Page 67 of Weekends with You

“Cal, darling, this is exactly how you do a Warehouse Weekend. After the last time it was your turn and we spent the afternoon at the cinema and then in a brewery down the block, I wasn’t sure you had it in ya,” Liv said.

“I loved that brewery,” Jan said. “I think you did well by us, mate. Don’t listen to her.”

Cal laughed. “I figured since this was my last turn at this, I’d give it a good go.”

Unsurprisingly, Isla had accepted his proposal, and they were set to marry this time next year. He would be out of the apartment by summer, as soon as they closed on their house in Scotland, but we had yet to even consider finding a replacement.

“Well, then, let’s make it a good one,” Henry said. “Cal’s last hurrah as leader of the Warehouse Weekend. He deserves to go out with a bang, don’t you think?” He looked around at us for confirmation, and I kept my eyes locked on the concrete floor.

“To Cal!” Raja shouted, like she was proposing a toast. We echoed, laughing, then settled down so he could continue explaining.

“An honor, really,” he said. “Okay, so here’s how we’ll do this. We’ll pick pairs out of a hat or a bowl or a hollowed-out grapefruit rind or whatever we can find in this place, then the teams will get their lists and set off to find everything on it. First team back to the warehouse wins.”

“Wins what?” Finn asked. “What’s at stake here, Callum?”

“Bragging rights, of course,” he said. “But also... booze. What else is ever at stake in this place?”

“The man has a point,” Jan said, and we all agreed. “Let’s get to it, then.”

I felt like a kid at school when the teacher assigned a group project. I wanted to whine,But Cal, can we please choose our partners? There are some people in this class I just can’t be partners with. You understand, don’t you?

I held my breath as he and Margot scribbled our names onto slips of paper and shuffled them in an empty popcorn bowl we found on the table.

“Pair number one,” he said, pausing for effect. “Raja and Finn.”

Raja put Finn in a headlock like one might a little brother, tousling his orange hair with her long nails. “All right, Finny. We better win this thing,” she said.

“Do I ever lose?”

“Yes,” she said. “Literally all the time.” Most of us laughed, but I couldn’t do anything but stare at the bowl and wait for Cal to pull the next pair.

“Me and Jan,” he said, nodding to Jan.

“Let’s rock,” Jan said, shooting finger guns at him.

“All right, and next we have...” He fumbled two pieces in his hands, struggling to unfold them both while also holding the bowl. “Lucy and Henry.”

I let a curt laugh escape at the sound of our names paired together before trying to disguise it by clearing my throat. “Grand,” I said, mostly to myself.

“Couldn’t have planned this better, could ya, Cal?” Jan said, crooked smile growing wider by the minute. Cal turned his palms toward us, pleading innocence.

“Don’t blame me, mate. It was all up to chance.”

“Maybe we should play the lottery today,” Finn said. “Reckon with these odds, we might win something.”

“All right, all right, that’s enough,” Henry said. “You’re all just nervous you’re going to lose, aren’t ya?”

“To you two?” Jan asked. All eight of us shared a knowing glance that made me want to melt into the floor.

I wasn’t sure how everyone knew about what happened, but in a tight-knit friends-turned-family situation, it wasn’t really a surprise that they did. Not that that made it any less embarrassing.

“Jan, I said that’s enough, mate,” Henry said, a bit firmer this time.

“Well, then,” Cal said. “That only leaves Liv and Margot.” Both seemed excited to be paired up, since they were the most likely to become dangerously competitive.

Cal distributed our lists, a mix of ingredients for charcuterie and a proper roast dinner, even though it was a Saturday.

“And we can do booze after we get home, once we have a winner. Are we ready, then?”

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