I TEXTED CRESS, TOLD HER I was home.
She texted back, said she was relieved, which made me relieved.
I hadn’t been sure what to expect.
I wanted to see her. And yet we didn’t make a plan. Not in that first exchange. There was some distance there, some stiffness.
You sound different, Harry. Well, I don’t feel different.
I didn’t want her to think I was different.
A week later, some mates gave a dinner party. Welcome home, Spike! At my mate Arthur’s place. Cress turned up with my cousin Eugenie—a.k.a. Euge. I hugged them both, saw the shock on their faces.
They said I looked like a completely different person. Stockier? Bigger? Older?
Yes, yes, all that. But also something else they couldn’t name.
Whatever it was, it seemed frightening or off-putting to Cressida.
We agreed, therefore, that this wasn’t a reunion. Couldn’t be. Can’t have a reunion with someone you don’t know. If we wanted to keep seeing each other—and I certainly did—we’d have to start again.
Hello, I’m Cress.
Hello, I’m Haz. Nice to meet you.
