Page 81 of Inbetweeners
“Yes, but they didn’t taste as good. Nothing tasted as good.”
Why did I even ask?“Maybe that was your fault.” Though he winced after he’d said it.
“It probably was. Depression taints everything, and yes, I know that compared to you I had nothing to be depressed about, but that doesn’t make the way I felt any less valid. I didn’t register that I was depressed. I think I was in denial.”
Emmett had nothing to be fucking miserable about, but depression was a hungry dog and it didn’t care why it ate at you. Nix understood that.
Emmett purchased drinks, and they sprinkled salt and vinegar over their meals before the woman wrapped up the cardboard containers.
“Are you okay?” Nix asked as they headed for the river.
“Bit of a headache.”
“Why did you need a shower when you got back?”
“I got Rashid’s blood all over me. He’d managed to phone the police just before he was killed. When they turned up, we had to make a quick getaway. Well,Idid, but I had to bring him with me.”
“What are we supposed to do with two of them?”
“Rashid’s gay. You can see Harry likes him. So…”
Nix laughed. “A matchmaking grim reaper?”
Emmett shrugged. “The pair of them moving on together might be a good thing.”
“Is Rashid Muslim? Do they have a different Heaven?”
“No. Religion is almost immaterial as far as the afterlife is concerned. I didn’t believe in any higher power, but I still ended up there. Harry and Rashid seem nice enough guys. Unless they’re hiding some dark secret, I guess they’ll go to Heaven.”
Nix sat down on a bench overlooking the water and Emmett dropped down beside him.
“Did more memories come back after what happened last night?”
“After I died?” Emmett nodded. “Yes. Bits and pieces. I remember my parents’ names now. Jane and Darren Briscoe. So, my surname too. I remember where I worked.”
“What did you do?”
“I was an actuary.”
“You calculated the chances of something happening and the financial cost if it did.”
Emmett glanced at him.
Nix shrugged. “I’m not stupid.” He handed Emmett his parcel of food and one of the cans of shandy. “Did you like what you did?”
“Yes. But…” Emmett picked up a long, fat chip and bit it.
Nix watched his face as he chewed, then stuffed a chip into his own mouth before Emmett noticed he was staring.
“I’m wondering if being an actuary made me dull. Or if I’d have been dull, in any case.”
“I don’t think you’re dull. Not all the time.”
“Fucker.” But Emmett chuckled.
“Did you go on and on about your work?”
“Only when I’d found something that excited me. But actuaries don’t have a rep for being excited about what they do. They just produce an infinite variety of data calculated with extreme precision for clients who generally don’t even fully take in the reports they write, because half the time they’re incomprehensible.”
