Page 72 of You Belong With Me

And while it was in thewell, duhfile, it confirmed that, despite his relationship, their expectation of their eldest son ever relocating back was non-existent. Actions speaking louder than words.

Was Edie being a gigantic, oblivious fool to even vaguely imagine otherwise, though? Yes, she was.

Edie’s phone lit up.

Elliot

Tell me if I’m being hyper vigilant to the point of neurotic, but are you sure you’re all right? You went very quiet at the end there. But I know it’s been a shitty day. xx

Edie

Your parents selling up got me in the guts, for some reason. It was the one bit of geography we had in common. Stupid, I know. xx

Elliot

Yeah, I feel the same. I tell you what, I’ll buy it off them. Then they still have a base to visit friends here, and we can stop staying in hotels when I’m over. It’d be nice to cook dinner for a change, wouldn’t it? Tbh I bet they’ll end up moving back. Neither of my parents are suited to fishing villages. They’re having a manic episode if you ask me. That solution sound good? xx

Edie

!!!!!??? SOUNDS INSANE. You’d do that?! I’m not sure ‘thank you’ quite matches the moment here … xxx

Elliot

Yep. Done. Money is a card trick. I’d rather have been there for you today. X

Edie’s tears had turned into heart-warmed, amused disbelief.

Why did his effort feel so good? It wasn’t the wealth, the jaw-droppingly grand quick fix, a power available to so few. Edie was good enough at interrogating her own vices and weaknesses to be sure of this. If anything, she found the might of the platinum American Express card overawing and worrisome, another huge gap between them. That was the method he’d used to repair her feelings; it wasn’t the meaning.

It was that Elliot had noticed she wasn’t all right and done something about it. It was amazing to be in a relationship with someone who noticed, then acted.

Edie

Hey, Elliot Owen, I think you might be, in an absolutely mind-blowing confirmation of your fans’ fevered imaginings … the perfect boyfriend? xx

Elliot

I think today alone demonstrates I’m really fucking not. But I’m very happy for you – *and my many fans* – to think that. xxxx

38

‘Should I still ask Declan to dinner given that I’ve seen him nude?’ Meg asked conversationally, over midweek cannellini, tomato, and kale stew, with sourdough toast.

They were doing a rewatch of the filmEdge of Tomorrow. (Meg was a fan of the Emily Blunt character. ‘I am Sergeant Rita Vrataski,’ she declared. ‘I’m always training up men who are shit at my job, and then they get all the kudos.’)

‘I don’t think having seen someone nude generally precludes seeing them socially again? Sometimes, it makes it even more likely,’ Edie said, swapping from fork to spoon. Meg had bought them beanbag lap trays for TV dinners, and Edie loved them, though she’d not be using it around her film star boyfriend.

‘Yes, when you’re having regular sexual intercourse with them, not when you see their penis by mistake in the middle of making banana and Marmite crumpets.’

‘Continuity: it was almond butter crumpets,’ Edie said. ‘Banana and Marmite is a bit of a first trimester combo – do you have anything to tell me?’

Meg paused. ‘Have I not lived in the world enough, or was it huge?’

Edie almost spat her stew. ‘Hahahaha. No, you’re right. Huge.’

Edie’s mind drifted to how you’d feasibly accommodate it, and she shut the thought down fast.

‘I think, on balance, I will invite him,’ Meg said, with impeccable comic timing, and Edie screeched.

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