Chapter 13 #2
‘I know. We will. It’s just not happened yet.
We’ve had to cut short a few of our dates because I’ve had to get an early night for work, and after our bottomless brunch date, neither of us were in a fit state to be ripping off each other’s clothes.
He’s going to stay at mine after the dinner party, so I guess that’s when it’ll happen. ’
‘It should. I don’t get how you can be our age and calling anyone your boyfriend if you haven’t had sex yet.’
‘Don’t worry. It won’t be for long.’ I arch an eyebrow. ‘So, cards on the table, Jordan in bed. Anything I need to know?’
‘Ew, Lizzie! Didn’t we all agree not to do this?’
‘What? It’s a bonus of going out with the same person. You can give me a heads up, so I know what to expect. You don’t need to tell me anything in detail, just a little steer, if there are going to be any surprises in store, that kind of thing.’
She pretends to think about it, making a meal of tapping her finger on her lip, her eyebrows scrunched together. ‘Fine,’ she says eventually. ‘I can promise you there’s nothing to worry about in that department. All very nice, no issues.’
Nice isn’t exactly the same as saying he’s amazing or he’s incredible or he’s the most gifted lover she’s ever had the luck to be with, but I can live with nice. Actually, maybe an overly positive recount would be worse? We really didn’t think this part of the plan through.
‘That’s good.’
I’m ready to move the conversation on, to get back to my monumental shopping list, but a thought crosses my mind, one I’ve had more than once since meeting Jordan. Before I have time to work out that it’s perhaps a bad idea to find out, the words are already falling out of my mouth.
‘What was it with Jordan? I know you said you liked him and it just wasn’t the right time because he was off travelling, but what was it really? What was the ick?’
Karina’s quiet for so long I’m sure she’s going to tell me that there was nothing, which I know is a lie because she keeps telling us how Matthew is the only person she’s ever been out with who hasn’t made her skin crawl at some point in their relationship.
‘OK,’ she finally says after coming to some sort of internal agreement with herself.
‘I never told you this, because it’s shallow and a ridiculous reason for dumping someone, but part of the reason I broke up with Jordan was that on our last date he spent the entire night, from the starters on, with green stuff in his teeth.
‘He went to the bathroom three times while we were together. Three! And not once did he check while he was in there if his teeth were OK. I couldn’t get over it, like who doesn’t check their teeth on a date?
It’s shallow, I know, but it was the beginning of the end for us.
The fact he was going travelling just gave me an easy out.
If he’d have stayed here, I’d have still had to break up with him.
I was worrying way too much about what else he doesn’t do when he’s in the bathroom. ’
I stop the trolley in the middle of the aisle and turn to her, so she can see the outrage on my face. ‘No, Karina. No, no, no. You cannot be telling me stuff like that this early on into me being with Jordan!’
‘What? You asked. Did you want me to lie?’
I answer straight away. ‘Yes! Anything would have been better than that. Jesus, now I’m going to be thinking about his teeth and bathroom habits all night. I could get the ick too, and then that’s another relationship down the pan.’
Karina’s mouth straightens into a teeth-baring grimace. ‘Sorry. You’re right. I absolutely shouldn’t have told you that.’
‘It’s fine,’ I tell her. ‘God, I should have stopped at knowing he’s good in bed. Just don’t spend the whole night staring at his teeth, OK?’
She laughs lightly, which I take to mean she’s promising nothing.
‘Deal. You know, I’m kind of nervous about seeing him after all this time.
Not because there are feelings there, obviously,’ she’s quick to add.
‘I guess when you break up with someone, you draw a line under that part of your life, no matter how long it lasted. It’s strange to be going back and erasing it, to be seeing someone you thought you’d never come across again. I don’t know how you and Elliot do it.’
‘Remember, Elliot and I never broke up, so we avoided that weirdness when he started dating Teddy.’
‘Hmmm, I suppose,’ she says, lightly, and I allow myself to bask in the feeling of satisfaction that even though Elliot dating Teddy has been very weird at times, I’ve clearly done a good job of hiding it from everyone.
‘Come on,’ I tell her. ‘We need to get moving. God knows what aisle they keep gelatine sheets in.’
We keep going, working our way through the ingredients we’ll need, and I’m so focused on getting everything and getting the hell out of here, it takes a while to notice that Karina is looking at me more than the shelves, and has a worried expression on her face.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing. I was just thinking, that’s all.’
‘Careful with that, Kar,’ I tell her, before moving on.
‘I was thinking if I’m nervous about seeing Jordan, what if everyone else is feeling the same, and maybe it was selfish of me to insist on us all getting together.’
I put my phone down by my side and turn to face her.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but now the dinner party is nearly here, I’m off-the-chart nervous.
Nervous to be attempting to pull off a dinner party in the first place when having friends round to mine for food before now has always involved Uber Eats, nervous knowing that Jordan and I are most likely going to be sleeping together for the first time after everyone has gone, but most of all, nervous to be seeing Teddy and Elliot together.
Seeing Teddy at Elliot’s door was enough to send me into a spin.
Having them together in my flat, kissing and cuddling, is going to be a lot.
Although my head is telling me I’m fine with this, that I’m happy, I can’t help my stomach dropping a little whenever I think about it.
I can’t tell Karina that though, not when we’re so close to it happening, and not when she’s looking so worried.
‘No, of course it’s not selfish. It’s a good idea.
It is. We should be able to hang out together.
I don’t want us to always keep our love lives separate.
It’s what we’ve all got used to, but it sucks, and it shouldn’t be the case.
I want us to all go on hiking holidays together and try fondue just as much as you do, OK? ’
Karina holds up her hands, but she no longer looks worried. ‘Easy there. I think we should see how tomorrow goes first before we start looking at six-person tents. You’re not nervous then?’
‘No,’ I lie. ‘But then again, it’s different with me and El. He’s already texted me three times today giving me tips about how to stop my beef going dry, so we’re good.’
‘I suppose it is,’ she agrees, before a grin breaks out across her face. ‘I can’t wait to see Elliot and Teddy tomorrow. I bet they’re so cute together. Cuter than even me and Matthew, and that’s saying something.’
‘I don’t believe that.’
‘Oh, you should. They are so into each other. Didn’t either of them tell you that Elliot’s asked Teddy to go away for the weekend?
With his entire family, no less. A wedding or an anniversary or something.
How sweet is that? There’s no way he’d do that unless he was really into her.
I’ve got to hand it to you, you played a blinder setting her up with Elliot, Lizzie. ’
‘Sure did,’ I mumble before lifting my phone and staring at the words of the list, trying to focus on what else I need to get.
Suddenly, it feels like this is all taking too long.
It’s hot, and I’m tired and desperate to get out of here.
I move on, Karina following after me. I give her instructions of what to get, and we decide what alternatives we can use when it turns out there’s no molasses or barberries to be found, but we keep our focus on getting everything done, or at least that’s what it looks like.
In my mind, I can’t stop replaying what Karina’s just told me.
A weekend away?
Teddy and Elliot are going on a weekend away? That’s a pretty big step in anyone’s book, and I can’t believe I didn’t know about it.
Why would they have hidden something like that from me?