He needed to make it up to her.
And fast.
If only he had the first clue how.
He could make a move,unreject her. Come up with a date so spectacularly romantic it’d make it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt how he felt.
And how’s that?
He made a mental note to talk to Ben, see if he had any ideas about how to redeem himself, then he got up, had a shower, shovelled in a piece of toast and went to work, pretending to himself and everyone else that he wasn’t trying to avoid his sister-in-law.
* * *
Emma
I had arranged to meet Sofia for an early dinner. Given that she was squeezing me in between after-school club and visiting someone to talk about his wife’s funeral, we were settling for a hearty salad in her office.
Propelled by my anxiety, I power-walked the journey to the church building, arriving as Sofia and the other helpers were finishing off the club.
‘Right,’ Sofia called over the general hubbub of twenty-odd primary school children, as I found a discreet chair to perch on near the entrance. ‘Last few bits to tidy up, and we should have time for Ask Anything.’
The mulling grew decidedly more focussed at this point, fuelled by a buzz of anticipation at whatever Ask Anything might be. I was interested, too. Surely Sofia wasn’t going to allow a bunch of kids to ask her whatever they liked?
A few minutes later they were sitting in a semicircle of chairs, eagerly waiting for Sofia to start.
‘Right. Ten minutes on the timer. Ask Anything. Go.’
It took about ten wasted seconds for a group of boys all clustered at one end of the chairs to start elbowing and jostling each other, until one boy put up his hand, his face a mask of serious intent.
‘Leon?’
‘Why does poo stink?’
The boys collapsed in a pile of guffaws.
Sofia didn’t miss a beat. ‘Well, I guess that would be because it’s dirty, and has a lot of germs in so can make you ill. Being really smelly means we don’t want to touch it, which protects us from catching the germs. That’s my idea. Anyone else?’
‘It’s because of the intestinal bacteria and the different things that your food gets broken down into,’ another boy added, sitting between two girls towards the other side. ‘What you eat will affect the smell. For example, the crisps Leon ate at snack time could make his poo smell worse than if he’d had an apple, because of the higher fat content.’
‘Uuurgggh! Leon’s poo stinks!’ A load of the other kids called out, holding their noses and trying to move their chairs away. Leon, his face scrunched with rage, stood up, causing his chair to topple over. ‘No, it doesn’t! Anyway, Conor and Rhys had crisps too!’
‘UUUUGGGH! Conor and Rhys toooooo!’ Other kids cried, jumping up and sending more chairs flying.
‘PEEEEEP!’ Sofia blew hard on a whistle, pointing at various children in the three seconds it took them to grab their chairs and sit back down. ‘Matthias, thank you for that interesting scientific input, but please remember not to make it personal. Right, that’s your one permitted poo question out of the way. We have under six minutes left so who’s next?’
‘Why is Matthias such a geek?’ the boy next to Leon asked.
Sofia looked at him. He put his hand up and then repeated the question.
‘Explain geek, please, Conor.’
‘Um.’ Conor shifted about on his chair, a grin tickling the edge of his mouth. ‘I dunno. Like, he’s always going on about science and facts and using long words and talking about everything that normal people don’t know.’
‘Hmm. Why does Matthias know lots of interesting information that he enjoys sharing with people? My guess is that he likes to read books and go online and watch interesting TV programmes and ask lots of questions so that he gets to find out all about the world and how things work. And then because he likes knowing all those things, and he’s kind, he likes to share what he’s found out in case other people would like to know it, too. What do you think, Matthias? Is that about right?’
Matthias nodded, gravely. The girl next to him said, ‘Yes, he’s really kind so I think that’s definitely true.’
‘Now, four minutes left, who’s next?’
