The Plus One Pact

by MacIntosh, Portia

‘I’m sorry,’ he says. ‘I feel like that might have all been my fault. My intentions were good, but…’

  ‘Oh, I'm not bothered about that,’ I tell him. Well, I am, obviously, but I’m not mad at him. I’m disgusted at men. Honestly, I think I’m better off on my own. ‘I’m more bothered about the fact that my flat keys were in my bag.’

  ‘At least I have your phone,’ he says, pulling it from his pocket.

  ‘Thanks.’

  I glance at my watch. Far too late to get the last train to my mum and dad’s, and God knows what they would think if I turned up at this time, looking like this.

  ‘Where do you live?’ Millsy asks me.

  ‘The City Heights building,’ I tell him. ‘You can’t even get into the lobby without a fob or I’d go sit in the gym until morning.’

  ‘Oh, you’re on my side of town,’ Millsy says. ‘Do you want to just come and stay with me?’

  I pull a face.

  ‘I have two bedrooms,’ he tells me. ‘One of them is all made up, ready for a guest. I’ve been showing it to potential flatmates, so it’s flawless, has its own bathroom too.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Of course,’ he says. ‘This is all my fault.’

  ‘OK, thanks,’ I say sincerely.

  ‘You can keep hold of my arm if you like,’ he says as he leads me in the right direction.

  ‘Thanks,’ I say again. ‘I have a question… how did you become the Leeds Lions’ mascot?’

  ‘Well, when I was at school I was good at two things: acting and rugby. I was crap at everything else. My dad wanted me to be a rugby player – he’s been a Lions’ fan since the day he was born. Much to my dad’s annoyance, as I got older, I gravitated more towards acting. When I saw the job advert for someone to dress up in the Leo the Lion costume and dance on the sidelines I jumped at the chance. I got to be part of the team, all the while twerking on the sidelines once a week. It was lots of twerking back in my day – recently it’s all dabbing and flossing and pretty much anything you’d find on Fortnite.’

  ‘I always wondered what kind of person is inside animal costumes. Does it require an actor?’

  ‘No, just a vaguely athletic, reasonably good dancer. I think it was being able to do the worm that got me the job. You should come with me to a game some time.’

  ‘I would, but I fear it might end up in a brawl,’ I remind him. ‘Maybe, next time you see them, tell them you weren’t really my friend.’

  ‘I’d never denounce you like that,’ he jokes. ‘Don’t worry, they won’t hold it against me.’

  ‘Ah, good, I wouldn’t want it getting in the way of your pulling game,’ I tease.

  ‘I’m not going to lie, the lion suit did bag me a lot of women’s phone numbers,’ he says.

  ‘I’m no expert, but isn’t your face completely covered in the costume?’ I ask. ‘Are you not just a massive fluffy lion?’

  ‘I think women are into it,’ he tells me. ‘I think some girls think there’s something kind of hot about the anonymity that comes with the territory. They would see these little glimmers of my personality, my funny dance moves. They could tell I was a big bloke and that I’m fit… I think it’s the danger.’

  I feel my cheeks warming, just a little.

  ‘I’m not attracted to danger,’ I say quickly. ‘If tonight has taught me anything, it’s that dating is terrifying. I wouldn’t be surprised if I took my ex back out of fear.’

  ‘A specific ex?’ Millsy asks.

  ‘Yeah, I…’ I stop at the top of a flight of steps that leads down next to the river. Millsy must realise I’m hesitating.

  ‘I’m not bringing you down here to kill you, honest,’ he insists.

  I glance down into the darkness.

  ‘Are you sure?’ I ask. ‘Because right now I look exactly like the kind of body they pull out of a river at the start of Law & Order.’

  ‘Promise,’ he says. ‘My flat is down here.’

  I exhale before taking hold of his arm again. I have no reason to think Millsy is going to kill me, not when he’s been so generous. His advice might not be great but his intentions are good. Anyway, I don’t lead an interesting enough life to get murdered.

  We walk along the edge of the river for less than a minute before we’re outside Millsy’s building. It’s a small apartment building, consisting of five floors. The higher ones have wrap-around balconies with incredible views of the River Aire and the stunning Royal Armouries Museum building across the water at Leeds Dock.

