The Bit In Between by Claire Varley Page B

funeral?’
    Oliver didn’t respond.
    â€˜What’s wrong?’
    â€˜Nothing.’
    â€˜What’s wrong?’
    Oliver looked at his hands. ‘I’ve been thinking about something Rick said last night.’
    Alison’s eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, yes. What did Rick have to say?’
    â€˜He said something about how it was nice that we’re still in the honeymoon phase where everything I do is cute to you and you haven’t started hating me yet.’
    Alison scowled. ‘What? What does Rick know? I’m not going to start hating you. I can’t believe you’re listening to Rick. You barely even know him.’
    Oliver gave her a measured look. ‘I barely know you, really.’
    Alison shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it. Should we try to peel some eggs?’ She held up the device and waggled it in the air.
    â€˜What happens when it ends?’
    â€˜When what ends?’
    â€˜The honeymoon phase. What happens when you wake up and realise that this is reality? When I fart in bed or I get really sick and you have to put up with my sniffing and hacking up phlegm? When you look at me and see a Picasso?’
    Alison shrugged again. ‘That won’t happen.’
    â€˜Yes, it will. Because that’s life. That’s reality. Some days I’ll do things that annoy you. In fact, I reckon I’ll do something vaguely annoying pretty much every day, because that’s the type of person I am. But you don’t know that, because you don’t know me yet. You still think I’m perfect.’
    Alison gave him a look that suggested otherwise, but Oliver kept going. Clearly this had been on his mind all day.
    â€˜You know who I am? I’m a mess. I pretend I’m not but I am. And one day you’ll see that and not want me anymore. I’m ridiculous. I try to read the newspaper every day but sometimes I don’t care. Sometimes I get nightmares and punch in my sleep. Once on a tram when I was really tired from working all day, there was a pregnant lady and I pretended to be asleep so I didn’t have to offer her my seat. My feet get really dry in winter and shed skin. I hate pets. I sometimes piss on the toilet seat because I get distracted.’
    Alison looked at him bewildered. ‘Distracted by what?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Stuff. What I’m going to have for dinner. If I have any bills that need paying. The size of my penis. Just stuff. But the point is that one day soon you – we – are going to emerge from this bubble we’ve been living in and things are going to get real.’
    â€˜Yeah, I reckon that bubble has already burst . . .’
    â€˜Ok, but I mean it. What will you do then? Run away again?’
    Alison looked at the ground. ‘No.’
    â€˜No?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜Yes. I’ll – I’m not going anywhere, ok? I’ll . . . I don’t know. I’ll stand by you.’
    Oliver grinned. ‘You’ll stand by me? Who are you? Ben E. King?’
    â€˜What? Who?’ Alison was confused.
    â€˜He sang that song.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜Yeah. I think.’
    Alison took a breath and her shoulders relaxed. ‘I love you.’
    Oliver deflated a little. ‘Yeah? Why?’
    â€˜Because you know stupid things like that.’
    â€˜I learnt it at a trivia night.’
    She scrunched up her nose and Oliver grinned, reaching out for her.
    â€˜Well,’ Alison straightened up and put on a mock-affected voice. ‘Regardless, I don’t know if I can do this because I always told myself that I would end up with someone who understood science and could explain things like global warming to me and you don’t know anything about that.’
    â€˜I know it’s not good.’
    â€˜What isn’t good?’
    â€˜Global warming.’
    â€˜Why isn’t it