Words in Deep Blue(46)

The fact that he’s talking to her doesn’t necessarily mean anything and even if it does, Henry hasn’t done anything wrong. He hasn’t made any secret about the fact that he loves Amy. He’s selling the bookstore to get her back. I know this.

Still. I think briefly about deleting Henry’s call for help and going home. But he’s my friend and friends save each other and I can’t not save him because he’s got terrible taste in girls.

‘Rach? You there?’ Lola asks.

I quickly fill her in, and her voice shifts from excited to worried. She puts the phone away from her mouth and tells Hiroko. ‘Tell her we’ll cancel Laundry and go with her,’ Hiroko says from the background, but Lola’s not all that keen on the idea. ‘Ask George to go with you,’ Lola says, coming back to the phone. ‘And if she can’t, then call us back and we’ll come.’

I drive to the bookstore, park, and text George from the car, letting her know that I need her help with Henry. It’s not that late, but she’s already in her pyjamas – blue ones with clouds – and she doesn’t bother going back in to get changed.

She takes my phone, looks at the dropped pin, and directs me through Gracetown, in the direction of the city. We don’t bother with music, we’re too wired to listen. I’m worried about Henry and since George is unusually quiet, I assume she is too. ‘Through these lights and then take a left,’ she says, and we hit a heap of Friday-night traffic.

I’m watching a group of girls walk in front of the car, girls my age out for the night in short dresses, long boots and glittery skin, when George blurts out that Martin asked her on a date and she told him she’d meet him at Pavement.

‘Where?’

‘Pavement,’ she says again.

It’s what I thought she said, but I was hoping for Martin’s sake I’d misheard. ‘Is Pavement the same kind of place it was three years ago?’

‘It’s pretty much the worst club in the city,’ she says, and then starts defending herself. ‘He told me I had a problem. He wouldn’t leave me alone.’

I can’t exactly judge her. I held a grudge against Henry for three years. But Pavement? She couldn’t have just told him she’d been at Laundry and then not showed?

‘Henry was with Martin tonight,’ I say. ‘They went for dumplings.’

‘Okay,’ she says, but clearly she’s edgy as she directs me through the centre of town, past the main City Train Station, and towards the docks.

We’re on a long stretch of dark blue road when George finally tells me to slow down. ‘He’s somewhere around here.’

We really start to worry when we get to the blinking dot on the map and he’s not here. I pull over and George looks at the map, pinches it between her fingers and makes it bigger. I take it from her, and turn it around. ‘It’s a double highway,’ I say. ‘He’s on the other side.’

I make a U-turn and see Henry before she does. He’s shining in the darkness; arms pulled back like a suburban Caravaggio.

‘Shit,’ George says, spotting Martin.

I pull up near them, and we get out. Henry Jones naked is quite a sight and I try not to look like I’m enjoying it as much as I am.

‘Hello,’ he says.

‘Hello,’ I say. ‘You seem to have gotten yourself in some trouble.’

‘You’re naked,’ George says.

‘Really?’ Henry says. ‘We hadn’t noticed.’

‘Why are you naked?’ George asks.

‘Why are you in pyjamas?’ Martin asks, as she walks around to his side of the pole.

‘I had to leave in a hurry, to save you.’

‘Maybe I wouldn’t need saving if someone hadn’t told me she’d be at Pavement tonight.’

‘I said I might be there.’

I decide it’s the best thing for everyone if we get Henry and Martin down as soon as possible. There’s nothing to cut with in the back seat, so I open the boot, and there, next to Cal’s box, are scissors and, for some reason, a steak knife.

I pick them up, and stare at the box. My hands touch the cardboard instinctively. I trace my finger around the question mark, but don’t open it.

George walks over and I close the boot. ‘You take the scissors and Martin,’ I tell her. ‘I’ll take Henry and the steak knife.’

‘Do you have a steady hand?’ Henry asks me while I’m cutting.

‘Fairly steady,’ I say. ‘I’ll go carefully around the sensitive parts.’

‘It’s skin. It’s all sensitive, really.’

I nod, cutting slowly.

‘How do I look naked?’ he asks after a while.

‘Not half bad,’ I say.

‘Can I take that to mean I look half good?’

‘Close your eyes,’ Martin says to George. ‘Stop looking at me.’

‘I’m cutting some fairly sensitive areas. Do you really want me to close my eyes?’

‘I’m glad you find this so funny. If you and Rachel were naked and Henry and I were making jokes, it’d be a whole different story.’

‘Relax,’ George says.

‘Relax?’ he says. ‘If you didn’t want to be friends you could have just said no. Do I need to beg every single day? You haven’t even bothered to say sorry.’