‘In truth ’tis beautiful to meet with you too,’ I say and then laugh. ‘That wasn’t really medieval, was it?’
‘No,’ he laughs.
‘I didn’t know you came in here,’ I say to Finn.
‘Ah, myself and the lads were getting bored with our usual watering holes, so we thought we’d drop in here for a quick pint before heading home.’
Cue more naughty beaming.
‘He told us that he had a new friend who worked in Nurture who came in here.’
‘Ah,’ I say, and I had to work very hard not to grin. ‘And that’s cause for excitement, is it?’
‘Well, he’s got scads of male friends and there are plenty of female colleagues. But apparently he’s enjoying your company and he says he’s never had a female friend like you before. Probably because you don’t know him well enough yet and you haven’t got annoyed with him. I mean, we get annoyed with him all the time. He gets very carried away with politics in the 1800s. Drives us nuts.’
‘Shut up,’ says Finn mildly. ‘Don’t give away all my secrets.’
He turns to me and his smile is wide, warm, welcoming: ‘Can I offer you a drink? We’ve been here a few minutes and I’ve been looking around for a group ofhealthy-looking people all drinking sparkling water.’
I laugh so loud, I’m afraid I might have peed a little bit.
‘That,’ I say loudly, ‘is exactly what myself and my colleagues do.’ Then I beckon the men close and begin to whisper. I was going to give away one of Nurture’s great secrets. ‘We drink in the snug,’ I look at Philip and Michael, ‘and we try not to be seen necking bottles of wine and eating crisps and snacks and chicken wings in baskets in the pub after work. Because that would look bad, given that we spend a large portion of our work telling people that they should all be following the Mediterranean diet and avoidingtrans-fats.’
‘All things in moderation,’ says Philip.
‘Absolutely, but some enterprising young photographer might get a picture of us all sitting there with glasses lined up in front of us and packets of crisps littering the place and...’ my voice trailed off. ‘It’s about reputational damage. We have to consider the optics.’
‘You’re far too clever to be Finn’s friend,’ says Philip happily. ‘Finn’s last girlfriend was –’
‘I’m not his girlfriend,’ I interrupt. Although I couldn’t deny a faint frisson at the thought that these men assumed this might be a possibility.
‘We’re friends, didn’t he explain? That’s the whole point; friends.Non-dating friends. It can happen in thetwenty-first century.’
‘Oh we know that,’ says Michael quickly.
‘Will you stop,’ says Finn. ‘I just said I was going to come down and say hi to Sid, and you pair tagged along, and now you’re making me look like some lunatic.’
‘I think the three of you are looking like lunatics with no outside interference,’ I say gravely. ‘But you’re harmless lunatics, so I will go and say hello to my pals in the snug and tell them I’m going to drink with somenon-Nurture people outside.’
‘Can we not come in?’ says Philip, looking excited. ‘Only we normally just get to talk with other people from the university and it’s nice to meet civilians.’
I laugh loudly at this. ‘Civilians?’
‘You really know how to insult people,’ Michael mutters to Philip. And Finn puts his hand up to his head and closes his eyes.
‘Sorry, Sid,’ he says, ‘I just thought it would be nice to drop in and say hello, that’s all; I didn’t mean to bring these two eejits with me.’
‘No, it’s fine,’ I say. ‘Come on. Let’s go in and meet the civilians.’
The three of them pick up their drinks and follow me into the snug, which is already quite jammed with people.
‘Friends of mine,’ I say, holding up a hand to the assembled company. It wasn’t unknown for friends of ours to drop in. The snug couldn’t be entirely cut off for Nurture’s use. And plenty of people had friends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, drop in.
‘What are you having?’ says Finn.
‘I thought this was my go?’ I say.
‘No, mine – to make up for ambushing your evening,’ he replies.
