Sanjit turned away, unable to watch. ‘It’s still beyond me why you let him take all the credit for that book when we both know it was your idea in the first place.’
‘Because it’s such a bag of pretentious shite, I don’t want people to know I was on the same continent as CJ when it was being written?’
‘There is that,’ he conceded.
For months, CJ’s book,Deckled Edges, had haunted me. The matte black dust jacket followed me everywhere I went, bookshops, supermarkets, the staffroom at work. Someone I met on Hinge even brought it with him on what turned out to be a very short first date. Sadly, the obnoxious cover wasn’t the worst of it. There was the dedication (to himself) then acknowledgements (noting all the support from my mum and my dad but never once mentioning me) and his insistence on constantly referring to himself as the ‘voice of the voiceless’, a term I knew for a fact he’d stolen from the wrestlingshow he watched religiously every week, even though he would never admit it now. Not to mention the self-important, naval-gazing writing itself.
‘If I were you, I’d have shoved his MacBook so far up his arse he’d have to swallow his hands to type,’ Sanjit said through gritted teeth. ‘Was he always such a little shithead?’
‘Not at the beginning,’ I admitted as CJ rolled up his sleeve to show off a giant gold watch that would’ve even looked a bit tacky on Liberace. ‘He was sweet when we first met.’
‘Everyone’s sweet when you first meet,’ William commented.
I looked over to the crowd of women that had amassed around Joe and shook my head.
‘No. Not everyone.’
On the surface, the two men couldn’t have been more different. There was CJ in his Zara dupe of a Hedi Slimane suit and please-take-me-seriously wire-frame glasses, then there was Joe, a solid chunk of man, dressed in perfectly fitting straight leg jeans and a white linen shirt, the cuffs loosely rolled up to the elbow to weaponise his dangerously erotic forearms. CJ was intense and engaging, Joe was easy charm personified. CJ was Tom Hiddleston, Joe was Chris Hemsworth, looks-wise, anyway, when it came to personality the comparison was an insult to both Loki and Thor. But for all their differences, underneath the surface, I knew they were the same. Two smug men who thought they knew better than silly little me.
‘Oh, fucking hell, he’s waving,’ William groaned as all three of us caught CJ’s eye at the same time.
‘You’re the one who said let’s get it over with.’ Ireversed the grip on my brother’s arm to stop him from bolting. ‘You can’t make me go through this alone.’
Sanjit turned his bottle of beer upside down, allowing the last dregs to fall onto the lawn. ‘Oh no, what a shame, I must go and get another. Do give him my best.’
‘Get the divorce papers while you’re at it,’ William suggested when he tapped his fingers to his forehead in a mock salute and scuttled away. ‘Never marry a lawyer. That’s the best romantic advice I could ever give you. They’re always weaselling in or out of something.’
I looked up at him with one raised eyebrow.
‘You said the best romantic advice you could ever give me was to shag as many men as humanly possible because they’re all so terrible, you might as well go with the one who knows how to bang?’
‘When did I share that nugget of wisdom?’
‘On my sixteenth birthday.’
‘I clearly left it too late because you didn’t bloody listen, did you?’
Barging through the crowd and dragging me behind him, William slapped CJ on the back so hard, he spat out his sausage. ‘Colin, you hateful little wankshaft,’ he boomed. ‘How the devil are you?’
It was one of my brother’s greatest skills, delivering the most damning insults on earth with such a big, friendly smile, people never knew if he was joking or not.
‘Evening, William,’ CJ said, clearing his throat. CJ knew. ‘Sophie.’
‘CJ,’ I replied, staring straight through him.
‘How are you doing?’
‘Not too bad, you lanky streak of piss,’ my brother replied, even though the question was directed at me.‘How’s the new book coming? Wasn’t it scheduled for this summer?’
‘Originally.’
His green eyes found mine before I could look away. Five years together and now I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I’d seen in him. ‘Hugh decided to move it. You can’t rush these things, can you?’
‘Certainly not,’ my dad chimed in, joining our group and throwing his arm around CJ’s shoulders. ‘Art takes time, we all understand that here.’
‘We definitely do,’ William replied ‘With a talent like CJ’s, there’s no way he could be a one book wonder. Unless, I don’t know, you lost your inspiration? Your muse? The person who actually came up with all your good ideas?’
‘Can I get anyone a drink?’ I asked, pasting on a meaningless smile as CJ opened his mouth to reply. ‘No? Great. If anyone needs me, I’ll be anywhere else but here. William?’
