Page 120 of Let’s Make a Scene

“Nico,” she says, tugging her shirt back into perfect lines. “It’s been a long time.” Her words are steady as she drops gracefully back into her seat, but the color in her face remains, her breathing not quite even. I smile, wondering if Jack knows that his sister has a giant crush on his best friend.

Jack introduces us with genuine pleasure.

“Nico and I grew up together,” he says, his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “He and his mum lived in the house next door, and then we were shipped off to the same boarding school.”

“Ma moved back to the States while we were there, so rather than fly out I was here for almost every holiday,” Nico explains. “Practically part of the furniture.” He grins at me, and I totally get Lee’s interest. He’s tall and fit, in jeans and a battered leather jacket, the gleam of a tiny gold hoop in his earlobe, but his face belongs to a tortured poet, finely drawn with dark, expressive eyes. There are faint blue smudges under his eyes as if he hasn’t slept, and a day or two of scruff covers his jaw.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Cynthie.” He shakes my hand. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.”

“I’m surprised.” I dart a look at Jack.

Nico laughs. “Well, I had to read between the lines a bit. Jack here has had a giant crush on you for thirteen years.”

I grin back at him, as Jack thumps him on the arm hard enough to hurt.

“So your mother is in town, did you say, Nicolas?” Caroline asks once we’re all seated again, and Nico is happily sipping a beer, seeming more relaxed here than either Lee or Jack.

“Yes, her latest bloke is something to do with finance and he had a couple of meetings. Ma’s going to hang around for fashion week. Chat up all her old mates, you know.”

“Nico’s mum was a model,” Jack explains.

“What about you, Nico?” Lee asks, and she has herself firmly back under control now. You’d never guess she had any particular investment in the answer. “Weren’t you just in New Zealand?”

“Yeah, shooting some divers off the Auckland Islands,” he says. “With my camera,” he clarifies for me with a laugh. “Got some amazing underwater images of southern right whales. It’s a designated sanctuary, and we were able to swim with them. It was incredible.”

“Was that for National Geographic?” Jack asks.

Nico nods. “I’m actually just here for a few days before I fly out to Mexico, so I was happy to catch you.”

“It’s good to hear your career is going from strength to strength,” Max says heavily, a significant look at Jack, just in case he missed the subtle dig. It seems we aren’t over the part of the afternoon where Jack’s parents try to make him feel shit about his life choices. Well, not on my watch.

“Nico, you must have some excellent stories about Jack that I can take back to set with me…” I lean forward, conspiratorially. “Tell me everything.”

“Absolutely.” Nico is instantly on board. “Shall we take Jack’s most embarrassing moments chronologically or on a scale of how mortifying they were?”

“Just start at the beginning,” I say, while Jack groans.

Nico tips the rest of his beer back and then he puts the empty bottle down and rubs his hands together. “Right. So, we’re eleven years old and Jack is painfully into magic…”

“Wait,” I say, holding up my hand. “I need further details on what ‘painfully into magic’ means.”

“You really don’t,” Jack puts in.

“Wore a cape that he never took off.” Nico ticks off on his fingers. “Insisted we refer to him as The Grand Magneto at all times.”

“The Grand Magneto?” I whisper.

“Oh yeah, he was also a comic book nerd,” Nico explains.

“I maintain that it’s a very cool name for a magician,” Jack interjects.

“Anyway, he’s been practicing this trick for ages where he pulls a tablecloth out from under a load of glasses,” Nico continues. “He’s invited all our mates around to my house so that he can do it for them. Always the little performer.” He smirks at Jack who only shakes his head. “Now, crucially, in the audience is Tansy Bennet, the girl of Jack’s dreams.”

“Uh-oh,” Lee murmurs, and I get the impression she’s never heard this story.

“So Jack sets up the trick, and he invites Tansy to take the prime viewing spot right next to him.” Even Max and Caroline are listening with amusement on their faces at this point. “And he really piles a lot of stuff up on the table, basically all my mother’s breakables. It looks spectacular. Then he pulls the tablecloth out. He’s cool and confident; it comes away with no problem… except that he’s pulled it hard enough that he loses his own balance and goes flying backward…”

I wince.