Page 74 of You Belong With Me

‘No, I’m splurging on Premium Economy. Walk-up bar, adjustable head rest and complimentary prosecco on take-off,’ Edie said, doing V for victory fingers.

‘You’re splurging? Elliot not treating you?’ Nick said, with the nosiness rights of a close associate.

‘He offered, but I wouldn’t let him,’ Edie said. She felt a gallery of eyes on her and was concerned in case they thought she was covering for him being tight or thoughtless. ‘Elliot offers to pick up the tab a lot, and it makes me uneasy.’

After Elliot had made a failed bid to cover her travel, she dwelled again on why money was disproportionately excruciating. She supposed it was because it was their greatest, forever unfixable disparity. It even bizarrely brought back long buried memories of hiding how poor they’d become after her dad’s breakdown as a schoolkid. She couldn’t fathom the connection until she remembered she thought other pupils wouldn’t want to be friends with her if they knew their phone sometimes got cut off and that she had a stale piece of cake in her lunchbox.

Obviously, Elliot would never judge or reject her, but every time finances came up, she felt it hung a lantern over how unlikelytheywere as friends. Edie couldn’t be his act of charity.

‘You’re so ethical,’ Nick said. ‘I’d be mincing about, dripping in jewels. Or at least the check wool coat I want from Private White.’

‘I shudder at being a kept woman,’ Edie said, grinning.

Declan rubbed his shoulder and studied her intently. His eyes had a heaviness, and Edie hoped she’d not misjudged how much of her private self she was parading in front of a colleague. He was a fantastic person, but Edie had made this mistake before.

‘May our great feminist forebears strike me down, but so what if Elliot pays for a few things, if you’re equal in general? He’s rich, so you don’t have to be,’ Hannah said.

‘It’s that …’ Edie said, looking at a flickering tea light, ‘I don’t ever want him to resent me or respect me less.’

‘He knows who you are,’ Hannah said, and Edie smiled at her in gratitude.

‘Anyone want a coffee?’ she said, getting to her feet.

39

While she was waiting for the kettle to boil, Edie had an alert that Elliot had posted on Instagram. His presence there remained smoothly professionally anodyne, unlike Fraser’s, which was exuberant and unruly, an accurate reflection of their respective taste.

‘Fraser’s Instagram is set private,’ Elliot said once, ‘in the sense that you have to request to follow him. However, given the conditions for acceptance seem to besending him a request to follow him, I don’t know why he bothers.’

Elliot had shared a ravishing red-gold sunset, seen from the Old Town, which had 7,412 likes. There was also a new post on Fraser’s grid.

Ruh roh – English girls hen do in the next villa found out my brother’s here

With a stomach plunge, Edie examined a photo of Elliot being flashmobbed by scores of girls in varieties of miniscule swimwear. They were hanging off him, arms draped roundhim, taking selfies. She felt the kind of sudden jealousy pang where your stomach contracts and your skin goes cold-hot.

She screen-grabbed it so she could zoom in, squinting at the many stunning bodies on show. Shimmering body cream on tanned limbs, no hair below eyebrows, belly button jewellery. Edie had never felt so pale, under-waxed, soft fleshed, and unadorned.

(Irrational, given there was no one on earth who’d demonstrated a greater enthusiasm for her body than the man in the middle of that photograph. ‘My, er, structure is so different to yours,’ she once said, concerned about being made of yielding wobble instead of taut muscle, and Elliot had replied: ‘That’s how heterosexuality works?’)

As soon as the sight of the Austin Powers entourage afflicted her, she surprised herself by almost bursting out laughing. It was intimidating, yes, but above all, it was absurd. The scene only needed some Yakety Sax, and it wasn’t actually anything to worry about. If she lost him, she had a feeling it wouldn’t be to a Henrietta from Farnham in a Melissa Odabash triangle bikini.

It’d be to someone else famous,her traitor brain whispered, uninvited.Your sort is a one-off deal. Your quota is filled. Check cast lists for suspects.

She sent the image to its subject.

Wow, just wow. Guess that’s bye from me, then? Disgusting, Elliot. Like the Costco Hugh Hefner.

Edie ended it with a row of three litter dropping emojis, to avoid confusion about whether she meant it. She had done this for real not so long ago, and Elliot could be forgiven for being wary.

He replied:

Is making new friends a crime now?

SMH.

Edie

If you’re ‘friends’, what are you talking about?

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