Moving On

America

America

ON HER FINAL DAY IN THE SANDWICH BAR GLORIA presented Ellen with a small packet. ‘Good luck with new job,’ she said gruffly. ‘I am sorry you are going.’

‘Thank you, Gloria.’ She was deeply touched. In all the months they’d worked together, it was the most human interaction they’d had.

When Claudia showed up with her final pay cheque, she had a gift too. Also small, also wrapped. ‘Is a thank you,’ she told Ellen, ‘for all your work. I hope I see you again some time.’ She kissed Ellen on both cheeks and wished her good luck.

Back at the flat, Ellen opened her gifts. Gloria’s was Spanish biscuits, and Claudia’s was perfume.

Chanel No. 5 perfume, to be precise.

Ellen couldn’t believe it. She and Claire were mad about it, spraying as much of the sample bottle as they could in the fancy department stores before a staff member descended. Now, thanks to Claudia, Ellen had her very own No. 5.

She opened it and dabbed it onto a wrist. She sniffed, and closed her eyes at the pleasure of it, and tucked the bottle away.

Three days later she flew to Dublin, and as she descended the steps from the plane the first taste of Irish air, clean and cold and misty, brought a lift to her heart as it always did. With just hand luggage she went straight through – ‘Welcome home, Ellen,’ the passport control official said – and emerged into the arrivals hall, where Danny was waiting.

And the sight of him after eight months apart caused her heart to perform an unexpected little flip.

‘Good to see you,’ he said, wrapping his arms around her in the way she remembered. ‘You smell nice.’

‘Got a present of posh perfume,’ she told him. ‘Special occasions only.’

He’d got his hair cut very short, and gained a little weight. He wore the black leather jacket he’d bought in the Dandelion Market. He led the way to his car, which was small and green, and dented in a few places. ‘Just so you know, the dents are not mine. I inherited them.’

‘So I’m safe sitting in with you?’

‘Fairly safe.’

He drove her through the city, asking about London, and her imminent move to Marketing Solutions. It felt a little like when they’d met in the bookshop, after all the years apart. She felt slightly shy, which was crazy.

She wondered again if now was their time. However much she might wish him still with her, Ben was gone, and she needed someone to love, and someone to love her. It wouldn’t matter, she thought, that they lived in different countries, not with regular flights.

They left the city behind and headed west along the dual carriageway. ‘So how are things with you?’ she asked. ‘How’s Dublin suiting you? How’s the job going?’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘All good, but . . . actually, I have some news.’ He changed gear as he moved out to overtake a lorry. ‘Big news.’

‘What?’

‘I’ve got a new job too. I’m going to be moving.’

‘Moving? Where to?’

‘California.’ He gave her a quick grin. ‘I’m off to the land of Stars and Stripes.’

California, thousands of miles from London. Moving away from her, just like Ben had. Was she destined to lose everyone she cared about?

‘Seriously, you’re moving to America?’

‘I am. There’s an area called Silicon Valley, not far from San Francisco, and it’s the computer capital of the world. All the big companies are located there, including the head office of where I am now. I requested a transfer, and I got it. They want me to start in June.’

‘Wow.’

Something in her voice must have sounded off. He glanced at her. ‘You OK?’

She threw back a quick smile. ‘Yes, sorry, well done, that’s great. It’s just . . . unexpected – and so far away. You said nothing.’ They talked on the phone once a month or so. They wrote in between.

‘I wanted to wait until it was all tied up. That only happened last week.’

‘Don’t you like your job here?’

‘I do, it’s great – but this will mean more responsibility, and a lot more money.’ He laughed. ‘Not to mention more sunshine.’

‘And you don’t mind the idea of living so far from your family, all on your own?’

He darted another look at her. ‘Yeah. That’s the other thing.’

‘What other thing?’

‘I won’t be all on my own.’

‘Someone’s going with you?’

‘Actually, she’s already over there.’

She.

Oh.

‘She was working in the company when I joined it in September. She’s from California, a city called Palo Alto, right in the heart of Silicon Valley. She got a job offer there just after Christmas, and she started last week.’

‘So that’s why you’re moving.’

‘Yup.’

‘You kept that quiet too.’

He laughed. ‘Ah, you know what men are like, Ellen. They don’t talk about that kind of thing.’

He sounded happy. She must be happy for him too. ‘So tell me about her.’

She watched his profile as he spoke of Bobbi – ‘with an i’ – and her African father and her German mother. She heard about how he and Bobbi had met, when he’d walked into the office kitchen and skidded on yogurt from the tub she’d just dropped.

She listened as he talked about the project they’d been working on together for a month, and how Bobbi, not he, had finally been the one to suggest a date, and how she’d asked if they could go to the Botanic Gardens, because she was into plants.

She recalled the flip her heart had made when she’d walked into the arrivals hall and seen him. She imagined Bobbi waiting for him in California. She could see how perfectly obvious it was as he talked about her that he loved her.

She swallowed back the stupid tears that threatened, glad of the darkness outside the car. She was lonely, that was all.

Danny was her friend, her good friend. He would always be her friend.