“Fuck off, Jamie.”
He laughs, ordering the kids to do another ten laps of the field: maybe he wants to tire them out completely. I slump onto the stands next to him, my mind wandering as I watch the kids running, already exhausted. I can feel that I’m about to be on the receiving one of his speeches, and I’ll have no choice but to sit here and listen.
“Busy night?” he asks, testing the waters. But I’m not going to let him dive in: he might drown out of curiosity.
“We’re talkative this morning.”
“We’re absolutely not. But if you like, I have a specialfuck offreserved just for you.”
“Is it not going like you hoped it would?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Jamie.”
“No problem. I’ll talk, instead. Let’s see… She wasn’t happy with your services and decided to show you the door?”
I don’t even look at him.
“I guess you’re not as well-endowed as all those magazines would lead us to believe.”
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my tongue.
“Okay, I’ll be serious. But don’t complain, okay?”
“No one asked you to do anything.”
“You don’t need to. I just know these things.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I can tell when someone needs to talk, without really talking.”
“You have a seriously big ego, you know.”
Jamie laughs. “I have to compensate for what you O’Connors can’t offer.”
“Is this because you’re desperate to be an O’Connor?”
“It’s because I’m your mate.”
“You have nothing else to cling onto, do you?”
“Actually, I have a lot to cling onto.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to be serious?”
“What’s wrong, Nick?” Jamie switches back into serious mode. “I know there’s more than just dust bunnies up in that brain of yours.”
“You have no idea what you’re on about, Jamie. You should know me better than that by now.”
“That’s why I know exactly what I’m talking about: because Idoknow you so well.”
“You don’t always have to know everything.”
“No – but I can imagine it.”
“So what has your sick mind conjured up, now?”
“That the two of you slept together. I know that for sure.”
