Our Stop(35)

He stood beside a couple at the bar of the country pub as he waited to put in an order for the next round. It was hard not to eavesdrop, really, and it sounded like their first mini-break. The first mini-break is, as Daniel and his friends had long concluded, a relationship rite of passage, especially for young professionals from a city where house-shares were the norm. The first mini-break was normally the first time you’d get totally uninterrupted time together, with sex that didn’t have to be quiet in case the person in the room next door heard, or saw you nip to the loo in the buff in the middle of the night. Daniel thought about his first weekend away with his ex, Sarah. He’d planned a whole schedule around what he thought would be romantic – a country hotel, afternoons in a rowing boat on the lake, champagne in the room on arrival. As it turned out they’d had a horrible fight on the train ride there and then erroneously assumed there’d be a line of cabs waiting at the station to take them to where they were staying, but there weren’t. They’d stood in the drizzle that would later make rowing on the lake a write-off for forty-five minutes until a car they’d ordered from the number stuck to the information board arrived. They’d made the best of it, each trying to put on a brave face. But they’d both been a little crestfallen that it hadn’t all rolled out as perfectly as they’d imagined. Was it strange to imagine going away with Nadia? They could even come here, to this exact pub, and after sharing a bottle of red wine by the fire he could tell her, a little tipsily, that he’d come here right after he’d written to her again and he’d promised himself there and then that he’d come back, and with her. He looked over his shoulder at his buddies. He wanted what they all had – happy marriages that meant they had somebody to share the highs with, and hold the hand of when things were less good. He loved all of their wives – even Rashida, who could be a bit bossy, a bit strident – and he was so excited to one day introduce his person to them all too.

‘So she wrote back,’ Daniel heard a man’s voice say, ‘and it was this cocky and funny and kind of provocative answer, and they’ve gone back and forth a bit, and now everyone is waiting to see if they go out. I don’t know –’ he paused to take a sip of his wine ‘– I think it’s one of those things where everyone is like, “She wrote back! They have to get married now!” Or whatever. Because it’s like a movie or something, you know?’

Daniel cocked his head and tried to listen to what the woman said in response. He was so sure they were talking about him, and about Nadia. About her note to him. Was that egotistical of him? But surely there weren’t a string of people writing letters to each other in the newspaper. Maybe he was imagining things because he was excited by the day. That must be it.

‘What can I get for you, mate?’ the barman asked, and Daniel held up one hand and two fingers to signal seven pints, and said, ‘Seven of the Abbot’s, please, mate.’

Daniel craned his neck to continue to listen to the couple. ‘Well, if it were me,’ the woman was saying, ‘I’d want a big romantic gesture like that. Like, if you meet somebody that way …’ And then Daniel couldn’t hear what she said after that. Well, he thought. Even if they’re not talking about us, that’s still worth remembering. Big romantic gesture. That’s like Romeo said. Got it. A shudder went down his spine. He’d thought of him and Nadia as an us.

He delivered the booze to the table and Jeremy was in the middle of a story about his new kid, his second, and how his penis was like a tiny sprinkle system and they’d had to buy a Penis teepee.

‘I’m not kidding,’ he was saying. ‘It’s a tiny teepee that you put over the kid’s dick, so when he pisses himself as you change him it doesn’t go all over you!’ It was the kind of Dad Talk Daniel couldn’t contribute to, not being one himself, but it was nice to be a part of. He was just happy. Happy to be here and be alive and have the whole promise of a future in front of him. Nadia’s face drifted into his mind and the lads continued to play ‘dad one-upmanship’ with their various anecdotes.

And then he chastised himself: Fucking hell mate, try having a date first.

He finished off his pint and tuned back in to the rest of the group, telling himself that was enough fantasizing for now. Somebody asked if they should hop in a cab and go down to Soho Farmhouse for a nightcap because Terrence and Dean had membership so could get everybody in, but the idea was sunk by the rest of the group who decided to head back to the house.

‘Okay, fine,’ Terrence said. ‘But I swear to god, she’ll kill me if you smoke in the house so just … well, fucking don’t, okay?’

Rowdily, they stumbled out of the pub and into the last scraps of country summer light. Jonny and Dean both pulled packets of cigarettes from their jean pockets and promptly sparked up.





17


Nadia


‘I’m just saying,’ said Nadia, ‘that you seem a bit distant, is all. Like, whatever it is, you can tell me.’

They were sat at breakfast in the courtyard of the club, handsome waiters buzzing around them and the promise of poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on the way.

‘I. Am. Not. Hiding. Anything,’ she said, enunciating every syllable. ‘Don’t crowd me, okay? If I want to talk, I’ll talk!’