‘You can tell me in a thousand metres’ time.’
‘You’re so harsh!’ I grumbled, climbing onto the rower and gripping the handle, before taking a deep breath and starting.
‘I’m going to need to be,’ Dani said. ‘I’ve signed up to do a fitness instructor course and once I’m qualified I can jack in my shitty job at the dental surgery and actually do something I love. So you’re going to have to let me practise on you.’
‘That’s amazing,’ I panted. ‘You’ll be brilliant.’
‘Nice long strokes,’ Dani said. ‘Try and control your breathing. Yeah, to be honest I just don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. It was only when Mike said he was looking to take on someone to help him, because the gym’s getting so busy, that I had this light-bulb moment and I was like, “That could be me.” Not right away, obviously; I’ll have to qualify first and it’s really hard.’
‘So are you and Mike…?’
‘Push with your legs, Zoë. Come on, nearly there. Oh my God, isn’t he just the most amazing person in the world? I couldn’t believe it when he said yes when I asked him out. I was so nervous I was literally shaking. And we went on this proper old-fashioned date to the movies and then out for pizza. And he didn’t nag me when I had extra cheese on mine like Fabian would’ve done. And he actually listens when I talk to him.’
She glanced over her shoulder to the rack of barbells, where Mike was patiently talking a new client through correct squat form, and I noticed that she had that look on her face again, all wide-eyed and happy, like she was looking at the promised land or something.
‘One thousand metres.’ I folded down over my legs, which appeared to have turned into two strands of wet spaghetti, and waited until I could breathe a bit more normally. ‘That’s so cool, Dani. Honestly, you guys are perfect for each other.’
‘Right.’ Dani hopped back onto the rower and tightened the straps on the footrests. ‘Now carry on telling me about Adam.’
I downed some water and towelled my sweating face. I could see in the full-length mirror that my hair had frizzed wildly and my cheeks looked like a pair of tomatoes, but I didn’t care.
‘Yeah, so like I said, we finished the D&D game and we had another couple of drinks, and everyone was totally itching to ask if we’d snogged, but they didn’t. I guess they didn’t need to, really.’
It had been pretty obvious, I reckoned, because every time I looked at Adam his face broke into the most enormous, cheesy grin, and I know mine must’ve done the same. And his hand kept reaching for mine under the table, and his touch sent such amazing shocks of pleasure right the way through me I probably looked like I was radioactive.
‘Stop mooning and keep talking!’
‘Sorry. It’s just… I can’t stop thinking about him. Robbie gave me such a telling-off this morning because I was singing along to “Now That I Found You” on my phone and he said I sounded like a constipated cat.’
Dani gasped out a laugh. ‘So did you shag?’
‘We… It feels so weird talking about it!’
I let myself return to the memory of that night, as I’d done over and over again for the past five days. It was like taking a precious new thing I’d saved up for ages to buy out of its box and gazing at it, turning it over and over, unable to believe it was mine at last. Or like when Frazzle first came to live with me, and I’d wake up in the morning and for a second I would have forgotten I had a cat, and then I opened my eyes and there he was, and I felt like I might burst with happiness.
We stayed in the pub until everyone had left, and Adam helped with the clearing up like it was something he’d always done. And when we’d switched off the lights and Alice and Freddie had said goodnight, we were left alone in the bar. We’d walked through into the vestibule, and this time there was no need to ask which of the four doors we’d choose. We turned left and climbed the stairs to my flat, my heart hammering and my knees feeling all trembly, and Adam filled Frazzle’s water bowl while I scooped out his litter tray, and although it shouldn’t have been the most romantic thing ever, somehow it was. It was like there was an electric current running between Adam and me that intensified whenever we passed each other, and sent sparks flying between us when our eyes met and we smiled. He’d probably say it was just static from the cheap nylon carpet, but I knew better.
‘Two hundred metres to go,’ I said. ‘You’re doing brilliantly, keep pushing. Yeah, we did. And it was off. The Scale. Like we’d had years of practice. Or maybe he’s just a natural at it, I don’t know. But it wasn’t awkward or cringe or anything, just lovely. Even when my cat jumped on the bed in the middle of it. Honestly, he and Adam have this total bromance going. Frazzle thinks he’s the best thing ever.’
‘He’s not the only one,’ Dani said, giving me side-eye from her position on the rower.
‘Oy! Who was it who just referred to her new boyfriend as “the most amazing person in the world”?’
Dani opened her mouth to argue – possibly to make the point that clearly, from her objective point of view, Mike was the most perfect man ever to have drawn breath, in which case I’d have had to argue the toss and tell her that clearly, going purely on the evidence, Adam was a superior human being, and it would all have got a bit silly – but fortunately she didn’t have the breath to say anything at all.
‘One more pull,’ I encouraged her, feeling like someone on Call the Midwife, ‘and you’re there.’
‘Right.’ Dani lay on her back on the floor, her chest heaving. ‘Your turn next, and then we’re done, right?’
‘Then can we go to that place down the road that does the incredible cupcakes?’
‘For sure.’
I got back on the machine, telling myself that I’d be finished in just another couple of minutes. But my legs were still feeling trembly with fatigue, and I knew I’d need all the help I could get to last the final kilometre.
‘So I take it you haven’t heard from Fabian again?’
‘Oh. My. God. I was saving this up to tell you over cake, but do you want to hear it now?’
‘Go on then.’
‘I didn’t hear anything from him for ages. Like, over a week. I was so relieved the calls and the bloody flowers had stopped, because I was starting to feel like I was living in a flaming funeral parlour and I kept having to go round to the old people’s home with these ridiculous bouquets, and I was worried they’d start thinking I was crushing on one of the residents. So I reckoned Mike warning him off had worked, and I was right. Kind of.’
‘What happened then?’ I panted.
‘Then, last Friday, I was at work, and he walked in through the door. Only he wasn’t alone.’
‘Oh shit.’
‘My mum was with him.’
‘What?’ Literally thrown off my stroke, I slowed down and almost stopped.
‘Keep going, Zoë. Think of the cupcakes. Yeah, he turned up with my mum, at my work. I almost died.’
‘But how…?’
‘Obviously I had no idea what had happened, but Mum explained it all to me afterwards. I’d told him a bit about her, how we didn’t have the best relationship and stuff, and how sad it made me, and how I hoped one day we’d be able to make things right again. I thought at the time he wasn’t listening, because he never really did, but he must’ve been. Because he found out her address and wrote to her.’