  ‘You’ve got one hell of a view,’ I tell him. ‘Do you rent?’

  ‘No, I own mine,’ he says. ‘I used to live in my uncle’s flat, a couple floors down. When I got a decent payday, I had enough for a deposit on the top-floor apartment.’

  Does dancing in a lion costume and flashing your teeth in an advert really pay that well?

  ‘Impressive,’ I admit.

  ‘You were saying about your ex,’ Millsy prompts, clearly interested, as he lets us into his building and steers me towards the lift.

  ‘Yeah… Well, I’m just being dramatic. I have no intention of getting back with him. My cousin has invited him to her wedding though. Some crap about how he was my plus one when she invited me so she should honour his invitation. I’m allowed a plus one but my quest to find one isn’t going all that well. I think I’m going to give up, to be honest.’

  ‘Man, that’s rough,’ he says. ‘Your cousin must really hate you.’

  ‘I wonder sometimes,’ I reply with a sigh. ‘She’s just a bit spoiled, likes everything to be on her terms. If she doesn’t get her way, you better hope you’re not the reason why.’

  Millsy unlocks his front door, holding it open for me to walk in first.

  ‘Oh, wow, this place is great,’ I tell him.

  Millsy’s flat is very much a bachelor pad, but a super-cool one. It’s bigger than I thought it was going to be. His decor is simple: white walls, wooden floors. His sofa, curtains, cushions and rug are all various shades of grey. The only colour comes in the form of LED lighting he has running around the room. He cycles through different light patterns before landing on something warm, with shades of red and orange glowing around the open-plan living space.

  ‘Shall we sit out on the terrace for a bit?’ he suggests. ‘I’ll grab us a couple of drinks.’

  ‘That would be lovely, thanks.’

  ‘What can I get you?’

  ‘Surprise me,’ I say, unwilling to give up cool, easy-going Cara 2.0 just yet.

  I head outside, making myself comfortable on one of the inviting-looking patio chairs. I plump up the cushions and plonk myself down, taking in the view while I wait for Millsy to join me. The Royal Armouries might be closed, but the Hall of Steel, a stunning glass tower with various weapons on the walls, is still lit up. This really is the life, sitting out here on a summer night. I’ll say one thing for this obscenely small dress – it’s nice and cool.

  ‘Here we go,’ Millsy says, handing me a can of something cold before sitting down next to me. ‘You know, I get where you’re coming from with the plus-one drama.’

  ‘Oh, yeah?’

  ‘Yeah. Ruby, the friend who I was telling you about, the one who is getting married. We’ve been best friends ever since we were babies, but she still won’t let me bring a plus one to her wedding in however many weeks away it is.’

  ‘How come?’ I ask nosily as I play with my new fake hair between my fingertips.

  ‘I haven’t really been looking to settle down with anyone serious,’ he tells me, which I imagine is quite a tactful explanation. ‘Ruby says she doesn’t want me bringing one of my “floozies” to her wedding. She thinks I’ll turn up with some girl I pulled the night before, both probably still drunk. I guess I’ve done that before, which is why my family won’t let me bring a plus one to family stuff either. They all say that if I find someone I can get serious with, I can get my plus-one rights back. It’s crap though. I don’t want to go to these
things alone. I’ve got a bunch of lame family stuff coming up. I hate being the only person not in a couple when it’s all everyone bangs on about.’

  I think to myself for a moment. Millsy has done so much for me, perhaps I can return the favour…

  ‘Ruby was the one in the bar last night?’ I ask. ‘Do you think she’d recognise the new-look me as being that girl?’

  ‘I doubt it,’ he says. ‘You look more like my usual type now.’

  ‘Interesting,’ I say. I swig my ice-cold drink and relax into my chair as much as my short dress will allow. ‘Very interesting.’

  ‘What are you thinking?’ he asks.

