time he sees me.’
‘He thinks we’re weirdos,’ Ollie told her. ‘He’s probably right.’
It would be the easiest thing in the world for them to have got together in that way. They’d even talked about it a few times over the last few years, usually when they were drunk after too many snakebites at the student bar.
‘Never going to happen,’ Kara said, every single time. Sometimes she’d elaborate. Last time they’d discussed it had been a few months before, when he’d been hanging out with her at a pub in the West End near her uni, and she’d gone into fairly incontrovertible detail.
‘And I’ll tell you why,’ she’d said, before chugging back another drink.
‘Tell me,’ he’d replied, amused.
Her snakebite – a potent mixture of lager, cider and blackcurrant – was getting dangerously close to tipping over the edge of the glass, because she was talking with her hands, as always.
‘Well, because… a) I don’t fancy you. Sorry. Will I scar you for life if I say that because it questions your firm belief that there isn’t a woman on earth who can resist that face and that charm?’
He’d feigned devastation. ‘I might never leave the house again.’
That had made her chuckle, before she got back to the point.
‘Okay, well… b) I know all your bad habits.’ She’d ticked that off on her fingers. ‘And c) – brace yourself because this is major.’ She did a drum roll with her hands on the pub table. ‘We could never split up. Never ever. Because if we did, we’d lose our best mate and that’s just not worth it.’
Even thinking about that prospect made him feel a bit sick inside.
‘And did you hear the bit where I don’t fancy you?’ she’d checked, teasing him while finding herself highly hilarious. Snakebites did that to her.
A quick glance at the huge clock on the wall to the side of them jolted him back to the present, and the busy departures area at Glasgow Airport.
‘Shit! I’m boarding in fifteen minutes and I’m not even through security yet.’
Kara’s chin dropped. ‘Noooooo! We didn’t even make it to the café.’
She threw her arms around him. ‘I love you, Ollie Chiles. You’re going to be brilliant. A huge, big, massive success. And then you’ll come back to Glasgow and scoop me up so that I candesign all the costumes for your movies. Not that I’m making it about me.’
He squeezed her tightly and that was normally the point where he’d come out with some daft comment to make her laugh. Not today.
‘I love you too, Kara McIntyre. Don’t get swept off your feet by some smart bloke and forget about me.’
‘Oh, I’ll have done that by tonight,’ she teased him, just as her mum and Drea came rushing over. They both smothered him with hugs and kissed. Even Drea. ‘The café queue was a mile long and just when I got near to the front, I realised it’s time for you to go.’ she wailed.
‘No worries, I’ll get something on the plane. Okay, time to shift.’ He put his arms around Kara again.
‘Thanks for being you, and thanks for… you know, always being team Ollie.’
‘Team Ollie? Will your head be okay going through that door?’
He was still laughing when he released her and picked up his carry-on backpack. With a final wave, he turned to go, and that was when she body slammed him with another hug.
‘You take care, Ollie Chiles,’ she said, her voice husky. ‘And come back safe and in one piece, because you never know… Maybe one of these days I’ll fancy you.’
‘And maybe one of these days I’ll fancy you too,’ he shot back, grinning, before turning, and walking away.
But he was pretty sure that neither of them could ever imagine a day when that would be true.
4 P.M. – 6 P.M.
19
KARA
