‘But do you hear me?’
‘Yes!’
‘Wicked!’ George glances at his watch, alerting him of an incoming call. ‘I think the fantastic girl is wondering where we are.’
‘Let’s go back.’
Charles sighs and inches towards the door, but George holds him by the sleeve.
‘Not just yet! Hear me once more. You’re the third brightest person I know, and the entire world is yours for the taking, or the refusing,but you’ve got to figure out what you want!’
‘I’m sorry, wereyouhearing me?’
‘Stop overthinking every single— No, don’t scoff me off! Just stop. Remember when you jumped in front of a bully to protect my backpack? Did you overthink before turning into an Avenger that day?’
‘I ended up hurt.’
‘Yes, and you knew you would, but you jumped anyway, because I was worth getting your arse kicked for. Something mattered to you so you made a split-second decision. Well, do that again when one of your backpacks confuses you so much that you lose the plot. Your backpacks or your plates of spinach. Stop weighing up what you’ve always thought of spinach against what you could do with spinach if, if, if… Enough! You’ve got a plate, a bully appears and snatches it. Do you jump to protect it at the risk of breaking a bone? Or do you thank them for taking it away? You need to spinach your dilemmas, simple as that! Now you’re free to go. And please don’t make me yell again.’ George exaggerates a shiver. ‘It’s so unsophisticated.’
‘I’ll try.’ Charles swings an arm around his friend’s shoulders. ‘And I love you too, but… Third brightest person?’
‘You’ve got nothing on Hannah.’
Charles smiles and pulls him closer.
George allows it until the entrance hall where he wriggles away, plastering a grin on his face to greet Alex and his girlfriend Isa.
Fifteen tea pots are lined up behind labels indicating the cocktail they’re filled with. Charles reaches for the Long Island iced tea, only to close his hand into a skin-scratching fist.
Drinking his mind blank might bring him back to square one in the morning. However, it would postpone the decision-making process awhile longer and—
He clicks his tongue. He just needs to spinach it.
He places his hazy conclusions onto a plate and the recipe to getting hammered onto another one. Nothing worth a beating from a bully, but if offered to keep one, he would choose his mental baby steps.
He grabs a beer from the ice bucket underneath the table and joins Phil, who’s slouching on a sofa, sipping Mai Tai from a China cup.
‘Did Elsy rent those tea sets?’ he asks when Charles sits down.
‘No, I’d say they all belong to Catriona.’
‘Who needs that many?’
‘Who needs five pairs of skis?’
‘Touché.’ Phil smiles and lowers his voice. ‘About that, did you have a chance to check with Elsy? Is she coming to Kitzbühel?’
‘I don’t think so, no. Her family from Scotland will travel down for Christmas and New Year. She’ll probably be stuck here. With all the tea sets.’
‘Brilliant! I mean, not for you. But I can play the “Sorry, love, it’s a boy trip!” card.’
‘What if George brings Hannah?’
‘Do you reckon he will? Come on, he’s known her for two months! But yeah, you’ve got a point. Naturally, Downes might make my life complicated…’
Charles clings on to his bottle as a new vivid vision of Loris – who he’s known for less than that – springs to his mind.
He tries to mentally exit the flat to stay with Phil, who’s searching for excuses to keep his girlfriend from joining their ski trip. Except Phil is now comparing different chalet parties they can attend on New Year’s Eve, and Charles has no idea at what point his friend switched topics.
