Our Stop(67)

‘Earth to Daniel?’ Sam said. ‘Hello?’

Daniel turned and looked at him.

‘Huh?’

‘Those snacks, dude. It’s two popcorns, four pulled pork burgers and some beers.’

‘And something sweet too!’ added Rashida. ‘If they’ve got Revels or Buttons or something.’

Jeremy stood up from where he’d been nestled into a spot on their picnic blanket. ‘I’ll come with you, mate. You can’t carry all that.’

As they walked to the concession stands, Daniel threw a glance back over his shoulder. I’m sure that’s him, he thought.





39


Nadia


Nadia wandered arm-in-arm with Naomi, her old colleague from a job years ago who had since left the world of STEM to become a professional Instagrammer with almost three hundred thousand followers. She was the one in the picture-perfect relationship with Callum, who was now officially her ‘Instagram Husband’, snapping her for uploads that she could command up to eight thousand pounds for. Nadia reflected on her hundred and thirty-three followers on her own account and wondered what she could charge. About thirty pence, maybe? She couldn’t be too envious, though – it was Naomi’s followers that meant she got offered free tickets to an event like tonight, something Nadia would have paid for anyway, but it was so much sweeter to be comp’d as a VIP.

All around them, people dressed as Montagues and Capulets meandered around, the actors placed amongst them reciting lines and having rap battles and generally adding to the atmosphere. It was like an immersive theatre event, with anything able to happen next. Nadia was thrilled to be there. She’d kept a low profile since breaking up with Eddie, heading to work and going to her classes at the gym and reading a lot at home on the sofa. She wasn’t too saddened by the break-up – they’d been dating only a few weeks, after all. But it was the loneliness she was struggling with.

Not only did she no longer have Eddie, but after seeing Gaby and Emma together Nadia had made the decision to wait it out – to wait for them to come to her with her news. Except, so far, they hadn’t. Nadia didn’t reach out to them, and save for a cursory and distant text from Emma once a week, she didn’t really hear from them. Gaby always seemed to be in a rush somewhere at work too, and that’s why Nadia had forced herself to reach out to the old work friend she hadn’t seen in a while. She figured Emma and Gaby had to hash out what was going on between them in their own time, and Nadia would just have to wait, patiently. On the sofa. At home. Alone.

Naomi and Nadia caught up on each other’s lives as they walked: Naomi’s brand deals and business and the difficulties of working with her husband.

‘He drives me nuts!’ she said. ‘We’re together almost all day, every day. But then, he takes the afternoon off to go to the health club or drives down to the coast to see his brother, and I miss him horribly.’ She laughed at the predicament. ‘I don’t think it’s healthy to spend so much time together, but I’m as obsessed with him as I ever was!’

Nadia smiled. She was envious, really, of how easily Naomi talked about her love for Callum. But also, it was more than that: there was a respect. A really deep respect for both him, and what they had.

‘Are you seeing anyone?’ Naomi said, following up with, ‘I know that’s the worst question in the world.’

Nadia smiled. ‘It is, but also you’re allowed to ask. And the answer is no. I was seeing somebody, a guy – we met in a bar, when I was actually stood up by another date, woe is me.’ She rolled her eyes, pseudo-dramatically. ‘And he was so great. But …’

‘But not the one?’ Naomi supposed.

‘But not the one,’ Nadia said. She sighed. ‘Do you think I’m too picky?’

Naomi pointed in the direction of the VIP area and distractedly said, ‘Let’s go grab a spot over there.’

‘Okay,’ said Nadia.

‘And do I think you’re too picky? Oh, I don’t know. Only you know that. I know that a lot of women – and, you know, probably a lot of men – fall in love even after they’re married. For some people there’s a lightning bolt that strikes when you meet, and for others it’s more work.’

Nadia nodded along as they let a concierge hand them bean bags and blankets and gift bags.

‘I don’t think one is more right than the other,’ Naomi said. ‘It’s just what works for you.’

They sat down and Nadia peered in the goodie bag: there was some coconut water and a handful of Lindt chocolate balls.

‘Could you go in for a burger?’ she asked.

Naomi smiled. ‘I could always go in for a burger.’

They stood and looked across to the food area, where small lines had formed in front of each stand. ‘That way, I guess,’ Nadia said. And to close off the discussion of her love life: ‘And I see what you’re saying. I guess for now I am better alone, until I’m not. Self-contained, but ready for romance whenever the opportunity presents itself. Or something.’

‘Or something,’ smiled Naomi.

They meandered over to the burger stand, admiring people’s outfits along the way, and almost being pulled into a battle of words in Shakespearean English, where a group had gathered around Romeo’s mother and Juliet’s nurse. The atmosphere was electric – it was a spectacular event.