‘I think …’ I pause. ‘I think when you think of all the things we’ve both overcome, to be sat here in this car together, having found each other. I don’t think we should let the distance between England and New York bother us. We’ll work out what happens next. We got here. We’re together. That’s what matters.’
Fin leans down and kisses me, and I twist round and put my fingers into his hair and kiss him back, soft then harder, feeling him respond.
‘Might be easier if you undid your belt,’ Finlay whispers, pointing at it, twisted across my chest like I’m in a child harness. I guffaw.
‘Know when I knew that I loved you?’ he says. ‘When I met you in the lobby to go to dinner. You were walking across the lobby, bandy-legged in those heels like a Gumby in Monty Python. It was like I could hear an orchestra, and all the stars came out.’
‘Really?’
‘Well, it was either that moment, or when you were bellowing you’d not even seen my pubic area on Leith quayside. I was very relieved about that, by the way.’
‘Worst thing imaginable, for me to see you naked, then?’
‘My personal Vietnam. Let’s never let that happen.’
I laugh and reach for the door handle.
‘Why do I feel we understand each other so, so well, Evelyn? I’m meant to be the one who has answers for things like that,’ Fin says, looking at me in some sort of awe. ‘It’s like my whole life was about travelling back to you.’
I’ve had time to think about this, lying awake in a cottage listening to rain on the roof. Thinking about how Finlay never abandoned me, whether it was on bike rides as children, or hotel rooms as grown-ups.
‘Because of the lesson we taught each other,’ I say.
‘What is that?’
‘Recovery.’
44
Three Months Later
The quizmaster’s booming voice cuts through the burble of chatter.
‘In the BBC comedy series The Office, the Slough branch merges with a second branch of their paper merchant business. Where was that branch based? Where was that, branch based?’
Why do quiz comperes always put the pause in a sentence in a really odd place?
‘Reading,’ Justin hisses, tapping a forefinger on the sheet.
‘Ricky Gervais is from Reading, that’s why you think it’s Reading,’ I hiss back.
‘It’s not going to be a big city,’ Ed whispers, fingers rifling in a bag of Frazzles. ‘It’s got to be Slough equivalent.’
He throws a Frazzle to Leonard who wakes up, eats it and goes straight back to sleep.
‘It’s where the John Travolta dancing guy comes from,’ I whisper.
‘Which was Reading,’ Justin says.
‘It’s not! Back me up, Francis.’
Francis nods. ‘Reading’s too big.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Also not funny enough, somehow.’
‘Is Slough funny?’ Justin sniffs.
‘Intrinsically, yes,’ Ed says. ‘Imagine Vic Reeves singing in melodramatic voice … the whore was from SLOUGH! Funny.’
‘Swindon,’ Finlay says.
We all look at him in surprise.
‘You live in New York, you don’t know our trivia,’ I say.
‘It was on well before I left Britain, and we have the BBC over there.’
‘Swindon? You’re sure?’ I say.
‘Yep,’ Fin says, necking more beer. He complains about the ‘Carrington half stone’ he’s put on since we started dating, three months ago. As someone who regularly spins out brushing her teeth to watch him shower, I can confirm it suits him.
‘Right, that’s the last question,’ the compere says. ‘We’ll have a short break, then I’ll be back to do the scores.’
‘When do you fly back this time, Fin?’ Justin says.
‘Wednesday,’ he says. ‘I’ve reached the plausible limit of Skype consultations, for time being. Eve’s going to join me for her month in New York, the week after.’
He reaches up and touches the nape of my neck, under my ponytail. ‘I’m going to show her the tourist stuff this time, which I’ve never had a cause to bother with until now.’
‘Can’t wait. That’s when me and Rog gonna PARTAY,’ Ed says, doing heavy metal horn hands. ‘Slash, watch a lot of Queer Eye and eat Dixy fried chicken.’
‘Really grateful to you for the house and Rog sit,’ I say.
‘Pleasure is mine. Your house beats my flat any day.’
Ed got a tough time from Hester over the sale of their home and ended up announcing his lack of interest in re-entering the property market, for the time being. He’s renting a flat at the moment but it’s a real man hole – dirty bike propped against radiator, no pictures up. He’s on Tinder, and has some tragicomic tales already. It feels quite the switcheroo, Justin and I being in serious relationships, Ed single.
‘Your boss is definitely OK with your sabbatical?’ Ed says.
‘OK-ish,’ I say. ‘She’s signed it off.’
‘Shhh,’ Francis says. ‘Results!’
‘I smell victory,’ Ed says. ‘Breathe it in, my bitches.’
‘If we had victories as often as you smell them, Ed, we’d be banned from this quiz the same way Ben Affleck isn’t allowed in Vegas casinos.’
‘Really, what for? Being rich?’ Ed says.
‘They certainly don’t chuck you out for being rich, they do ban you for being too good at blackjack,’ Fin says. ‘That’s why the house always wins.’
‘Counting cards,’ I nod.
‘He wasn’t counting them, he told me that …’ Fin stops, eyes wide at all our shocked faces. ‘I mean, I read that he said …’
We all screech in delight.
‘OK. Here are the answers …’ the quizmaster says, and we swap sheets with the next table for marking. We do improbably well, compared to usual.
‘And last … I asked, which branch did the Slough branch merge with in The Office?’
‘If it’s Reading, I hate you all,’ Justin says.
‘It was of course, Swindon. Sunny Swindon.’
‘Yes!’ Ed says. ‘Nice one, Finlay.’
We exchange papers back again.
‘Forty-six!’ I say.
‘Alrighty then! Who got … fifty out of fifty …’ bellows the compere.
We’re tense, Francis and I holding hands, eyes squeezed shut.
‘Forty-nine!’ Silence.
‘Forty-eight!’ Silence.
‘Forty-seven!’ The Packable Anoraks got forty-seven, surely. Silence.
I open my eyes.
‘Who got … forty-six?’ the quizmaster says.
We look at each other. ‘Us! We did!’ the five of us shout in unison, waking Leonard. Unfortunately the Packable Anoraks have bellowed too.
‘Bring your papers up here, please,’ and Francis scrambles up to hand it over for verification.
Within minutes, the compere says: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, seems we have a dead heat here. So you know what that means: a tie-break question. Can each team nominate a member to come up here. I will ask a question, only the two nominees get to answer. The first to give me the right answer, wins.’