‘I never said—’
‘You didn’t have to,’ Joe interrupted, sounding almost hurt. ‘Though you may just have inspired me to prove it.’
‘What’sthatsupposed to mean?’ Jude asked.
‘It means you should definitely consider an extended holiday,’ Joe said decisively. ‘Book a flexible return. Or better yet, a one-way ticket. Don’t plan on being back in Larry’s clutches until the autumn.’
‘I’ve told you, I can’t—’
‘As we’ve already established, you absolutely can,’ Joe insisted. ‘And while you typically avoid seeking any real insight from me,orasking for the advice you so clearly need, I urge you to trust me on this.’
Jude put his head in his hands, not caring that it made his thick-framed glasses dig into his cheeks. On paper, he was smarter than his brother, but these verbal gymnastics made his brain ache. Joe wouldn’t want to hear it, but in moments like these, sparring with him felt scarily reminiscent of wrangling with their mother. Jude was no match for either of them: he was sincere in nature, logical and mathematically minded. He’d always approached understanding the world, and its people, in the same way he’d analyse a complex data set – but the older he got, the more easily he saw the limits of this methodology. While it was possible to misinterpret numbers, they couldn’t set out to obfuscate, manipulate or mislead you in the way your fellow humans might. Numbers, unlike people, couldn’t lie.
‘I’d better go,’ Joe said. ‘I’m shooting some social content tomorrow, so I need my beauty sleep.’
‘OK,’ Jude said, still nonplussed by the turn the conversation had taken. ‘I guess I’ll see you next week.’
‘You will,’ Joe agreed. ‘Love you, brother.’
‘Love you too,’ Jude said.
‘Promise me you’ll think about what I’ve just said,’ Joe put in, a second before Jude could hang up. ‘I’m genuinely trying to help you, here – maybe in more ways than one.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Jude told him, ‘but yes. I’ll think about sticking around for a while, if I can.’
Less than five minutes after they said goodbye, he found himself typing his credit card details into the ‘pay now’ screen on the British Airways website. The extra fee for flight flexibility was eye-watering, but he had an odd feeling it would turn out to be a worthwhile investment.
3
‘Marc didn’t take it well, then?’ Charlie said on Monday as she and Hannah swooped to claim their favourite table at Space. It was a cafe-slash-co-working location equidistant from their homes, and somewhere they frequented when each of them had desk work to do and fancied company.
With reclaimed wooden chairs and benches, overstuffed velvet-covered cushions and shelves packed with vintage books, it said ‘cosy’. However, the extensive coffee menu and available-for-hire meeting rooms indicated that its typical clientele were self-employed, caffeine-fuelled creative types.
‘Nope,’ Hannah said, popping the ‘p’ for emphasis, then sucking on the striped paper straw that stuck out of her iced latte. She was part way through debriefing Charlie on the demise of her situationship with Marc, which she’d finished the previous afternoon. The exchange of gossip was always a necessary precursor to hours spent answering emails, trawling through booking enquiries and poring over accounts. Today, reporting more recent drama provided useful cover for her reluctance to continue their conversation about Jude. Since Saturday night, she’d had a strange sense that something insideher was threatening to unravel – like there was a loose thread in a place she’d thought was sewn up tight and one swift tug could tear it wide open.
She’d been quick to rubbish Livi’s theory that Ed’s relationship with Joe was in any way problematic, but her commitment to this ruse had been tested again yesterday by a WhatsApp from her brother that blithely mentioned they were moving in together.
Ed
Forgot to tell you, I’m giving up the flat at the end of this month – just in case you feel a random need to send me anything by snail mail.
Hannah had known what this meant, but pressed for more information anyway.
Ed
Making it official with J.
No point paying rent on somewhere else when I’m at his all the time, and it’s an easier commute to work . . . NGL, the en suite wet room, balcony and city centre locationare also a draw
??
Seized by the urge to ask awkward questions about whether he should sign a proper tenancy agreement, or what his rights would be if he and Joe split up, Hannah had shut her phone inside a drawer until she’d calmed down. She didn’t want to piss on Ed’s chips or start an argument with him, and she knew that, while concern about his legal status was reasonable, this wasn’t the root cause of her unease.
Neither Ed nor Joe had a history of romantic entanglements that lasted, but even before Ed’s announcement, Hannah had begun to suspect there might be some mileage in this one. She and her brother weren’t identical, but they’d entered the world only five minutes and thirty-two seconds apart; they were a pair, and she’d been his confidante since the moment he’d learned to speak. Lately, she sensed he had big feelings to share, and she’d deliberately avoided giving him the chance. Such evasiveness was entirely out of character for Hannah, and blew more holes in the ‘it’sfinethat they’re together!’ subterfuge.
‘Marc told me it was mad for us to break up, and that I needed to learn not to “run from love”,’ Hannah explained to Charlie. The more she made of this story, the less likely it was she’d face questions on other topics – ones she definitely didn’t want to answer. ‘He also said I obviously had daddy issues, then suggested he could help me work through them.’
‘Sounds smutty,’ Charlie sniggered.