And the two of us laughed over that again. But he might have been serious idk. And if he was, I wasn’t against it either. I could think of a lot worse. Like once I saw Leary our history teacher on a date. He was with a woman. He had on a tweed jacket exactly the same as the one he wears in class but cleaner. He had the same pair of pants he wears in class. We don’t think he changes it, but maybe he bought five pairs at the start. His shoes had a shine on them. He opened his car door for the woman. Like his car is this half-Renault half-Datsun, I don’t even know if it has a name, maybe just a number like fourteen. Datsuns are hip now if you can get one, they all rotted. But I was also bizarrely like so jealous, a little bit idk not much but it was there. Leary must be over forty. Maybe it’s because he’s History. The woman looked like a teacher too, kinda smart idk Primary maybe, with glasses. I was hoping they’d make it together. Leary is lonely and I am attracted to lonely old guys.

I would not invite Serena to the wedding, I could imagine what she’d say.

I went to the SuperValu and I bought a super-giant bag of frozen peas, three packets of lamb chops totalling twelve chops in all, a giant bag of oven chips and a few sliced pans. Peter told me the trick of the sliced pan was to freeze it and soften it in the toaster as you wanted it. That way you could have fresh bread for a long time. He drove me back up to my house. We didn’t have a toaster but I froze the bread anyway.

Listen, girl, he said, call me any time, or come down for a cup of tea. Don’t be a stranger now.

I nearly cried. But I didn’t.