Page 151 of Where Do We Go From Here?
‘No, you first.’
‘This friend of hers, in Brighton…’ Harry says.
‘You’re thinking she might be more of a friend-friend,’ Wendy says, smiling at the memory of the terrible marriage guidance counsellor.
‘Yes!’ Harry says. ‘Exactly.’
‘When did it first cross your mind?’
‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘Maybe at Todd’s wedding. You know, when he said?—’
‘… that swapping clothes might give her game away?’ Wendy says, finishing his phrase for him.
‘Yes. Exactly then!’ Harry says. ‘I mean, that could have just been banter. But…’
‘You think Todd knows something we don’t?’
‘Well, it would appear that we kind of do know,’ Harry says.
‘I’d thought about it before, actually,’ Wendy says. ‘Ages ago. It’s more like a slow dawning, really. But I did pick up on that, too – when he said that. I wasn’t at all sure it was just a joke.’
‘You think she might be seeing this Ada girl?’
‘Maybe,’ Wendy says. ‘I haven’t really thought about it a great deal, because I suppose it doesn’t worry me much either way.’
‘No,’ Harry says. ‘But it worries me if she thinks she can’t tell us.’
‘Yes, I know what you mean,’ Wendy says. ‘But she knows that I’m friends with Manon. And we’ve never said anything that would, you know… I mean, I’m sure she knows we’re not rabid homophobes.’
‘Yeah, I’m sure she knows we’d be cool.’
‘But, you know, I think they’re a lot more flexible about these things, these days. I remember Todd saying a couple of his friends were flexi.’
‘Youmean they do yoga?’
‘No, I mean?—’
‘Joke, Wendy. Joke.’
‘Right! So this is where we turn,’ she says, pointing. ‘The track up starts over there.’
‘Gosh, sporty girl!’ Harry says. ‘Get you.’
‘Yep,’ Wendy says. ‘Who knew?’
When they reach the final plateau, Harry bends over and rests his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
‘You OK there, hon?’ Wendy asks, doing her best not to sound out of breath herself. The walk up became vaguely competitive, probably because Harry is so used to being ‘the fit one’.
‘Yeah, it’s just further than I thought,’ he says. ‘And bigger.’
‘Bigger?’
‘Yeah,’ he says, straightening and looking up at the radar sphere towering above them. ‘I imagined it as sort of small-car-sized, but it’s massive.’
‘And the view,’ Wendy says, turning to face the coast. ‘Look.’
‘Yeah, amazing,’ Harry says, ‘… reminds me of Greece.’
