‘Scandal, Grey’s or Murder?’ Liane asked Issey.
Issey was sitting at the dining table, her laptop open in front of her and a pile of books on her left.
‘Hmm?’ she said, glancing up and then back at her screen.
‘When you’ve finished that,’ Liane said, gesturing at Issey’s laptop. ‘Do you want to watch Scandal, Grey’s or How to Get Away with Murder?’
‘Or maybe something not Shonda?’ Issey said.
‘I mean, I can see how you might think that would be an option, but nah,’ Liane said.
Issey grinned. ‘Grey’s? An old one, though. One of the horrifying season finales.’
‘Plane crash? Shooter?’
Issey frowned at her screen. ‘Plane crash, maybe? I feel like a good cry.’
‘Plane crash it is,’ Liane said.
‘Haven’t you got any work to do?’ Issey asked her after she’d typed six words into her own document.
Liane was lying on the sofa, but she propped her head up on the arm. ‘We’ve got this seminar project, but I can’t get hold of the girl who’s meant to be doing the reading list, so I’m stuck until she calls me back.’
Issey typed another few words and then Liane said, ‘I mean … I could probably start my statistics essay, but …’ She rolled on her back.
‘I can’t be bothered,’ Liane said passionately.
Issey grinned. ‘I know that feeling.’
‘Can we go out instead?’ Liane said, rolling back onto her belly. ‘Do you have to finish that now? What if you just, you know, didn’t. And instead we go and get pissed.’
‘I really need to finish this,’ Issey said. ‘I’m sorry. We can have a bottle of wine with the plane crash though. If you like?’
Liane groaned. ‘I guess. I just wanted to get out of here. I feel like I’m going stir-crazy.’
‘You’ve only been home a couple of hours!’ Issey said.
‘Feels like years.’
Issey laughed. ‘OK. Just shut up for a bit, yeah, and I’ll finish this and it’ll be plane crash and wine time.’
‘Fine,’ Liane said.
Issey tried to work on her essay, but once she started thinking about being on the sofa with Liane, drinking wine and crying over Grey’s, she couldn’t concentrate. She felt like she was just getting more and more confused. She thought maybe she wanted Liane to kiss her again. No. She definitely wanted Liane to kiss her again. But clearly Liane didn’t want that. But she still wanted to be friends. Best friends. And Issey wanted that too. She just wasn’t sure how that could possibly work.
She closed her laptop.
‘I’m never going to get this done tonight.’
‘Yay!’ Liane said, waving both arms in the air. ‘Plane crash!’
At work in the pub, Paige’s mobile hadn’t stopped ringing all night. Well, she’d stopped it ringing, but it was still buzzing on the shelf behind her. She’d ended up putting it face-down since every time she saw the notifications on the screen it made her stomach lurch. Her dad kept telling her the house sale was going through, everything was in order. He’d sounded good every time she’d spoken to him, but she was still waiting for the time he didn’t.
‘Boyfriend?’ Jonny asked, eventually. ‘Just tell him to do one. Easier.’
‘Not a fucking boyfriend,’ Paige said and then glanced round to make sure none of the customers were listening.
Paige shook her head. ‘My dad.’
Jonny sucked a breath through his teeth, dragging a cloth across the top of the bar. ‘Family are the worst.’
Paige laughed. ‘No shit, Sherlock.’
‘Anything I can help with?’
A customer came to the counter before Paige could answer and she served them, thinking about how maybe she should have asked someone – probably not Jonny, but someone – for help in the past. How her tendency to try to deal with everything on her own had never really worked for her. How, even though her dad seemed to be doing OK, she couldn’t let herself trust that he really was.
The customer went to sit in what Paige now thought of as the girls’ snug – even though they hadn’t actually been in the pub for a few weeks; they were all too busy. Paige turned back to her boss.
‘There’s nothing you can do, no. But thanks for asking.’
‘No problem.’
‘But I do need money, so if you could throw some extra shifts my way?’
‘You’re already doing as many as I’ve got,’ he said, shrugging. ‘And I’m already worried about how you’re fitting your uni work in.’
Paige smiled. ‘You’re not my dad.’
‘Shut it, you,’ Jonny said. And then went back to his office.
Paige wasn’t really fitting her uni work in. She was squeezing it in last thing at night and between shifts. And she was skipping lectures and getting notes from a couple of different people on her course, but she could tell it was starting to piss them off. But there was no way around it.
She just had to keep going until she didn’t have to any more.
‘Oh shit, who’s that?’ Issey said from the sofa, where she and Liane were gripped by McDreamy, his arm trapped in the detached plane door while Cristina searched for her shoe.
Someone was ringing the bell.
‘I’m not getting it,’ Liane said. She was lying on the other sofa, her feet up on the arm.
Issey laughed, swinging her legs down. ‘Maybe you should,’ she said, as she headed out of the room. ‘Stop them coming back again.’
She could hear Ella and Nick’s laughter as she passed Ella’s room. Maybe she’d knock on the way back up. She hadn’t talked to Nick much and she thought he should come and meet her and Liane, tell them his intentions towards Ella. She grinned to herself at the thought. Ella would kill her.
Issey opened the door.
‘Hey,’ Nick said.
Issey grinned, stepping out of the way to let Nick in. She could smell the cold air on his big black coat.
‘I didn’t hear you leave,’ Issey said, as she turned back towards the stairs.
‘No,’ Nick said. ‘I just got here.’
‘I was just thinking you should come up and have a chat with me and Liane,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘She’s got a face mask on so she looks like shit, but –’
Before they’d even got to the landing, Issey could hear a male voice coming from Ella’s room. She stopped on the landing and Nick stopped just behind her.
‘Fuck off, Els!’ the male voice said. Ella giggled. And then the boy did too.
Issey turned to Nick, holding her hands up. ‘I’m sorry. I thought – She said it was –’
‘Fuck,’ Nick said, his cheeks flushing pink, eyes wide. He turned and headed back down the stairs, Issey following.
‘I brought her a coffee,’ he said once they were back at the door. He held out a cardboard cup from Bean. ‘She brought me one at work the other day and she said she was studying, so …’ He ran his other hand back through his hair, which had already been sticking up at mad angles and was now an absolute disaster. Issey wanted to smooth it back down. She took the coffee instead.
‘Nick, I’m sure –’
‘No, it’s OK.’ He shook his head and tried to pull open the door. ‘We never said – I just assumed – Shit, I can’t open –’
‘You need to turn the lock at the same time,’ Issey said. She handed him the coffee and opened the door.
‘Can you give her that?’ Nick said, giving her the coffee back again. ‘I’m gonna go. Thanks.’
He pulled the door closed behind him.
‘Shit,’ Issey said to the closed door.