‘Which one?’ I reply, frowning.
‘Whichone?’ she echoes. ‘How many are you dating?’
‘Just one at a time,’ I say. ‘But I’m not sure how many I’ve told you about, so …’
Her eyebrows lift. ‘Ollie, are you a woman-magnet? What’s going on? Tell me everything.’
She leads me over to the sofa and forces confessions out of me about which girls I’ve been dating, which ones I’ve really liked, which ones I haven’t, which ones have dumped me after two dates (lots) and which ones I’ve dumped (just one). She’s curious about the reasons why and baulks when I tell her.
‘She didn’t like Chinese food?’ Aury questions.
‘No, no. She didn’t like any food that wasn’t grown locally. It was getting to be a bit of a drain, given we’re in North London and we’re not exactly overrun with farms. Two dates and I was done.’
‘Oh, Ollie,’ she laughs and then gets up to remove the bottle from the freezer. ‘People are strange.’
‘Yeah. It’s hard to find someone who actually turns out to be normal.’
She brings over the champagne, pours it into two glasses and we say ‘Cheers’ before she moves next to me on the sofa again, turning to face me. Aury’s so effortless.
‘I saw Liv last week,’ she says, watching me. ‘We grabbed lunch and then went shopping.’
‘As usual?’ I dare.
‘Ha, yes. As usual. Topshop in Oxford Street’s gone now,though. Total disaster. I might have had a little cry,’ she admits.
‘It’s a good thing for you that Topshop’s gone. I read it’s going to be an Ikea.’
Her eyes light up. ‘Is it?’
‘Nothing ever changes. How’s Liv?’
‘Doing well. Going to be a barrister, I think.’
‘So I’ve heard. We speak a bit here and there, but mostly we’ve gone our separate ways. Good luck to her. She’s doing well. Better off without me.’
‘Do you really think so?’ Aury asks with a hint of relief. ‘I don’t want to sound disloyal, but I think you’re both better off without each other.’
I nod, because she’s right.
‘Same as me and Ben.’
I nod again and then I think about that properly. ‘No, I don’t think that’s true actually. I don’t think Ben’s better off without you. Butyou’rebetter off without him.’ I don’t want her to take that the wrong way. I don’t want her to get back with him.
She looks into her glass, processing what I’ve said. ‘Hmm, maybe,’ she agrees. ‘How is Ben? I don’t want you to think I don’t care about him. I don’t wanthimto think I don’t still care about him.’
‘He’s doing OK. He’s a little up and down. But he’s … Ben. One minute he’s a total nightmare and the next he’s offering to cook dinner.’
‘It’s nice that he’s got you,’ Aury says. ‘It’s nice you stuck it out. You didn’t have to, you know. You still don’t have to.’
How do I say that I’ve got no other real friends? I’m not sure I can. That sounds a bit sad. Itissad. ‘He’s my best mate, believe it or not.’
‘You do more for him than he does for you.’
‘Hmm,’ I say, not quite believing this. ‘Be that as it may. It’s Ben, you know?’
‘I know. I miss the four of us being together,’ she confesses.
‘Me too. It’s not the same now.’
