Page 117 of If I Never Met You

Jamie had spent Friday and Saturday nights at Laurie’s, and by Sunday, they agreed it was time for him to give some quality time to Margaret the cat, so Laurie went for a walk in Etherow Country Park with Emily and Nadia.

She decided to drop the ‘I have been having sex with Jamie Carter all weekend’ bombshell when they were half an hour in, having some water. She was worried they’d spot it from the way she was walking.

Naturally, Emily spat her Evian in a huge arc.

Nadia straightened her cloche hat. Laurie wondered if she’d wear it in summer.

‘We do, we need details,’ Nadia agreed.

‘It was … good,’ Laurie said, knowing she was involuntarily doing a smug, dazzle eyed, faraway face. ‘It was better than good. He said …’

‘Yes?!’ Emily said, primed for porn.

‘He said I’d knackered him out by the time he left.’

‘Haha oh my God! Was it face holdingI ruv you, or virile mean pounding?’

‘Kind of a combination?’

‘Oof. Potent.’

The First One After Dan experience had been a strange combination of quite overwhelming and completely straightforward. Laurie had built it up to be a seismic shift in the universe, some kind of nudeKrypton Factorchallenge where she’d be marked out of ten for adventurousness. When in fact, rolling around unclothed with someone else was, it turned out, rolling around unclothed with someone else. It all worked on instinct, really. Knowing what to do next. Once she realised she was neither offputting, nor remotely boring to him, she was, as Jamie said, unstoppable.

‘He looks very nice without his clothes. He didn’t suggest we did anything athletic or freaky or involving ropes, so that was a relief.And he was very good at it and it was bloody nice and I’d like to do it again soon, that’s all, ARGH.’

‘OK, not exactly an excerpt from Anaïs Nin but we can work with that,’ Emily said. ‘Going forward, please take more notes.’

Emily was, as to be expected, overjoyed Laurie had taken her advice. Except with her usual ratlike cunning, had deduced Laurie had done more than that.

‘You’ve fallen for him, haven’t you? I can see the milk-drunk baby look. You tool.’

‘He says he’s fallen for me too.’

‘No doubt. Just bear in mind you’re still recovering and don’t go too fast. No solitaires from Boodles. No surprisecalls to me while I’m away this Christmas to announce rash engagements, and impending mad flits down the aisle, because you got egg nogged up and stupid.’

‘Haha! Hardly. It’s a helluva drug, egg nog.’

When Laurie looked at her phone when she got back, she had a text from Dan.

I’d like to get some photos copied. Is 5pm OK to come round?

Hah, a very late arriving realisation.

Laurie

Yeah, fine.

When he knocked on the door, she was still in her running gear.

‘Not like you?’ he said.

‘All kinds of changes round here,’ Laurie said. ‘I’ve got the boxes of photos out from under the spare room bed, take the ones you want. I trust you to bring them back.’

Dan darted upstairs and reappeared after ten minutes, holding thirty-five or so pictures: holidays, the house in its embryonic stages, friends’ weddings, beer gardens. Christmases in Cardiff.

‘Fucking hell, remember the kitchen? Those Irish builders straight out ofFawlty Towers? Lick o’ paint lick o’ paint.’

Laurie smiled, thinly.

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