Something Only We Know by Kate Long Read Free Book Online Page B

know them that well and they’re away travelling. Oh, hey, Owen, did you manage to get me a key cut?’
    ‘I did. It’s in the kitchen.’
    ‘Awesome.’
    There was a pained silence. I didn’t have a key.
    As Chelle went off to hunt, he reached across for my hand and drew me nearer. ‘This is great, isn’t it? It’s going to be so cool to be able to compare notes with someone from
the other side of the world. The global village in action. We’re going to have to make the most of Chelle while she’s here. There are so many questions I want to ask. Tonight she can
come down the Oak and I’ll introduce her to the crowd. You up for that, Jen?’
    ‘Well—’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Nothing. It’s my zumba class this evening.’
    Owen looked disappointed. ‘I thought it would be nice, all of us together.’
    ‘I suppose I can miss it, for once. What time?’
    ‘Eightish, here. Or if you’re late, we’ll see you in the Oak.’
    He pulled me down gently so I was sitting next to him.
    ‘Love that blouse on you, Jen. It makes me think of blood or rubies. Makes your hair look darker.’
    ‘You were the one who told me I looked good in red.’
    ‘I was right, then.’
    This was more like it. ‘Shut up and kiss me,’ I said. And he did. In the second before our lips met I smelt something sweet and malty, a lunchtime beer, overlaid with his
rosemary-scented vegan deodorant. I knew he’d have spent his morning writing to Amnesty or emailing an MP or leafleting passers-by about exploitation and greed, and I wanted to say,
I
understand you’re fighting the good fight and I love you for it, but, just sometimes, why can’t you be less interested in the world and more interested in me? Why can’t you be
ordinary-selfish like the rest of us?
    Because I am who I am, Jen,
I imagined him replying.
You knew that when you got involved.
    ‘Nearly forgot. I picked up this. I thought you’d like it,’ he said, drawing away from me and reaching inside his jeans pocket.
    When he opened his hand he was holding a pebble, pale cloud-pink and smooth with delicate cerise veins across the surface. I could see why it had caught his eye.
    ‘Pretty. Where did you get it?’
    ‘Down by the river. I thought it looked a bit like a heart.’
    He dropped it into my palm and closed my fingers round it.
    I laid my head against his chest and exhaled, letting out the complications of the morning. Rosa’s nastiness I vanished away easily enough, but imprints of Joe and Ellie’s profile
photos still hung about in my mind. I wished I could talk to Owen about the Pascoe business. In the past he’d been sympathetic about Helen and her problems and demands; in fact he had a whole
heap of opinions regarding the media’s portrayal of women’s bodies and the unrealistic claims made on young people to conform.
Listen,
I could say,
Hel’s asked me to
do a thing and it doesn’t feel right. Yet I’m flattered she came to me for help and I want to trust her. Will I do more harm than good? Do you think she’s being honest? Am I being
unfair to Ned? Is it possible to update on an ex and then walk away scot-free?
    But even as I ran through the questions I knew I wouldn’t be voicing them. Not to Owen, not to anyone. I was too unsure of what I was doing, too anxious over the morality of it. Simply
being here, though, being held close and letting my thoughts run freely was as good as a confession. Better, because there was no risk attached, no chance of judgement or a lecture. I clutched my
pebble and breathed into his shirt. I felt him stir against me.
    There was a commotion as Chelle marched back into the room and, without warning, pulled the table out from the wall, scraping it judderingly across the carpet. ‘That’s better.’
That’s bitter.
‘Uh, hullo? Guys?’
    With extreme reluctance I raised my head and pulled away from my boyfriend.
    ‘What?’
    She was standing above us, a power lead in her hands.