Parker plays a dramatic few chords on the piano, lifts her hands theatrically, and says, ‘He means no one on the app is Rachael.’
The room falls silent. Rachael stares at Parker, then at me, while the others snap around to ensure they heard right.
‘I’m sorry,’ says Jess. ‘Did you just say nobody on the app isRachael?’
‘I said what I said,’ Parker states, smiling.
‘OurRachael?’ Jess wants to clarify. ‘Rachael Elizabeth McKenzie?’
‘Well, duh,’ says the resident teenager. ‘Where have you all been?’
‘Parks is right,’ Rachael says, from across the room. ‘You should delete the app. I told you it was a waste of time.’
‘But I’m worried about Ava. A message flashed past just this morning again, begging to meet up. How will she carry on?’
Rach takes the phone from my hand and tosses it on the couch. ‘Ava is really not my problem,’ she says, pulling me to my feet, taking me in her arms in front of the astonished Bookies. ‘My problem is that I hate camping.’
‘Oh, no!’
‘I don’t even like the beach.’
I feign shock. ‘But the beach is my line of work, Rachael!’
‘I thought you mapped climate models in a lab coat.’
‘Men always lie on the apps. I don’t even own a lab coat.’
I wrap my arms around her. It feels weird and new and right and beautiful to be doing this in front of everyone, and perfect, when she reaches her arm towards Parker, who joins our family circle.
‘I wasn’t going to invite you camping anyway,’ I confess, once the rest of them have gone home. ‘That’s Parker’s thing.’
‘I’ll settle for the midnight talks,’ Rach says. ‘Isn’t that what we put in the profile?’
‘Some soppy thing. The profile was awful.’
She leans back to put my face in focus. ‘Still worked. You were flooded with options!’
‘And you were so irritated that night. I thought you were annoyed on Audrey’s behalf!’
She laughs, threading her arms around my waist. ‘Noo. That was all me. I was furiously jealous.’ She moves her hands to my chest, as if I’m hers and we have the rest of our lives for this. ‘Are yousureAudrey would be okay with this? You and me?’
The answer to this one feels as clear as day. ‘Okay with it? It feels like she orchestrated it.’
‘I know you’re a scientist, Fraser, and don’t believe in this stuff, but do you think she’s happy, wherever she is?’
‘Look, the thing about science is that we don’t know everything about how the universe works. The more we discover, the less we realise we understand. All I can tell you for sure is we definitively rule out—’
‘Stop!’ she says, plastering her hand over my mouth, laughing. ‘I’m not asking for a lecture, Dr Miller, PhD. I’m askingyou, Frase. Doyouthink she is happy?’
She takes her hand away, and I deliver the answer I’ve craved for more than three years, the one we both need, feeling its truth all the way to my bones. ‘I haven’t a shadow of a doubt.’
TWO YEARS LATER
64
AUDREY
‘Beau, I don’t know about this dress.’
