The Plot Twist

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

I t was the sound of running water which woke Allie the next morning. For a moment she lay in bed and wondered what was happening. She couldn’t normally hear the people in the flat above her but wondered if it was the sound of their shower that had woken her. She stretched and hit her hand on the smooth metal bed frame which gave her pause for thought; she didn’t have a metal bed frame, hers was wood. Slowly she rolled onto her side and eyed the alarm clock that she kept by the side of her bed, except it wasn’t there. Finally deciding that she really needed to accept the fact that she hadn’t slept in her own bed last night, she sat up, pulled her hair into a messy bun and wrapped her arms around her knees.

She’d been here before, not metaphorically speaking, but actually, really, physically speaking. Here being Will’s flat. And the sound she had been woken by was presumably Will doing something wonderfully domestic, like the washing up, hopefully while the kettle boiled. Allie knew that last night hadn’t gone down in entirely the way that she had promised Jess it would, but she was hopeful, in the way that all Brits tend to jingoistically believe, that a good cup of tea would fix it all. She upped her wishfulness that the noise she could hear was in fact that kettle boiling.

A few minutes passed, during which Allie rehearsed both the conversation she ought to be having with Will, but also the arse-covering one she would inevitably have to have with Jess. She was just in the middle of an impassioned defence of her actions when the door creaked slowly open and Will’s head appeared around it, his face immediately brightening when he saw that Allie was awake. Bringing two cups with him he nudged the door open further and came in. ‘I hope I didn’t wake you.’ He put the cups down on the bedside table and looked down at her.

‘I love your hair pulled up like that. You’ve got that sleepy hot girl look going on.’ He groaned, leaning over her. ‘You have no idea what you do to me.’ He put his hand behind her neck, teasing the tendrils of hair that she had missed and pulled her gently towards him. He was going for a kiss but Allie ducked just at the last minute and he ended up kissing her hairline.

He laughed as she said, ‘I’m not sure I smell so hot.’

‘Here.’ He picked up one of the cups and handed it to her, sitting down on the bed as he did so. ‘I know you prefer tea but you need to try this coffee I picked up when I was away.’

Allie took the cup and watched him, chewing her lip as she did so, wanting to savour both the sensation of being handed a cup of coffee in bed, and the fact it had been handed to her by this excessively good-looking guy who really seemed to be into her. Because she was fairly sure he wouldn’t be quite so into her when she finally confessed everything Jess told her that she needed to confess. She looked down at his hand, where it rested near her leg. Her eyes ran up his arm, seeing the tattoo, which she now knew the whole extent of. She blushed at the memories and cleared her throat.

‘Will, why didn’t you tell me you owned the company?’ She nudged her own inevitable revelations a further five minutes down the line.

Will looked at her sharply. ‘Does it matter?’

‘Well no. But I feel like you let me believe you were waitstaff…’ She trailed off not entirely clear on why she was pursuing this avenue of questioning right now.

‘And that matters because?’

‘It doesn’t. I just, well I guess it feels a bit strange to me that you wouldn’t tell me.’

Will leaned heavily back against the headboard. ‘Don’t tell me, this makes me seem pretty closed off, right?’

Allie gave him a good dose of side eye and then laughed. ‘Sounds like you’ve heard that one before.’

‘Yes, from my ex. Apparently I can come across as not very open. Which makes it kind of ironic that when I tried to be open with her and talk about how the relationship might not be working, she didn’t want to hear it and dumped me before I could say anything substantial.’

Allie bit back a giggle.

‘And before that…’

‘Wait,’ Allie put a hand on his arm, ‘we’re about to enjoy an extended trip through your relationship history? I need to get comfy for this.’ She grinned at him.

‘Enjoy?’

‘Oh hell yeah. I’m going to fully enjoy this. Especially now I know that you find it hard to be open about things.’

‘Well, that’s because my ex…’

‘The one we were just discussing?’

‘No, the one before that one.’

‘Am I going to need a paper and pen to keep tabs?’

‘Very funny.’ He leaned in and nipped her neck, which made her want to abandon all conversation and drag him horizontal again. ‘My ex,’ he began again, ‘turned out to be not the nicest of people. I talked to her a lot about the business when we were setting up. Which she then turned round and used against me by sleeping with one of our key competitors.’

‘No!’ Allie exclaimed.

‘Yup,’ Will said grimly, ‘and I didn’t know for ages, then it all came out when she dumped me because she realised we weren’t going to secure the next level of funding we needed and so therefore I wasn’t going to be the rich boyfriend she was after.’

Allie dropped her smart-arse responses. ‘I’m sorry, Will, that’s really horrible.’

‘Yeah, it wasn’t great. And my business partner thought a lot of it was my fault for being so trusting, and he was probably right. And so after that I kept my cards close to my chest, which was what my last girlfriend didn’t like. Oh, and the tattoo.’

‘She didn’t like your tattoo??’ Allie asked in astonishment, running her fingers up the thing of beauty that was inked up Will’s bicep.

‘Said she wouldn’t be able to take me home to meet her parents,’ he began laughing, ‘and she liked it even less when I said I wasn’t sure I wanted to meet her parents, shirtless or at all. Sorry,’ he said, grinning at Allie, ‘I’m not sure why I’m telling you all my messed-up baggage.’

Allie squinted at him. ‘I don’t think it’s messed up baggage. I guess we’re all a product of everything that’s happened to us up until this point in time. I’m kind of impressed that you have this level of self-awareness. Can’t say that many men I’ve dated do.’

‘Ah, so we’re going to take a turn through your romantic history then?’

Allie shook her head firmly. ‘Nope, you already know everything you need to know about Disappointing Dominic. So, it’s back to you, I’m afraid.’

