And so it went on. Like I said, the Thursday classes could be hilarious. They could also make me wish I did something easier, like breed scorpions for a living, instead.
The ongoing banter was, however, an excuse not to look too often at the far side of the room, where Ellis was alternating between pretending to be asleep and huffing about our no-phone-in-class rule. Her brother was making such copious notes, I suspected it might be his excuse not to look too hard at me.
We always ended the sessions with a simple relaxation technique, and the second Nicky announced this was over, Ellis sprang off her seat and pushed past the cluster of sofas and chairs to the door. Jonah-slash-Joe, on the other hand, stood up but remained where he was as everyone else slowly filed out, chatting and laughing while exchanging more insults and fist-bumps. I had a strict no-hanging-about-afterwards-for-no-good-reason rule, otherwise some would end up loitering well past my bedtime, but I would make an exception in this case.
Before I headed over, I waited for Nicky to finish answering a mum’s question about her Braxton-Hicks contractions, then stood with my back to Jonah while I faced her.
‘Did you recognise him?’ I asked, sounding embarrassingly breathless enough to make her suddenly alert, peering at me.
‘Who? Raz?’
‘No. Ellis’s brother.’
‘Who?’ Nicky was tired, having spent several hours at the surgery seeing patients before heading straight over, no doubt nibbling on a few slices of apple or a handful of nuts for her evening meal.
‘The new mum who looked even more detached than usual, Ellis. Her birth partner is her brother. Joe.’
‘I thought he looked pervily old to be with a vulnerable teenager. My safeguarding siren was wailing.’
‘It’s Jonah King.’
‘Jonah who?’ She suddenly clicked, her jaw dropping.
‘Oh,’ she said, softly, eyes darting over my shoulder to where I guessed he still stood. ‘Yes. Of course. Oh, Libby.’
Oh, Libbyindeed.
‘Have you spoken to him?’
I shook my head. Her reaction had made my throat clog up with thirteen years’ worth of tears.
‘He’s waiting for you.’
I nodded frantically.
‘Okay. Take a deep breath. Let it out slowly,’ she said, in her childbirth-coach voice. ‘You’re going to turn around, take six steps over to him. Stop. Smile, then say, “Hi, Jonah, what a huge surprise.”’
‘What then?’ I whispered.
‘I don’t know. Improvise?’ She patted my arm. ‘You aren’t sixteen any more, Libby, you’ll figure it out.’
Maybe I wasn’t, but right then I felt like a clueless teenager.
Realising my sister was about to spin me around and strong-arm me over there, I saved her the trouble and me the humiliation and walked over to Jonah myself.
What did she tell me to do now?my garbled thoughts demanded.Oh yes, smile and say hi.
‘Hi.’
As I’d approached him, Jonah’s eyes had been on the rug, but once I’d spoken, he slowly slid his gaze up until they once again met mine.
‘Hi.’
A jolt of electricity zapped through my nervous system. ‘I’m… what… I didn’t realise it was you when you called.’
He opened his mouth and closed it again as if lost for words.
‘Joe Green was on the form.’
