“Patrick!” Elyssa squealed.
This time she couldn’t help herself. She accepted his grizzly bear hug, squeezing her eyes shut and enjoying the keenly remembered strength of his arms. He hadn’t been the cricket and rugby captain for nothing. He was shorter than Jay—to his disgust at the age of fifteen, when his rival had overtaken him in height—but broader, more muscular and conventionally handsome with blond hair and a wicked smile.
“Jay,” he said finally, with a formal little nod, once he’d squashed the life out of Elyssa and left her gasping for breath.
“Patrick. Good to see you. How did medical school work out?”
“Not bad, mate,” he said, reaching over to shake Jay’s hand. “I kept it up and now I’m doing brain surgery. It’s not rocket science.”
Elyssa, catching both of their wary eyes, burst into a peal of laughter.
“Oh my God. You two. You just haven’t changed. Fifteen years and you’re still—look. What’s done is done. Can we enjoy ourselves tonight? Just for old times’ sake? Can we all be friends again?”
Jay and Patrick unconsciously squared up, thrusting back shoulders, puffing out chests, Jay in his floral shirt and Patrick in his rugby top.
“We’re grown men,” said Patrick.
You got that right, thought Elyssa, resisting the temptation to lick her lips.
“We’re gentlemen,” said Jay. “And scholars. Including Elyssa.”
“Is that sorted then?” she asked, hearing the opening chords of a favourite song. “Let’s dance.”
She grabbed a hand each and pulled them onto the slippery parquet, where they bobbed along to, Missing, by Everything But The Girl, until thirst drove them to the punch bowl once more.
* * * *
Much later, after hours of anecdotes and legends and jokes and catching up, the three of them sat out on the little grassy bank that had been ‘their’ spot of the playing field from Year Seven, taking in the summer night air and enjoying the novelty of each other’s company. Elyssa lay back on the furled daisies and buttercups, and looked up at the moon.
“So we’ve all won the competition,” she said dreamily. “We all win at life. Don’t we?”
“All except one aspect,” said Patrick gloomily.
Elyssa had heard from mutual friends that he’d divorced, unhappily, two years previously after rushing into marriage with a cardiologist.
“I never looked at another girl in that way after you crushed me so spectacularly,” said Jay, his tone as droll as ever, but seeming to mask some genuine emotion.
“I did not crush you,” said Elyssa. “I didn’t do anything to either of you.”
“Yes, and that’s the problem!” exclaimed Patrick. “We wanted you to!”
“You both wanted me to,” clarified Elyssa. “Thereby hung the dilemma.”
Jay and Patrick both turned to her, looking down into her upturned face.
“Dilemma?” said Jay. “We always thought you didn’t fancy either of us. That’s what you told us!”
“Of course that’s what I told you,” said Elyssa, wondering if that last glass of wine had been such a good idea. It seemed to have stopped the discretion part of her brain and was letting all this stuff flood out without monitoring. “I had to tell you that, didn’t I? Unless I wanted you to be at each other’s throats. If I chose one of you, I had to reject the other. If I chose one of you, the other was doomed to be a third wheel, rolling along in our wake. If I chose one of you…the whole thing collapsed. I just couldn’t do it.”
The air became heavy with reflection. Elyssa was aware that her words might have changed the complexion of everything for her two former suitors. Both men had hinted at the remains of sadness, regret, disappointment, but slipping through that fog Elyssa sensed a possibility, one that almost seemed too difficult to name. It sharpened into ever more distinct focus until, like a thought bubble hovering over their three heads, preparing to latch itself on to them, it couldn’t be ignored.
“So if you had chosen…” said Patrick slowly.
“Don’t! Don’t ask me! It’s impossible. I loved you both. Still love you…love you both…” Elyssa thought she had better shut up. This was getting more and more difficult to laugh off and take back by the second.
“Still? Love us both?” Jay didn’t seem about to allow any taking back of sentiments. He was sitting bolt upright, his silky hair endearingly rumpled.
Where Jay led, Elyssa knew Patrick would inevitably follow, and attempt to overtake, like a rat up a drain. Almost before his old adversary had the words out, she could see the cogs turning in Patrick’s head.