Page 97 of People In Love
Josie takes her eyes from the green and instead rests them on Nora.
Clearly Bren isn’t ready for that, she says. But you are, I think.
Except Nora cannot bear the thought of scattering Jon’s ashes, now, after everything, and she has her phone in her hand with the missed calls from Goose, so she says I actually need to get back to Robin, now, Jose. I was just going to call him, and as she says it, her phone actually rings, and it is Goose again, so she turns her back on Josie to answer.
Nora? he says, and his voice crackles with the sparse signal. Yes, she says, and he asks her, straight out, what the hell is wrong with my brother?
Panic, again, just like when Robin left. Heart jacked up, nausea. She wants to go and lie down, or run a mile. Either, she thinks, would be better than feeling so jammed.
He’s a wreck, Goose is saying, without waiting for her answer. He turned up at my flat an hour ago and shut himself in the guest room.
Can I speak to him?
He’s out cold, Nora! Like he’s sleeping off a hangover! What the hell happened at that lunch? Where are you?
At Freya’s, still, she says, fraught. He said he was going home.
Well, he came here, instead.
I’ll get on the next bus over.
I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Goose says. He clearly wants some space.
Then how do Ifixit, Nora cries, desperate now, and she can feel through the phone that Goose can’t deal with this; his distress softens, at the sound of her own.
Look, he says. Let him sleep on it. I’m sure it’s recoverable.
Nora clutches the phone to her ear, hoping he’s right.
Will you tell him I love him, please? That this was all just a – really big – misunderstanding?
Goose is quiet, then. Bad line, bad feeling.
Wasit, though, he asks. He told me about the venue.
I know, but –
I think he’s sick with stress, Nora. I’ve never seen him like this.
Then let me talk to him!
I’ll keep him here overnight, he says, but send him home for breakfast. If he’ll listen to me. I hate saying this, man, he says, and Nora is crying now, silently, as he says but if you love him like you say you do? I think you need to do some serious damage control, here.
I know that, Nora thinks. That’s theplan. But she can’t explain it to Goose, first, before she can explain it to Robin himself.
Just tell him I’ll be waiting, Nora says. First thing, at our flat?
But the line is crackling again, and he’s saying more things when the call cuts out and Josie is left saying her name.
Is everything all right, she asks, tentative, and then it is Nora’s turn to break in this driveway, with Josie’s twig-like arms around her as she rocks her back and forth before ushering her inside, saying what aday, Nora, good grief. What a day.
_
She checks her phone while Josie makes tea. Sends a text to Robin, tries to call him, leaves a voicemail.I love you, I’m sorry, I’ll set everything straight, I promise. The rain has started to fall now, taps on the window while Josie slices cake, carries it to the dining room on two patterned plates.
It’s not the roast lamb we were hoping for, I’m afraid, she says, still in her anorak. She leaves the room to hang it up, comes back again. Nora sits, watching it all, her world spinning slowly. Her phone, blank. Cake forks, two teacups. The black urn of Jon on the bookshelf, watching her back.
I texted your mother, Josie says, as she pours the tea, but she wanted to be with her tomatoes.
