‘No. Why?’ His grey eyes narrowed.
‘It’s half-term, so Wilf and Connie are coming around to watchDroid Defenders.’
‘What?’ He stood there, a giant table propped up against one hand. ‘No one wants to waste their school holidays slumped inside watching TV.’
I marched over to him. Wilf was already wringing his hands.
‘Why would you ask them that?’ Isaac asked, grimacing. ‘Connie hardly ever gets a day off with Wilf. She’s not going to want to spend it at her grumpy boss’s house watching robots shooting each other.’
‘I didn’t ask them. Wilf asked me. I thought it would be a nice opportunity for you to see Connie again, asfriends, not offer up more evidence that you don’t enjoy her company.’ I held up my hands in a ‘hello, duh?’ gesture. ‘Would you rather they watched it with me?’
‘Well, no.’ He glanced at Connie and Wilf quickly, a sheepish expression creeping across his features. ‘But I was going to suggest a day out somewhere.’
‘You were?’
He shrugged. ‘There’s a thing on at Newstead Abbey. A medieval battle re-enactment, with a food market, archery, stuff like that. I thought Wilf might enjoy it.’
I gaped at him. ‘Wilf would love it. So why haven’t you asked them?’
He shrugged again. ‘I wanted to manage a whole day without acting like a jerk before I asked her. She might consider saying yes, then.’
‘And what if, by some twist of fate, in a similar fashion to every other day since falling in love with Connie, you don’t manage a whole day?’ I said, keeping my voice quiet enough so no one else could hear.
‘Then I won’t ask her. I don’t especially fancy being rejected again.’
‘Sometimes I think you’re the most infuriating twin I’ve ever had. I am so itching to storm back over there and ask if they want to go and have a fabulous day out with you, then come back to ours for dinner andDroid Defenders, but you’re paying me to forcibly propel you into manhood, so instead I’m going to watch you confidently yet casually ask them yourself.’
Isaac turned pale. ‘I don’t know what to say. The last time it was a work meeting. If I ask Connie to spend the day with me, she’ll say no.’
Elliot, who’d been methodically continuing with the tables, stopped to clap his best friend on the shoulder. ‘Then don’t ask her.’
Isaac looked at him, surprised.
‘Ask Wilf.’
Isaac rolled his shoulders, frowning. ‘Isn’t that a bit manipulative?’
‘Only if Connie wouldn’t otherwise say yes,’ I said. ‘I’m pretty sure she’d prefer a day out at Newstead Abbey to a day in watching sci-fi.’
Before Isaac could reply, Wilf appeared at his side. ‘Are you still talking about whether I can come and watch the rest of the series because I really, really do want to waste the school holiday slumping inside watching TV.’ He blinked several times, head twisting between me and Isaac.
‘Okay.’ Isaac bent down to Wilf’s level, keeping his eyes on the ground to avoid the intimacy of eye-contact. ‘We can do that.’
‘Yes!’ Wilf placed his hands on his knees and let out a dramatic sigh of relief.
‘But how aboutbeforethat, you and your mum come with me to watch a medieval battle?’
Wilf shot up straight again, eyes gleaming. ‘Which battle?’
‘The Battle of Stoke Field.’
‘The last battle in the War of the Roses,’ Wilf said, voice soft with awe. ‘And the only official battlefield in Nottinghamshire. So many people died, the river Trent ran red with blood.’ His eyes brightened then. ‘Do we get to fight?’
‘Not this time. But we can hold some swords and shoot arrows at a target.’
‘I’dloveto hold some swords and shoot arrows at a target!’ Wilf turned to Connie, who was already walking over. ‘Can we go, Mum? Did you hear? Isaac says we can watch a real battle!’
‘Well, it’s not the real battle, is it?’ Connie smiled. ‘That happened in fourteen hundred and something.’
