Page 64 of One Night With You

‘That was AMAZING,’ Ruby says, as we clamber back into the car at nearly 6 p.m. We’ve been playing for six hours, and every time I’ve caught a glimpse of her, she’s genuinely looked invested – in fact, it was me who said to her it was time to go. We’ve enjoyed the same day today, but haven’t had enough one-on-one time, which I’m now keen to rectify.

‘I cannot tell you attractive it is that you got into it,’ I say, and she looks up with wide eyes from where she’s fixing her seatbelt. I lean in and kiss her.

‘Mm,’ she says. ‘I was wondering when you were going to do that.’

‘Were you now?’ I say, and she grins.

‘So, what shall we do now?’

‘Well …’ I reply. ‘We’re actually pretty close to another place I love, if you want the full Nic Sheridan experience.’

‘Of course I do,’ she says. ‘Show me everything you love, please.’

I click in my own belt buckle.

‘Yes, ma’am,’ I reply.

I take her to the boardgame café.

‘Because if you’re going to know what really thrills me,’ I tell her as we arrive, ‘you may as well know that after a hard day’s LARPing, I like nothing better than a couple of Vik’s malt milkshakes and a round of Cluedo.’

‘I can’t believe there’s a whole café dedicated to playing boardgames,’ she says. ‘That’s genius.’

‘Isn’t it?’ I enthuse. ‘I’ve been coming here for as long as I can remember. Maybe since I was thirteen? I’ll bet there are some games here as old as we are, maybe older.’

‘Aww,’ she says. ‘Little teenage Nic!’

‘I was a car crash, really,’ I admit, as we wander through the low and dim lighting of the main part of the café to the back, where you can stay as long as you want as long as you keep ordering food and drink. We pick a corner with two small sofas facing each other, a low wooden table between them. I give a gesture that says,after you.She takes off her coat and hands it to me, saying, ‘If you put that over there for me, you can sit here?’

I follow her lead.

We order grilled cheese toasties and a couple of malt milkshakes and look through the games under our table to see what we fancy. There’s Scrabble, Cluedo, Monopoly, Backgammon and theFriendsversion of Trivial Pursuit.

‘Go on then,’ she says. ‘What were you like when you were thirteen and coming here at the weekends?’

I think about it. ‘Braces,’ I say, and she replies, ‘Of course. Same.’

‘I had mates at school and stuff, some I stay in contact with even now. I wasn’t a loner, but I didn’t really stand out.I went with the flow, kept my head down, never really caused a scene but never got the spotlight either. I very quietly got great grades and then slipped off to university.’

‘Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?’ she asks.

I consider it. ‘Probably good, overall,’ I say. ‘I think your school years can traumatise you, can’t they? Either because you never reach those dizzying heights of popularity again, or you get bullied and spend your life never really being able to forget it.’

‘School was an escape for me,’ she says. ‘When Mum and Dad split up, they were both pretty miserable for a while, so me and my sister found all these different reasons to be out of the house: school, breakfast club, hockey, chess, drama – you name it. We ended up being the most extra-curricular girls in the school’s history, we did that much.’

I cock my head to look at her. She’s laughing, but: ‘That’s so sad!’ I say, giving her shoulder a nudge. ‘Ruby. Not feeling like you ever wanted to go home. I wouldn’t wish that on any kid.’

‘Me neither,’ she says. ‘It got a bit better once Mum remarried, but then Dad married Dee. They’re still together, though Lord knows why because they don’t seem to even like each other that much. And Dee hates us. We joke about it, but it’s been the same since I can remember. I’m fairly certain she tried to have her own kids with Dad and couldn’t, so her resentment for us got even worse. In the end we stopped going around, you know – when we were old enough to put our foot down.’

‘You see him now?’ I ask, picking up my malt milkshake and using the soggy paper straw to stir the dregs. It was better back when I was a teenager and we could have plastic ones that didn’t disintegrate, even though I prefer a planet not dying from unrecyclable overconsumption.

‘Occasionally,’ she says. ‘I try to go over when I know Dee is out. He doesn’t really do a lot. Watches TV, mostly.’

‘And your mum and stepdad?’

‘I see them more,’ she says. ‘Yeah. Though I have been a bit naughty and not really been home as much as I should have since I moved up here. The course has been so all-absorbing. I know it’s selfish, but I haven’t wanted to tear myself away.’

‘I’m sure they understand. Especially knowing you’re so happy.’

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