‘Like, “please be careful that your natural confidence and charm isn’t being misinterpreted as arrogant and boorish, Isaac darling”.’
If possible, her smile grew even wider. ‘Tea, coffee or cold drink?’
‘Are you sure you’ve got time?’
She held up two swatches of fabric, one a pale coral, the other a slightly darker shade of apricot. ‘Which one of these says “boho fairy tale” the most?’
‘Um… the lighter one?’
‘Perfect. Now I’ve got time.’
She poured us both a pink lemonade from the mini fridge and we settled down on a window bench overlooking the lawn.
‘This is an awkward question, but I can’t help thinking we’ve already met. Were you at Brooksby Academy?’ I asked, after a minute or two of small talk.
‘The year below you,’ she said. ‘I was in the athletics club, so hung out with Elliot sometimes.’
‘Oh, yes!’ It fell into place, now. ‘Constance Johnson? I’m so sorry I didn’t recognise you.’
I remembered a painfully shy girl with cornrows, running races with a ducked head and hunched shoulders as though wishing no one was watching.
‘Don’t worry about it. I never dared speak when you and your brother were around because I had a major crush on him.’
‘Didn’t most people?’ Isaac wouldn’t have looked twice at someone as timid as Connie back then.
‘Those who weren’t mooning after Elliot Ollerton.’ She winked, causing me to shrug, even as I felt my cheeks betray me.
‘He was my brother’s best friend. Totally off limits.’
‘Hmm.’ Her arched eyebrow said what she really thought about that. I quickly changed the subject.
‘Anyway, what have you been up to since school? Where are you living now?’
‘Oh, I took a year out to work as an au pair in Colorado and came home five months later, pregnant. After Wilf was born, I did an events management degree, then worked in a few hotels until this came up. It’s literally my dream job. I finally saved enough to get me and Wilf our own place in Houghton – that pale-blue terraced cottage in The Nook? – and I couldn’t be happier.’
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah. Probably the least likely person in school to end up a teenage mother. But my biggest mistake turned out to be my best decision.’ She showed me a photograph of a boy on her phone, his beaming smile and apple cheeks making it clear who his mother was. ‘Just a shame his dad turned out to be such a loser. He was the pool guy, would you believe it. Such an embarrassing cliché. Him not being interested made the whole situation less complicated though. I don’t know how we’d have managed trans-Atlantic co-parenting.’
‘That’s incredibly impressive. Please don’t ask what I’ve been up to.’
‘You forget I work with your twin. I know you’ve been helping run a coffee shop for the past couple of years in Brighton. Living with your boyfriend a stone’s throw from the beach. Sounds pretty good to me.’
‘Yeah. It’s the mess before that which I’m not proud of.’
‘You did just hear how I got pregnant during a crappy fling with a deadbeat? We all get in a mess at some point, Jessie. It’s what we do next that matters.’
‘What I’ve done next is rent a tiny room in my brother’s frat house and take a pity job from my parents in the hope of one day seeing the grand total of zero pounds in my bank account, rather than a big fat minus sign.’
‘There you are then!’ Her amber eyes twinkled. ‘It’s all uphill from here.’
At that moment, the door opened and Isaac strolled in, coming to a sudden stop when he saw us.
‘I didn’t know you were coming in,’ he said, as one of the papers he was carrying slipped off the pile of others onto the floor. He was in even worse casualwear than usual today: sagging jersey shorts and a sleeveless hoodie.
‘I could say the same to you.’
Were my eyes deceiving me or was my super-cool brotherflustered?
