“Covering a couple of people who are away until filming starts.” She wasn’t giving anything away whether this was a good thing or not.
“You’ll need to find somewhere closer.” Her apartment was probably a two-hour commute from the zoo. If she was there late at night it would be a hell of a journey.
There was a shrug, that nonchalance I remembered from that first day I met her in lectures.
“Maybe. It’s only a few weeks. I have no idea what’ll happen when we’ve finished in Asia.”
“Callum!”
I turned around and saw Joseph Richard Callaghan. He was smiling, the slight stubble there through design rather than lack of time.
“You need a shave.” I hugged him anyway because it was Seph and I still remembered when another boy in his class had been bullying him about the slight lisp he used to have. It had been the first time Marie had told me off in front of someone else, closed the door and then told me she was pleased with how I’d stuck up for my brother and did I want to choose a treat.
He stepped back and stared at Wren, smiling again. I felt my chest get tight, the feeling odd.
“You’re even prettier in real life than you are in pictures. Not that you weren’t pretty when you were at college.”
I rolled my eyes.
Wren held out her hand. “Good to see you again, Seph.”
He stared at her hand like it was a used dildo and then he hugged her, not with as much force as he had me, because that had been vice-like and his way of suggesting I needed to hit the gym to catch him up.
I didn’t like him hugging her. Or touching her. Even better, I’d rather he didn’t breathe the same air.
“Do you want a lift? I can drop you off?”
She shook her head. “I’m going to get a cab. Thank you for the offer.”
“Let us drop you off.” I touched her arm and felt her heat.
“It’s ninety minutes out of your way and I’ll be embarrassed if you see where I live. Go and see your mum.”
My hand was still on her. “Give us a minute, Seph.”
He looked a little wide-eyed. “Sure. I need a piss anyway.”
We were facing each other, Wren’s brown doe-eyes looking into mine. She was serene, steadfast.
Remote.
“Do you want to come to my family’s this weekend? Meet everyone?” I knew this wasn’t what I was asking. The translation was clear. I wanted another night, another week of nights. Year maybe. I was back to where I was eleven years ago when I’d given her my heart on a tarnished platter and asked her to keep it beating because I didn’t know how to.
She put her hands on my waist, surprising me. I was expecting a rejection.
“I need to see mum, sort my life out a little. But I will come and see your home in Oxford – maybe next weekend or the week after. And I’ll see you next week at work.”
I felt the beat inside my chest, as if something had just woken up. “I’ll text you.”
She smiled, this wasn’t guarded, and then she let go, picked up her bags and started to walk away.
“One more night my arse.”
Seph only raised his brows when he came back and found me laughing.
* * *
The housein Oxford was where I’d lived as a child, between there and London. It was huge, standing in grounds of several acres, with the closest neighbours being Amelie’s family. It felt both familiar and strange at the same time, a mix of feeling because I’d both hated this place because of the link with my mother and the time before Marie and because it had been my home for so long. Still was.
