Chapter 25: Relationship Guru

As much as I thought my Relationship Gurus were right and that I needed to have a serious talk to Hannah about serious things such as just how serious our relationship was, I simply couldn’t do it that evening.

I didn’t have the opportunity.

Honestly.

Okay, I didn’t look for the opportunity.

My relationship with Hannah followed a fairly comfortable pattern. We’d meet to have lunch together almost every weekday unless work kept one of us busy—usually in The Union, but not always. We’d then meet up again for an hour or two in the evening—usually in The Cap & Gown but, again, not always.

Then we went out drinking and dancing with our friends on either Friday or Saturday nights and on the other of those two nights we had a date—meaning we went to the cinema, or did something else together and, importantly, alone. This usually involved a meal of some kind too. Nothing too fancy, just a pizza or a burger or something. And after that we’d either meet with our friends to go dancing again, or we’d go for a walk along the seafront—where we’d usually end up at the café at the end of West Pier—or though one of the town’s parks, or even just around campus.

You already know what happened after those Friday and Saturday nights and into the next morning.

We didn’t spend every moment of every day together and neither did either of us want to. Or, at least, I didn’t feel the need to, and Hannah had never told me that she did either.

Which is the same thing.

More or less.

I explained all this to Chloë when she called me on Sunday afternoon. She apologised for not coming around to talk to me in person, but she said she was in the South of France filming scenes for a very high-budget television series for one of the American networks that was due to be released next season—which I think meant in the autumn next year.

She said it was going to be huge—the biggest thing in television in years.

“But I thought you were more of a movie actress. Why are you doing TV?”

“Paul, don’t forget that I started out in TV. But yes, I suppose that the last few years I’ve been focusing on movies. Thing is, I spoke to Sam about this before agreeing to the role and he’s convinced that that the landscape is shifting. He said that in a decade or so, maybe a little more, an Emmy will be considered just as prestigious as an Oscar.”

I shook my head. “There’s name dropping and then there’s just casually mentioning you go to the biggest movie star on the planet for career advice.”

“Oh, Sam’s lovely, he really is. If you come to that Premiere I mentioned, then I’ll introduce you to him at the after-party. But anyway, Sam reckons that these new internet streaming services will change everything—especially as more and more people get faster and faster internet in their homes. He started talking about giga-something-or-other after that and I stopped listening. But there’s a lot of industry talk that the big studios are all planning to launch their own services eventually—by the end of the decade, Sam reckons—and they are going to have even bigger budgets for limited series. He says it will be like they are making movies that are ten hours long instead of two or three, allowing filmmakers to tell bigger stories with more detail and nuance. He’s very excited about it actually. There’s a book series he has the rights to, but he says he’s struggling to get even the first book into a single movie—he’d have to cut too much out—and it would be far better as a ten-episode series. He’s already had a discussion with the head of one studio about making it one of their launch titles when they eventually go live.”

“Sorry, I can’t see it. But what would I know?”

“I’m sceptical too, but Sam is very rarely wrong. He knows this business inside-out.” She paused. “Paul, you do know that you’ve made something of a rod for your own back by creating that Relationship Gurus group, don’t you?”

“What do you mean? I mean, I know it started to feel like a really bad idea after about ten minutes but, in the end, I think it was sort of useful.”

“You’re right, it probably was useful—I mean, Emily and Imogen are always telling you to communicate more, right? And that’s just what you did and that’s a good thing. But you’ve also now given all four of us licence to bug you and ask you awkward questions whenever we feel like, because that’s what Gurus do, you know?” I could almost hear the smirk in her voice.

I shrugged, which was pointless since it was a phone call, but you know me and shrugs. “I suppose.”

There was another pause and then Chloë said, “Paul, I have to ask ... Why didn’t you add Vanessa to the group yesterday? Why just the four of us and not her? You know she’s in our other group, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I know she is but ... I don’t know. I guess it just didn’t occur to me. Lisa is, like, one of my oldest friends, I’ve known her since we were toddlers—for as long as I can remember really. And Emily is ... Well, you know, she’s special because of ... You know. And Imogen is Imogen. She’s been my best friend this last year or so. Well, her and Mark. I don’t know what I would have done without her at times. Without either of them.”

“And me?”

“Yeah, well, you started this whole thing so...”

Chloë laughed at that. Then she said, “And Vanessa?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, I just ... Didn’t think of it.”

“So ... Not because she’s your ex-girlfriend?”

“She’s not—”

“Don’t be silly, Paul, of course, she is.”

I huffed. Chloë was right—even if I was still reluctant to admit it, Vanessa was my ex-girlfriend.

“So is that the reason you didn’t add her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ... Possibly ... It’s just ... It’d be weird asking Ness for advice on my girlfriend, you know? And ... I mean ... How can she be unbiased? Right? I mean ... You know?”

Chloë sighed. A sigh of resignation, I guess. “Do you still have feelings for her? For Vanessa?”

When I didn’t answer immediately, she prompted, “Paul?”

I sighed. “I still care about her. I’ll always care about her. She was ... She was very important to me at a very difficult time.”