I’ve done my research. Had myself a good long chat with Siri about the Isle of Harris, so I know it’s nothing like the isle I come from. It’s remote, not a built-up city borough with great transport links. And it’s a ways off Britain’s mainland, in theOuter Hebrides. That makes it even harder to get to. Depending on the timing of trains, buses, and ferry crossings, getting there and back could involve days of travel for someone on my kind of budget, because who’s got thousands to drop on flights?
Not me.
I settle for telling Harry, “I’m meeting someone, but listen, yeah? All I wanted to say was that Flynn was never my real problem.” This would have been impossible to grit out before Dair held me fifteen floors above the river where someone I loved and lost once taught me how to mudlark. It’s surprisingly easy today to say, “Think I got everything twisted because of Stacey.”
“Your aunt?” Harry’s sigh carries all the way from wherever he is in Europe. “I did wonder.” He speaks more quietly, his voice as soft as the shush of water in the background. “Even so, I can’t help thinking I could have?—”
“Stopped me from moving in here right after I lost her?” I shake my head firmly even though Harry can’t see me do it. “You weren’t even in the UK, mate. It was my way to avoid it. Staying here let me keep my distance from home.” I swallow around some more grit. “And it’s one of the reasons I kept my distance from all you nosy wankers.”
“One of the reasons? There are more?” Someone calls his name again. “Two minutes, Skipper,” he calls back.
“Go.” I check my watch. “I need to make a move too.” Today is a rare full day off for Dair. The last one between his care shifts before he’ll leave. I want to make the most of every minute. “I need you to know that I’m getting my shit together. Keeping myself busy in a better way, like you said.”
“Excellent. How?”
“By going to the V&A.”
“The museum?”
“Yeah.” Visiting some of the ceramics collections there seemed a good way to help Dair beef up his inventory descriptions.
Who the fuck am I kidding? It’s an excuse to have him look up at me some more like I’m some kind of expert.
“And you’re taking the Exes with you? Opening up to them about what matters to you? Good man.”
I hadn’t planned to invite anyone along but Dair. Harry sounding impressed makes me kinda wish I had extended that group invite.
He huffs, “Just tell me that Blake and Adey are back to speaking.”
I can’t.
Yes, I did get them in the same place at the same time with Dair’s help. Ordering a coffee wasn’t enough to keep them talking for long. “I’m still working on it.”
“Good man,” Harry repeats over the hollow thump of footsteps. His, I think, striding along a jetty. “Remind the two of them that they were friends once. But maybe go easy on Adey. The last time I saw him, he looked lost. And closed off, you know?”
Those two terms could have described me until lately, which he mentions.
“Open up to him the way you just did to me, and he’ll find his way back to us.” He hesitates, a pause drawing out before he adds, “And if there’s anything else you want to get off your chest, you go ahead and call me again. Anytime, darling. This was a nice surprise.”
Harry isn’t done.
He’s got enough ink left to rewrite all the times stand-in teachers said I should just try harder.
“You stood in for me when you didn’t have to. Got Blake and Adey together once already, and I’ve only been gone for a fewweeks. I still have another whole month of boat shows to go, but you’ve made this work trip so much easier. I couldn’t have left my pen with anyone better.”
His conviction is still on my mind long after our call. And long after I’ve sweated over how to phrase an invitation in the group chat to a last-minute meet-up.
Blake says yes right away. So do almost a dozen others. Avatars of their faces stack up along with thumbs-up emojis.
I don’t see Adey’s face among them.
Fuck. What would Harry do now?
The chime of my doorbell saves me from sweating some more over that problem. I open the front door to another bright February morning, and to an even brighter smile from my favourite furniture fairy.
I’m dazzled.
I must be to state the obvious like this.
