Page 24 of The Reboot
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Roly spottedElla the moment he walked into the coffee shop. She looked up as the bell over the door tinkled, and waved him over. He kept his head down as he made a beeline for her, his eyes swivelling right and left, automatically scanning the place. It was a habit, a hangover from the days when he was super-famous, though back then he was secretly hoping to get noticed. He’d loved being recognised in public, and had lapped up the attention. Being famous for crashing and burning was a different matter. But there were only a handful of customers, and no one paid any attention to him as he made his way to Ella’s table.
There was an awkward moment when she stood just as he bent to kiss her, and their faces crashed together clumsily.
‘Sorry,’ she said as they laughed and hugged. ‘I’m out of practice at this whole being a person in the world thing.’
He took a seat opposite her. ‘Sorry, am I late?’ She had a coffee in front of her, already half empty.
‘No, I was early.’
The waitress came over and barely glanced at him as she took their order, and Roly felt an irrational surge of irritation. Didn’t she know who he was? Didn’t anyone remember? How long had it been since he’d been approached by a stranger in the street? A few times lately he’d even had ‘before my time’ said to him when he mentioned Oh Boy! It was probably only a matter of time until he’d be getting ‘my mum used to love you’.
‘Wow, this is weird.’ He still couldn’t believe he was sitting here across from Ella after all these years. She hadn’t changed much. Her dark hair was still cut short, and she had the same big, clear eyes that could see right through you. She’d put on a bit of weight, though, same as him. Her face was plumper, more rounded, the bones of her jaw softer and less defined. He felt bad for finding that cheering. But Ella had always been so clever, so in control of her shit, that he’d felt like an also-ran next to her. He’d been nervous about meeting her today, in the shape he was in. This seemed to even things out a bit between them, and it was a relief.
‘Weird?’ She smirked.
‘I mean, it’s amazing to see you. It’s been…’
‘Almost ten years.’ She took a sip of coffee. ‘I worked it out after we messaged.’
‘Wow, that long?’
She nodded. ‘It was a real surprise to hear from you. I thought I’d seen the last of you.’
‘Hoped, you mean?’ Roly quirked an eyebrow, giving her a crooked smile. He’d been such a dick to her the last time they’d met. The shame of it broke over him like a wave.
‘No.’ She frowned. ‘Why would you say that?’
They were interrupted by the waitress returning with a frothy cappuccino for Roly, and another Americano for Ella. Roly smiled – in all things she was still so much more grown-up than him.
‘It was Christmas, right?’ he said after the waitress had gone. ‘At that pretentious bar on the Quays. I can’t remember what it was called…’
‘Fifth & Liquor?’
‘Oh yeah!’ He laughed. ‘You were wearing a silver dress. I had a terrible beard and wore the apparel of a hobo who’d fallen on hard times.’
‘Apparel!’ She laughed. ‘Where do you get this stuff?’
‘It’s a real word. Look it up.’
She frowned, looking confused. ‘That wasn’t the last time we saw each other, though.’
‘It wasn’t?’
‘There was that party at Marty’s, remember? Just before…’
His stomach plummeted. ‘Before the American tour.’ Did he remember? How could he forget? That party … the American tour he hadn’t gone on. ‘You were there?’ He didn’t recall her having been. But then, a lot of that night was a blank. ‘Did I see you?’
‘You don’t remember?’
‘Sorry. I was pretty out of it that night.’ That was an understatement.
‘We … I said hi, but we didn’t really talk.’
‘That was the night…’ He shook his head. He didn’t want to dwell on that. ‘Anyway, how have you been?’
She shrugged. ‘Not great. I wasn’t well for a long time.’
