Page 94 of If I Never Met You

‘After what you did for me in Lincoln, don’t you think I want to repay you?’

Laurie beamed. ‘Yeah of course. But I didn’t do that so I could hand you a bill afterwards. It didn’t come with any strings.’

‘I know,’ Jamie said, and gave her a quick hard hug that shocked the air out of her lungs.

On Friday night, she met Jamie at a rowdy pub on Deansgate for a resolve stiffener and they walked to Beetham Tower together. Jamie was in a blue suit that matched his eyes – that flash wardrobe of his was coming in handy – and Laurie, a black jumpsuit and red lipstick. She’d consulted her feelings and gone with strong-defiant rather than a flouncy dress, plus the Ivy-date maxi dress now felt too special to want to waste on her father, wedding or no.

‘It’s the whole bar? Hiring this must’ve cost a fortune,’ Jamie said, squinting at the skyscraper slab of glass, slicing upwards into the Manchester evening sky.

‘Yeah, my dad’s always liked to spend money. Nicola’s not short of a few bob either.’

After a soaring, seasick lift ride, they were welcomed into Cloud 23, trumpeted as ‘the highest point in Manchester.’

‘This works, because my dad is usually the highest in Manchester,’ Laurie whispered, and Jamie laughed, looking the way he did at her on the train. As if she was … what did his mate call her? Exotic. Don’t admire me for this, she thought. None of it is about me.

Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ was on loud, the room a hubbub of dressed up people, pretty much none of which Laurie knew.

They handed their coats over. Floor to ceiling windows displayed the city beyond at dusk, inside it was mink velvet modern sofas and white leather chairs, vertical tombstones of mirror breaking up the space. It was like a VIP airport lounge. A waitress with a tray of lowball glasses full of amber liquid and orange peel appeared, Laurie and Jamie lifted one each, sipped. It tasted to Laurie like three fingers of Cointreau.

‘There she is! My little girl!’

Laurie heard her father’s familiar buoyant tones and allowed herself to be pulled into a hug, mumbling ‘congratulations, congratulations’ on repeat as substitute for anything more meaningful to say. You didn’t need to be told Austin Watkinson made his money in a creative field: a very well preserved late fifties in immaculate designer labels, the mod hair, trim figure, violently expensive chestnut brogues.

She did the same with Nicola, who tottered over in a cloud of fruity perfume, clad in a rainbow sequin dress, volumised hair fanning out like a lion’s mane.

‘God, you’re a bit of alright, who are you?’ she said to Jamie, who smiled and shook hands with her. Laurie noticed Nicola was wearing an engagement diamond next to a wedding band, the size of a grape.

‘I’m with Laurie,’ he said.

‘Ahhhh so you found someone!’ her dad said. ‘I was ready to set you up with Harry over there, after you said you were going to be on the hunt tonight.’

Laurie blinked and realised what he was referring to – a remark on WhatsApp months ago, ‘maybe I’ll meet someone at your tear-up.’ Tactful of him to repeat it in front of herdate. Laurie scratched her neck and tried to avoid Jamie’s pointedoh well whaddya knowlook.

‘Good to meet you, son,’ Austin pumped Jamie’s hand. ‘Hammer that bar, it’s free all night. Heeeeeeyyyy!’ her dad’s attention was pulled away by someone else behind them.

‘I guess that solves the mystery of why I wasn’t needed for manoeuvres, then,’ Jamie said.

‘Hardly! My dad talks a lot of rubbish.’

‘Mmmm. Harry best not try anything.’

Laurie laughed.

Having been sceptical at first, Cloud 23 actually came into its own when there were no clouds, and the scene beyond the glass was a winter’s night. The streets were long sweeps of yellow, bluer lights from buildings, a jewel box of illuminations amid soft black. It made the city look so full of potential, so exciting.

‘Wow,’ Laurie said, nose almost to pane. ‘The view is really something. Like a Michael Mann film, huh.’

She turned to see if Jamie enjoyed the reference, and he was looking intently at her, not the great outdoors.

‘Did you really not want me to come tonight? Have I clipped your wings?’

‘No! That thing my dad said, he was repeating a message I sent before you and I had even …’ she waved her hand. ‘You know. Started doing this.’

‘Yeah but given we’re not “doing this” … I don’t like to think I’m closing off avenues to you.’

Was Jamie worrying he’d taken on a project with Laurie,one that wouldn’t end when the dating scam did? That they’d have to go through the motions of still socialising? That he was already trying to gently detach? She’d sort of known all along this was how it would feel when it came to an end, and yet it still made her feel empty.

‘Jamie, I’m not your responsibility. You know that don’t you? You don’t have to worry.’

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