  ‘I’m thinking, you need an acceptable plus one for Ruby’s wedding, and whatever the lame family stuff you mentioned is. I’ve got a summer full of events too. My bosses’ wedding, my cousin’s wedding, my school reunion… I don’t want to go to these things alone, but I definitely don’t want to do any more dating for a while. You don’t want to go alone, but you need a regular girl to go with. I have a job, I don’t drink too much, I can talk to adults, I’m polite. And you said yourself, I look more like your type now. People will think you’ve just found the best of both worlds. I don’t think people will struggle to believe that the right person could make you have a change of heart, do you?’

  ‘I mean, I know me, so that doesn’t sound right, but to the normal folk…’ he jokes, ‘… that could actually work.’

  ‘We don’t have to go too hard, pretending to be a couple who are madly in love or anything like that, we’re just the appropriate plus one the other person needs. We can get each other through the summer.’

  ‘I’ll drink to that,’ Millsy says, clinking his can against mine. ‘How do we do this?’

  ‘I guess we can give each other a list of dates in the morning?’ I suggest. ‘See which ones we can make.’

  Millsy laughs.

  ‘You’ve got your shit way too together to pull off claiming you’re dating me,’ he says.

  ‘And you’re way too cool for anyone to think you’re dating a puzzle nerd,’ I point out. ‘But you’re an actor, right? And, like I said, we’re not pretending we’re in love. We’re just plus ones.’

  ‘Just don’t go falling in love with me for real,’ Millsy playfully warns.

  ‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ I reply.

  I think we can safely say there’s not much chance of that. Well, he’s far too cool for me and I’m far too dorky for him. Cool has never been my type, and I suspect I’m nothing like the kind of girls Millsy usually goes for either. We’re not even close to being each other’s type. I do like hanging around with him though, and I can’t think of a better person to be my plus one for the summer.

  8

  I’m one of those people who is quite fussy when it comes to beds. It’s not so much that I have especially high standards, I just never seem to get a good night’s sleep unless I’m in my own bed.

  But last night, when Millsy showed me into his spare room, I couldn’t wait to get into the bed. He told me that he’s currently showing the room to potential flatmates, so I guess that’s why it’s so neat and tidy, and why he’s put so much effort into making it such a nice room. It doesn’t quite have the chilly bachelorness of the rest of the apartment but it’s still super cool. And with the king-size bed, with lovely soft microfibre sheets, along with the Goonies T-shirt Millsy gave me to sleep in, I pretty much drifted off the second my head hit the pillow. I’ve never felt so at home somewhere that wasn’t my home.

  It’s Sunday afternoon now and I’m almost at my parents’ house. I couldn’t face going back to Hades to fetch my bag but Millsy said he’d go for me. It does mean that I can’t get back to my apartment until tonight though, so I wasn’t able to go home and get changed. Millsy did offer to pop to town and pick up something a little more daytime friendly for me, but he's already done so much for me. I thanked him for my makeover over coffee this morning, and he downplayed it, but I really can't thank him enough. I feel like a different person.

  I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to pop into town on my way to the station to buy some clothes and some make-up myself. Well, I definitely want to keep my new face, so I need to get the right items to recreate the look Dani gave me. My hair still looks amazing, in that way that it always does after a professional hairstylist has dried it for you – I’m dreading washing and drying it myself though. As for my new style, well, even if I could completely get on board with my tiny red dress being right for me, I definitely don’t think it’s the best idea for Sunday dinner with the family; do you?

  I popped into the Trinity shopping centre, hurriedly buying make-up before whizzing around a few clothes shops. The fitting rooms in H&M were not that busy so I rather cheekily applied my make-up while I was in there. It must have been so weird for the assistant, seeing me go in there looking like a caricature of the morning after the night before, with my crudely removed old make-up and my peculiar outfit consisting of a red dress with a Goonies T-shirt over the top. After paying for my new outfit – careful not to go over the contactless payment limit – I nipped to the toilets to get changed. Another miraculous transformation. I look half decent now.

  I don’t remember the last time I went to my parents’ for dinner in anything other than my comfy clothes. Usually super-soft tracksuits, off-the-shoulder tops – almost always in black or shades of grey. But today, starting as I mean to go on, I’m rocking up to their front door in a red and white floral mini tea dress, the likes of which probably hasn’t been seen on me since I was a toddler, when my mum could dress me in whatever she wanted without protest.

