And George, who likes to shoplift and insult people, who relishes old ladies slipping in wet weather and cats being stuck up trees, pats her arm and says, ‘You’re all right, Betty,’ and he means it.

Dan

(I could do with a friend right now)

DAN IS UP AT five on the day of the Ironman. He goes downstairs and wakes Luke, who’s half on the sofa and half off it. He had turned up with a fading red cheek and a broken heart the night before. ‘She hit me, Dan,’ he said. ‘She really hit me.’

‘Shit.’

Lizzie was obviously complicated and not at all suitable for Luke. Dan couldn’t help thinking his cousin had had a lucky escape. He didn’t tell him that, of course. He tried to be a friend, and a counsellor, but he had problems of his own. Atticus had slipped off the radar. Was it something Dan did, or didn’t do? Was Atticus bored with Dan? Had he met somebody better? Dan had found himself staring at his phone while Luke wittered on about how he was sure Lizzie ‘had been the one’ and they’d had ‘a real connection’. She obviously wasn’t, and they obviously hadn’t. But, then, if Luke knew about Atticus and Dan, would he be thinking the same of them?

What a pair they were, sitting on the sofa, sharing shots of tequila, nursing broken hearts and bruised egos.

He’d texted Atticus yet again over twelve hours ago:

Atticus. I love you. Please be at the finish line of the Ironman tomorrow to meet all my family. As my boyfriend. As my future. Love, Daniel xx

Again, Atticus hadn’t replied. He’d left Dan hanging and it was killing him. Dan wanted to go round to his flat but Luke would wonder where he was going. Luke, his cousin. His best friend. He couldn’t abandon Luke in his hour of need. All he could do was stare at his phone, hoping it would ring.

The drive to the event is full of curt sentences about preparations, and when they arrive there is no more talking. This is what they have trained for. Their big moment. Dan is going to do the Ironman, and then he’s going to tell his family he’s a gay man. He imagines Atticus at the finish line. Atticus waiting for him every night. Atticus moving his stuff in, or Dan moving to his place. Atticus wearing a thin gold band on his ring finger.

The Ironman, the hardest thing Dan thought he’d ever do, seems easy now. He had all that time to prepare. It’s the things you can’t prepare for that are hard, he realizes. They are the true test of character.