Page 7 of One Night With You

‘Okay fine,’ I say, sitting down beside him.

‘Hello!’ I begin, my voice brightening. ‘Nice to meet you … Bathsheba. I’m Nic. Yes, I’m here to buy your sofa …’

6

Ruby

‘What are theydoingout there?’ Candice says, holding the blind open with an elegant tanned finger and peering through. Jackson is waiting with the sofa guy to help him load the love seat into his taxi, and I peer over Candice’s shoulder to see them, just beyond the front hedge, sat in rapt conversation as if the pavement is their living room and the rest of the street is where they live.

‘Maybe Jackson is having a crack at the whip,’ I observe. ‘Nic might not fancy me, but one of you should get his number – you were right about his arse.’

‘And did you see the size of his feet?’ Candice exclaims, and I smile. We keep watching.

‘But nah,’ she decides. ‘Jackson is hot for the new intern at work still, isn’t he? Like, he’s actually serious about her. Besides, he always does this. Befriends the waifs and strays. I smell a dodgeball tournament in young Nic’s future …’

She’s referring to Jackson’s bi-weekly sports-fest, but I’vealready lost interest and turned my focus back to the job at hand. There’s still loads to do.

‘Hmm,’ I mumble.

With the love seat gone, the room looks massive. I never really had leeway for the slim two-seater sofa, but with the dining-cum-living-room being so small, and there being somebody in the kitchen literallyallthe time, if I ever did want some time to myself it was a choice between either sacrificing the space, or relaxing on my bed – and that felt a bit teenager-y. I’d seen the sofa in the window of our local charity shop and all three of us had carried it home, Jackson swearing blind the whole time it wouldn’t get through the door. But it did, and at the right angle in the corner, by the bay window, with a rug I got in Thailand and a little side table one of the neighbours had left out with a sign that said ‘TAKE ME!’, it’s my favourite place in the whole house. Well, was.

‘What shall we do about dinner?’ I ask, pushing a pile of boxes and a twinge of sadness away as I look around the now very echoey space. Jackson and Candice have been in such denial about me going that they haven’t bothered to look for my replacement, so the room will be empty until they find someone. They said they’re not worried, though. There’s enough cash in the housekeeping account to make up the shortfall and the box room normally gets let within twenty-four hours after the ad going live, so they reckon it will only take a few days to recruit their next housemate. I’m pretty sure they want to make sure this is still my home until the very last possible second.

We hear the front door go and Jackson’s head appears around it. Candice and I look up at the exact same time.

‘Hey,’ he says. ‘I’m going to help this guy take the sofa backto his place. Shall I pick up pizza on the way home? Sloppy Giuseppe’s on the Green?’

‘Not to sound rude or anything, but why are you helping him take the sofa home?’ Candice asks.

‘He needs help.’ Jackson waves. ‘And I’m a helpful person.’

‘Uh-huh.’ I laugh, reaching for my purse to give him my bank card. ‘Sure you are.’

‘I am!’ he says, flapping my card away from him, refusing to accept it. ‘Pizza, yes? The usual? My treat. As a parting gift.’

I blow him a kiss. ‘Thank you,’ I say. ‘I suppose you’ll be what? Half an hour? An hour?’

‘Yeah,’ Jackson says. ‘He’s only around the corner, and I’ll walk from there. Do you mind calling ahead? Put in the order? It’ll be quicker that way. I’m famished.’

‘Done, and done,’ says Candice, moving back to peer out of the window. Jackson sees her eyeing up the man outside.

‘He doesn’t have any friends here yet,’ Jackson notes. ‘I’m being neighbourly.’

It’s Candice’s turn to garble unconvinced noises.

‘Wow,’ defends Jackson. ‘Way to make a man feel protective about caring. I think it says more about you than me that it’s an issue …’

‘I’m going to ban you from reading that psychology magazine if you keep saying stuff like that,’ she says with a laugh, knowing he’s right. ‘Just go. You’re distracting us anyway!’

‘Back soon!’ he sings, the front door clicking open and closed once more. I hear a burst of laughter as he joins Nic back out on the street, and move to join Candice in scrutinising them again, trying to establish what’s so funny. I mean, fair play if Jackson is going to make a new friend. I feel atug of something at my heart at the thought. They’re allowed new friends, of course – it just stings I won’t be here. I have vague worries of being replaced, but don’t feel entitled to those worries since it’s by my own volition that I’m going.

‘He totally fancied you, you know,’ Candice says, her eyes pointed in continued observation of the two men and the sofa.

‘So youwerelistening from the other side of the door,’ I reply. ‘Unbelievable!’

She shrugs as if to say,well duh.

‘Ruby,’ she says, looking at me now. ‘I cannot emphasise enough just how much you need a sexual exorcism fromthat shit who shall not be named.You had it right within reach just then; all you had to do was ask him to stay for a spritz, and you lost it. He really would have been happy to oblige. I could tell.’

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