‘Tom?’
Rob resists the desire to say,No, the Pope, one of Dawn’s favourite jibes. ‘Yes, Tom,’ he says, flatly.
‘Not really,’ Dawn tells him. ‘I’m still hesitating between just us or, you know, the whole shebang.’
‘Bythe whole shebang, you mean Billy,’ Rob says.
‘Yes.’
‘Hewasquite a big one,’ Rob says. ‘I think you might have to leave out quite a lot if you don’t mention Billy.’
‘Because?’
‘Because there are things that won’t make sense… that you won’t be able to explain otherwise.’
‘D’you think?’ Dawn says.
‘Don’t you?’
‘Maybe. I don’t know. I mean, I was thinking I could still tell him about meeting you, having Lucy, having Lou, Mum’s death. Moving houses. Having to move into this place. That virus thing that had us all shut indoors.’
‘Covid?’ Rob offers. ‘Or the pig one?’
‘Not the Covid one. How long did that last anyway?’
‘The whole thing, or…?’
‘No, the bit when we weren’t allowed out.’
‘A month, maybe a bit more,’ Rob says.
Dawn laughs. ‘It was much longer than a month.Muchlonger.’
‘If you know then why ask me? Anyway, I’m sure Tom can look it up.’
‘Yes, I expect even Hubble knows.’
In the corner of the room a picture frame glows bright green and the screen lights up with the animated image of a young man’s face. A smooth male voice says, ‘I’m sorry, do I know what?’
‘We weren’t talking to you, Hubble,’ Rob says.
‘Sorry,’ the voice replies. ‘I’ll be quiet.’
‘So Covid is one of your big events, is it?’ Rob says.
‘Yes, that was a big one for me. A massive one really. You’d just split up with your bit of—’
‘Cheryl.’
‘Yes, if you prefer,Cheryl. And I’d just been to see Billy and realised what a twat he was. And the Covid thing sort of threw us back together.’
Rob nods thoughtfully. ‘But you see, there he is again. How can you talk about one bit without mentioning Billy?’
‘Oh,’ Dawn says. ‘Yes, I see what you mean.’
‘And if you don’t mention Billy, I’m not sure I want you mentioning Cheryl either, to be honest. I mean, that would kind of put me in a bad light.’
‘And so it should!’ Dawn says.
