They could make light of this. They could pretend that they could share a bed without it meaning anything, as if they were the simply platonic friends that they had always told each other they were. He didn’t know why he had brought up the subject of their sleeping arrangements at all when it was clearly so much simpler if they both pretended that they had never shared a bed, but it just felt like...something that needed acknowledging. It was too big to ignore.
She let her eyes drift back closed. ‘It’s fine. Just a late night. Wasn’t expecting the raucous after-party.’
He laughed and crossed the room, prising her coffee cup from her hand. ‘I’m just getting you a refill,’ he said at her squawked protest. ‘You should go back to bed for a bit,’ he added, placing the coffee on the table beside her. ‘Now that I’m up.’
‘It’s okay, I’m awake now. Won’t be able to get back to sleep.’
He laughed again. ‘Right. You look very awake.’
She opened one eye. ‘Don’t start. So what have you—?’ she started to ask, when his phone started ringing.
He glanced at the screen. ‘It’s Mormor,’ he said. ‘I should get this.’
‘Tell her I say hi,’ Lara said with a smile of genuine affection, eyes drifting back closed.
‘Hej, Mormor,’ he said, answering the phone.
* * *
Lara listened to the sing-song of Jannes speaking Swedish. She’d picked up a few phrases over the course of her friendship with him, but nowhere near enough to follow when he was speaking rapid-fire to his grandmother. He was agitated, she realised. His smile was fixed in place and his tone was still cheerful. But somehow unnaturally so. She wished she knew what he was saying. And, for that matter, why she kept hearing her own name every time his eyes slid over to her.
He hung up the phone and then pinched the bridge of his nose, looking like a teenager who knew he was about to get into trouble with his parents. Or his stern Swedish grandmother.
‘Jannes? What have you done?’ she asked, not sure whether she was more amused or worried by the expression on his face.
‘That was Mormor,’ he said, his expression bleak.
‘I know. What’s wrong?’
‘She saw us—pictures from last night.’
Lara shrugged. ‘So what? I mean, I didn’t think she would have seen them already, but pictures of us was kind of the point, right?’
‘Apparently she follows you on Instagram. I thought I’d have a chance to talk to her before she found out.’
Lara nodded, still not quite seeing what the problem was. ‘And this—’ she gestured at him, his bleak expression and anxious posture ‘—is because she thinks we’re together?’
He shook his head.
‘Jannes, just tell me or I’m going to start panicking.’
‘She summoned us for lunch,’ he said in an ominous tone. ‘Today.’
‘Today? I was going to—I need to study.’
What she actually wanted to say was that she needed space. Distance. To catch her breath and try not to think about waking up stuck to Jannes like a barnacle. An impromptu lunch with his grandmother didn’t exactly fit in to that plan.
‘I tried to argue,’ Jannes said, ‘but she was...quite persistent. Apparently that’s not the way she should find out that...’
‘What?’
He frowned. ‘It’s hard to translate.’
‘Try,’ Lara said through gritted teeth, and Jannes shook his head, giving in.
‘To find out that I’ve stopped being an idiot and...’
‘And?’