Page 83 of The Weight Of It All
“But I’ll see you Friday morning for your usual gym session.”
“Yes you will.”
He leaned across the console and licked his lips before kissing me sweetly. “You smell really good,” he murmured. “Just how important is that conference call?”
I laughed. “Get out of my car.”
I left him on the footpath with a smile and a promise to talk later, and before I turned onto Darling Street, I called Anika. I told her all about my night, including running into Graham in Coles. “Reed said we were boyfriends and that I smell really good, and he really likes my suit, and I’m pretty sure he wanted me to spend the day with him.”
“He told Graham all of that?”
“No, just the boyfriend part. All the rest was later.”
“Henry, you know what this means?”
“What?”
“I need to meet him.”
“Oh.”
“It’s my obligatory right as your best friend.”
I drove a block in silence.
“Henry? You still there?”
“Yes. Just doing a mental step-by-step of worst case scenarios.”
Anika laughed. “It won’t be that bad.”
“I really like him, Neeky,” I whispered.
Her reply was just as soft. “I know you do.”
“This Sunday,” I suggested, “at the Bay Run. You can be there as they carry me across the finish line on an ambulance stretcher. You can meet him then.”
“Deal. Text me the details.”
“Of what? My private health cover details? The ambulance fees are included.”
She snorted. “No, the details of the run.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Love you, Henry.”
“Love you, too.”
I was goingto tell Reed that Anika wanted to meet him in one of our many texts or phone calls but figured it would be best done face to face. He’d been sequestered to have dinner with his parents on Thursday, so I didn’t get to see him until Friday morning when I arrived at the gym.
“Last training session before the big Bay Run this weekend,” Emily said as I walked in.
Ugh. “There was no newfound Mayan calendar that predicted the end of the world on Sunday morning by any chance?”
“Nope. Not that I’ve seen.”
“That’s a shame.”
