Page 47 of How To Not Need You

Ben grins. “True love.”

“Fuck off.”

“She stayed anyway though?” Ben asks.

“Yeah.”

“Even after your cooking?”

“Fuck off.”

He grins. “Just establishing the seriousness of the situation.”

Then I make the mistake of mentioning Hades and his unprecedented lap excursion.

Ben lowers the binoculars. “Hang on. The cat sat on her?”

“Yep.”

“The cat who bites you?”

“He doesn’t bite me.”

Ben just looks at me.

“Often.”

“Mate.”

“He’s complicated.”

Ben starts laughing. “Your cat likes your girlfriend more than he likes you.”

“Apparently.”

Ben is still laughing, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, when he says, more quietly, “You look happier, mate.”

I look down at my coffee.

“Yeah,” I say after a second. “I am.”

Ben doesn’t give me shit for it. Which is probably why I don’t immediately tell him to fuck off again.

Then his whole posture changes and the binoculars come back up.

“Target moving.”

I straighten. “Where?”

“Front door.”

I follow his gaze. She's wearing jeans and a light jacket, hair pulled back, grocery bags in both hands. Nothing about her stands out. If Luca hadn't shown us a photo, I'd never have noticed her.

“She just bought milk,” I say.

Ben doesn’t lower the binoculars. “Stand by.”

Then, before she reaches her car, a man appears from the direction of the shop. He’s taller than her, dark-haired, wearing a jacket I can’t make out the colour of from here. He says something.