This may or may not be a fairly accurate scene from my real life.
Within four weeks, the nights were coming in later and sun spilled into the windows of the studies on Oxford High Street well past six o'clock. And, more importantly, mercifully, finals were over. It was that, more than anything else, which accounted for the fact that Phyllis was lying on her back, in a patch of white sunlight on the carpet of Anna's study. Anna herself sat on the window seat, the beam of light just touching the blonde hair on the top of her head, and her boyfriend John pottered about at the other side of the room, pottering about a bit, putting some of the beers he'd brought with him into the fridge.
"That's the most relaxed I've seen you look in three years, Phil," he told her, crossing the room and nudging Phyllis's hand with a bottle of beer.
"Cheers," she told him, sitting up, "Can you pass me the bottle opener?"
John took it off the mantle piece and threw it gently to her.
"Cheers," she replied, "Yeah, I feel pretty great at the moment."
She heard a gentle sigh from Anna's direction and grinned across the room at her. As a second year, Anna still had the worst of it to come. Even now, Phyllis noticed, Anna had what looked like the Riverside Chaucer open on her knee.
"Don't worry," Phyllis told her softly, "This time next year, you'll be free."
"Personally, I'd rather it was now," Anna replied.
"It'll come quickly enough," Phyllis promised her.
"Yeah, and then we'll have to find ourselves jobs," John reminded her, "We can't all go into the civil service like Phil," he made a face, "We don't all want to go into the civil service for that matter."
"Even with me?" Phyllis asked him over her shoulder.
"No offence, Phil," John opened his own beer, "You've converted Joe and that'll have to be enough for now. Unless I get very desperate this time next year."
Phyllis smiled to herself, and said nothing.
"Is Joe coming round tonight?" Anna asked John.
"I hope so, but you'd better ask Phil if you want to know for certain."
Phyllis rolled her eyes- she had been wondering when this would start. Lately John had been rather keen on dropping hints about her and Joe. Well, if it was anyone's fault it was probably theirs, after the scene John had found in his own study the night after exams finished they'd probably given him ample cause to wonder. And he wasn't being as bad as Thomas was-….
There was a mischievous smile on Anna's face.
"Yeah, what's the latest with you and Joe?" she wanted to know.
Phyllis grimaced, rolling her eyes again. Now it was John who was grinning. When Phyllis didn't answer, John told Anna;
"The night we all went out after finals were over-…"
"You who didn't have a class the next day," Anna reminded him.
"Yeah," he smiled gently, "So everyone except you-… Well, that night I came back here, with my takeaway, just expecting to eat my chips in peace. And I don't know if you remember, but a few people had planned to stay over at mine, amongst whom were Phil and Joe-…"
"Yes…" Anna said slowly, then her eyes widened, "Oh, they weren't-…"
"NO, Anna Smith, we most certainly were not!" Phyllis told her sharply, "This is not first year, and this is me and Joe we're talking about, not Glynis and Jeremy."
Their housemates Glynis Denker and Jeremy Spratt had become something close to legendary having been caught in the common room in a compromising position within the first term. To the best of anyone's knowledge they hadn't spoken a civil word to one another since.
"No," John confirmed, once he'd finished laughing, "It's ok, they weren't. Phil was asleep facedown, literally in a puddle of vodka we're you're sitting right now, and Joe had passed on the floor next to her out with one leg in my sleeping bag."
"I'm sorry," Phyllis told him again, "I must have knocked it over in my sleep."
"It's alright," John replied, "It didn't stain. It was just a bit sticky, that's all."
Anna grimaced a little, and shifted in her seat but she seemed too well settled to actually move.
"So," Anna asked Phyllis a moment later, "Are you and Joe getting sticky together anywhere else?"
Phyllis snorted and nearly spat out her beer.
"No, we're not," she replied above John's peals of laughter, "We're actually being very old fashioned about it," she looked at both of their faces, trying to detect the hint of surprise or scepticism she was half-expecting to see there, "I know that's a bit of a first for me but, you know, it's Joe-… I don't want to mess things up by being too hasty."
Both Anna and John looked quite impassive about the whole thing.
"I think it's nice," John supplied after a moment, "And Joe's quite an old-fashioned sort of chap."
"Yes, he is," Anna agreed, "I think it'll suit him. Well played, Baxter," she winked at Phyllis.
Phyllis shook her head a little. Anna was a far cry from the timid first year she'd met two years ago; much more cut out for the world but on the other hand much more inclined to tease as well.
"To get back to the original point," John began again when neither Phyllis nor Anna spoke, "Is Joe coming round tonight? You are the one who lives in the same house as him," he reminded Phyllis gently.
"Yes, I know," she replied, pretending to be sharp with him, "And yes, he said he was. And Glyn and Jeremy said they were too."
"Dangerous," Anna murmured, and Phyllis grinned.
"There's still one thing I don't understand," John wondered out loud a moment later, "Even if you did both pass out in different places on the floor, my floor, why did you and Joe leave together that night?"
Phyllis frantically fought the urge to flush bright red. Anna was looking at her with great interest.
"We were both tired," she replied, "We thought we should call it a night. We were very drunk," she added, rather unnecessarily, given the position John had found Joe in.
"Gosh, and I thought I'd left early," John remarked.
Anna's eyebrows were raised.
"And you're sure nothing happened on the way home?" she asked her.
Phyllis could tell when she was being seen through.
"We may have kissed a little bit," she admitted, "Nothing more."
Anna looked a little bit thrilled.
"You're going to get together," she declared, "You're going to get married."
"Steady on," Phyllis told her, "We're only going to the college ball together, not the flaming church."
"Exactly," John replied, "You're going to the ball together. We're not even officially going to the ball together," he indicated to Anna, and she shook her head in confirmation.
"But that's different," Phyllis insisted, "It's-…"
She was spared the need to articulate precisely why her situation was different by a knock on the door.
"Come in!" Anna called.
It was Joe, with Glyn and Jeremy trailing behind him in ominous silence. Evidently neither had known that the other would coming.
"Everyone alright?" Joe grinned sheepishly and sat down beside Phyllis.
"Yeah," John replied, "Have a beer. They're in the fridge."
"Oh cheers, don't mind if I do," he stood up and went over to the fridge.
Meanwhile, Glynis and Jeremy had chosen seats as far away from one another as possible. Both Phyllis and Anna noticed, and exchanged a covert smile.
Without asking if she wanted one, Joe saw that Phyllis was finished her beer and brought her another one.
"Trying to get me drunk?" she asked him in a low voice, hoping that John and Anna wouldn't overhear and spring upon them.
Joe raised his eyebrows.
"If I was I would do it with more than two beers," he replied.
She smiled. He was right about that. But John and Anna were right to pick up on something too; things were changing between her and Joe and she didn't think the start of it had been them kissing, which they were doing increasingly often now, or him asking her to go to the ball with him, but when he'd told her that his application to MI5 had also been successful-… They were trading in secrets already, albeit only their personal ones. She liked it. It was intimate and exciting in an implicitly quiet way. That was probably why she was so defensive when they questioned her about it; she was not ready to let anyone else into this secrecy yet, she wanted it just for her and him.
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