  I’m walking along the street towards their house, enjoying the delicious combination of the sun on my skin and the cool breeze, when I notice something that stops me in my tracks. On the driveway, sandwiched between my mum and dad’s cars, is a baby-blue Mini Cooper, and I only know one person who drives that car: my cousin Flora.

  I hover on the spot for a second. I’m not sure I’m in the mood for Flora, especially when I’m so very clearly still in her bad books, no matter how hard she tries to pretend otherwise.

  Before I get a chance to even think about making a break for it, a black Ford Fiesta pulls up just in front of me and out pops Oliver from the passengers’ side. I recognise it as his friend’s car.

  Of course, my brother doesn’t recognise me, not with my new makeover. We both reach the end of our parents’ driveway around the same time. He glances at me, in that way you do with people when you cross paths so closely. He looks away before snapping his neck back in my direction.

  ‘Cara?’ he says, his eyes wide with… something. I can’t read him. ‘Is that… is that you?’

  ‘Of course it is,’ I say with a laugh. ‘I had my hair done – what do you think?’

  ‘I like it,’ he replies as his initial surprise relaxes into a smile. ‘It suits you.’

  I wrap an arm around my little brother, giving him a squeeze before we head for the front door together.

  ‘I see Flora is here,’ I say.

  ‘Yeah, and Auntie Mary,’ he replies. ‘Mum just told me on the phone.’

  ‘Fabulous,’ I say sarcastically.

  Auntie Mary is nothing like my mum. My mum is warm and affectionate, kind and generous – almost to a fault. She’s the rational person in our family, who keeps everyone together. She’s a great cook with a lovely house, but she isn’t going to rain hellfire down on you if you leave crumbs on the worktop or wear shoes on the carpet.

  Auntie Mary, despite being raised by the same parents, in the same house, is nothing like my mum. She isn’t warm or friendly. Her house is like a museum, where you’re terrified of knocking things over or spilling your drink – if you did either, you would never hear the end of it. She’s not one for showing positive feelings or emotions, but an angry scowl or a harsh word of displeasure comes easy to her. Perhaps saddest of all is that I don’t have any positive memories of her, despite her being ar
ound me for most of my life. I have loads of memories of doing fun things with my mum and Flora – they are really close – but none involving my auntie. It’s just the way things have always been though, so I’m not all that bothered by it, and she’s the same with Oliver, so I know that it’s not me, it’s her. It’s never mattered until recently. The cold, reluctant hugs at Christmas and silent indifference at family gatherings were all I knew. It’s only since I decided I didn’t want to be Flora’s bridesmaid that my auntie has upped from indifferent to hostile.

  ‘Hello,’ Oliver calls out once we’re through the door.

  ‘In the living room,’ my mum calls back.

  I let Oliver go first, following just a few steps behind him.

  ‘Have you had fun?’ my mum asks him, but Oliver doesn’t get a chance to reply before she notices me slinking into the room behind him.

  ‘Cara!’ she shrieks, jumping to her feet. ‘Oh my God, Cara! Is that you? I thought Oliver had brought a girl home for a second.’

  Oliver seems to shudder at the thought. I’m sure he can't think of anything worse than bringing a girl home to meet his female relatives.

  My mum hurries over to me.

  ‘Oh my God, look at you. You look so different. What happened?’

  Thankfully my mum is smiling widely, so I can tell she approves.

  ‘I just decided my look needed a bit of a refresh,’ I explain. I notice my dad enter the room. ‘What do you think, Dad?’

  ‘Yeah, very nice,’ he replies. He wouldn’t think that if he’d seen me last night, in my little red dress, with rugby players fighting over me. He’d probably lock me in the cellar and throw away the key.

  ‘Stunning,’ my mum says, touching my hair. She lowers her voice. ‘Wow, it feels so real.’

  Bless her, for even thinking twice about outing my new hair as fake, even if no one in this room thought my hair grew several inches since the last time they saw me.

  ‘Thanks,’ I reply. ‘I’m so relieved you like it.’

  I glance over at my auntie and my cousin.

  ‘Hi,’ I say, in an attempt to bring them into the conversation. Sometimes I think my cousin has inherited her mum’s aversion to pleasantries.