2-59（在线收听）

59.

I texted Cress, told her I was home.

She texted back, said she was relieved, which made me relieved.

I hadn’t been sure what to expect.

I wanted to see her. And yet we didn’t make a plan. Not in that first exchange. There was somedistance there, some stiffness.

You sound different, Harry.

Well, I don’t feel different.

I didn’t want her to think I was different.

A week later, some mates gave a dinner party. Welcome home, Spike! At my mate Arthur’splace. Cress turned up with my cousin Eugenie—a.k.a. Euge. I hugged them both, saw the shockon their faces.

They said I looked like a completely different person.

Stockier? Bigger? Older?

Yes, yes, all that. But also something else they couldn’t name.

Whatever it was, it seemed frightening or off-putting to Cressida.

We agreed, therefore, that this wasn’t a reunion. Couldn’t be. Can’t have a reunion withsomeone you don’t know. If we wanted to keep seeing each other—and I certainly did—we’dhave to start again.

Hello, I’m Cress.

Hello, I’m Haz. Nice to meet you.