Page 52 of You Belong With Me

‘I don’t know. I sincerely hope not. Fraser’s never struggled for female attention, irrespective of anything I’ve been doing. If you’d asked me before today, I’d have said no, but now she’s pushing to be Mrs Fraser practically overnight … I’m not sure I can completely subtract it. Fraser’s had to fend off her attempts to put me on her Instagram many, many times.’

‘I got away with it.’

‘That’s different. I have to beg you to be seen with me.’

Edie laughed. ‘I completely see the wisdom of what you’re saying, and you absolutely have Fraz’s back. I feel protective of you wading into this, though, because I’m not sure telling anyone not to marry anyone else ever goes well. I hope he realises you’re doing it because you love him.’

‘To be clear, I’m not telling him not to marry her. I’m telling him not to do it this fast.’

Edie doubted Fraser would make that distinction and said nothing.

Elliot sighed. ‘When we were kids, he would climb trees so high the fire service had to get him down. He hitchhiked to Glastonbury with no credit card, kept all his cash in a Converse trainer. He called it Bank of Boot. Of course, it got stolen, and my dad had to drive down and get him. When he was twenty-two, he went to Thailand with his best mate, Iggy – who, as you may have gleaned, is a complete mongoose. They had no jabs, flew out with no insurance. A tuk-tuk driver nicked their passports, and he had Dad at the embassy for hours with photocopies of his birth certificate, to get them home … You get the idea. This is absolutely consistent with Fraser’s relentless pursuit of calamity.’

‘In light of this, can I be annoyingly logical?’

‘You’re the smartest person I know, so all and any confrontational opinions are welcome.’

‘If this is classic Fraser, then Molly’s family might be an incidental factor?’

‘Yeah, fair point. I suspect the full picture is petrol has metmatches. Flammable has met accelerant. Anyway, enough of my whining. I hope you had a good enough time tonight.’

Edie hesitated. Wanting to be a Cool Girl was at war with need for reassurance.

‘I always enjoy seeing Fraser, it’s … just …’ Edie felt the booze, the emotion and the environmental dislocation come together suddenly, like three lanes of traffic all green lit at once, moving forward and honking at each other.

‘What?’

‘I don’t fit in with your crowd, do I? I thought the fact there’d be a Nottingham lot meant I’d be OK, but I’m still a sore thumb outsider in her ASOS dress. And when it’s not private schoolers with YSL handbags, apparently it’s Cameron McAllister. I know you’ve made an effort with my friends, and I want to reciprocate. But if tonight’s any test, prepare yourself for ongoing confusion about why you’re with me.’

Elliot blinked at her, and she felt like a dick.

‘Sorry. That was a lot of words forI felt stupidly lonely when you left my side.I need to be a grown-up.’

There was a silence, and Edie pondered that drinking on no dinner was never wise.

‘You know I said you’re a catastrophist? I think it might be a full-on doom boner. Nothing gets you going like the chance to foretell disaster,’ Elliot said.

‘Doom boner?!’ Edie said, laughing in relief.

‘One parodyWolf of Wall Streetdo thrown by my brother is not a litmus test of anything.’

‘Well, to make it worse …’ Was she going to say this? It seemed she was. Elliot might not have done anything wrong,but she wanted him to account for the discrepancy, at least. ‘When I tried to socialise, I met some guy who told me you were seeing a very, er, volatile Swedish girl during our break? It intimidated the fuck out of me. I don’t want to know about your exes, and he didn’t need to tell me that, did he? It was the first day at school, I tried to make friends in the playground, and he promptly stuffed snow down the back of my coat.’

‘I was seeing someone who was what, now?’

‘He said you had a fling with a very randy Swedish girl.’

Edie waited for Elliot to look shifty. He only looked nonplussed. ‘I have no such ex. Genuinely. After we split up?’

‘Yes.’

‘I didn’t see anyone when we were apart – I told you that. I had no interest, after that karate chop to the windpipe you dealt me. Also, I’d have karmically felt I was giving you permission in return, and screw that. No way was I handing you a hall pass.’

He smiled at her. Edie exhaled in gratitude at having normality as she currently understood it being fully restored. He could jibe at her fickleness all he wanted now. It was almost worth being wound up about fictional Swede to vanquish her.

She pushed her arms round him and reminded herself that she alone got to do this.

‘Who told you that?’ Elliot said.

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