‘OK.’ Will put his head back on the headboard, ‘well, if you really want to know why I don’t like to talk about my company so much…’ He turned his head and looked her straight in the eye. ‘I’m not crazy about the fact that a lot of my work recently has been catering for publishing events.’ He sighed. ‘Given who my dad is, I didn’t want anyone to think I was only getting the gigs because I’m some kind of nepo baby.’

Allie smothered a laugh. ‘That’s it? You really think people would think that?’

‘Wouldn’t you?’ he asked.

‘No! I’d just think it was amazing that you had set up a company and seemed to be making it a success. And doing something you loved too.’ She bit her lip. ‘I guess I was just confused as to why it wasn’t a part of your life you wanted to share with me.’

Will looked distressed. ‘That wasn’t at all my intention. To be honest, I didn’t tell you at the start, and then … well, then it just became a thing and I was planning to tell you when I got back from York.’ He paused, ‘no more secrets?’

Allie nodded and crossed her fingers behind her back, and then listened as Will explained that his business partner, Matt, the one who ran the restaurant side of the business, was keen to leave London and had started putting plans in place to do so. Matt and his wife had been married five years, they had a two-year-old little boy and another one on the way and currently lived in what could generously be described as a one-and-a-half bed flat in Pimlico but was actually a one-bed with a large cupboard. Matt’s wife was from York originally and with baby number two on the way was desperate to move back there and be closer to her family, and in a house where her children didn’t have to sleep in a glorified cupboard.

‘He’s fixed on setting up a new restaurant there himself while he trains someone in the day-to-day running of our place here.’

‘And you’ve found somewhere you think might work?’ she asked.

‘We saw one which would be amazing, if we can afford it. It’s right on the river in the centre of York. It’s already a restaurant so has some of the set-up we need, and the owners are keen to sell. But it needs investment so there’s a lot to think about.’

‘You think you’ll go for it?’

‘Looks like it. Loads of paperwork to sign and stuff to sort out but Matt seems happy with it all.’ Will paused and raised his eyebrow. ‘So, do you fancy a few weekends in York while we set up? I mean, now that you know all of my secrets.’

Allie squinted at Will, not being able to tell if he was joking or not. She had thought he was keeping things from her, keeping her at arm’s length just as she had planned to do with him. But she was failing at that and she knew it; she really liked him, and it seemed he really liked her, not just because he was now suggesting city mini breaks together, but because of all the tiny things he did each and every time he saw her. The way he reached for her unselfconsciously, the way he wanted to be close to her wherever they were. He didn’t play games. He asked to see her, he showed up, he made her feel wanted. Like, really wanted. She thought back to last night and felt a blush creep up her chest. But while Will didn’t complicate their situationship, she did, and she wasn’t sure how his feelings might change when she appraised him of that complication.

‘So what do you think? Have you been to York before?’

Allie shook her head, and took a deep breath. ‘Will?’

He looked up sharply, sensing the shift of tone in her voice.

‘Erm, we need to talk.’

‘About last night? About my dad?’

Allie nodded. She had meant to tell him last night, she really had. But when he had texted her and asked her if she was still out and could they meet up, she had diverted the cab to take her to Will’s flat. And then one thing led to another and it seemed a bit rude to break the spell by suddenly revealing her secret to him and so instead of grasping the nettle and all that she had grasped something else entirely…

Will groaned and pushed his dark hair out of his eyes. ‘I’m so sorry, it was really awkward, wasn’t it?’

Allie blinked at him. ‘What are you sorry for?’

Will shrugged. ‘I’m not sure I handled it very well and I think I could have made it a less awkward experience for you, meeting my dad I mean, as my dad.’

Allie felt a rush of desire for this dreamy man who seemed so concerned to do the right thing by her, which was quickly followed by a sinking feeling when she realised that she really hadn’t done the right thing by him at all.

‘Is this going to be too weird for you?’ Allie gave a small shake of her head, ‘I know how important you’ve become to him, even though I didn’t know it was you. But at the same time, I really, really don’t want this to end.’ He pointed at Allie and then back to himself again. Allie desperately wanted to reassure him that she didn’t want it to end either.

‘It’s so funny,’ he continued, ‘I knew he was writing again and I knew he had this writing mentor who he was meeting with regularly, but he refused to tell me much about them.’ He laughed. ‘To be honest, I pictured some grizzled old English professor, or at least someone more like his original editor, decked entirely in tweed.’

‘You mean like your dad?’

‘Hey!’ he protested. ‘Not fair. I’ve managed to whittle his tweed-wearing down to just the occasional jacket now.’

‘Congratulations,’ Allie quipped, ‘I had noticed by the way.’

Will raised his eyebrow at her. ‘Now if he had described you in the way I see you … smart, funny, sexy as hell…’ He leaned over her, putting his hands on her hips, pulling her towards him and beginning to kiss slowly up her neck. Allie thought this slightly unfair as they had already established that she became pretty much powerless when he pulled this move. She moaned slightly and put her hands in his thick dark hair. Morning breath be damned, she pulled him towards her and kissed him hard on the lips. And then just as suddenly she moaned again, for entirely different reasons this time, and pushed him away from her.

‘Will, it’s a bit more complicated than I think you believe it to be.’

He looked at her quizzically. ‘Oh?’

‘Yeah…’ She sighed. ‘So look, no more secrets right?’

Allie took a deep breath, this was it. Now she was here, he was here and she had started her confession, she needed to go for the ripping-the-plaster-off approach. If she hesitated, if she second-guessed herself, she wouldn’t be able to do it, and so she said, as quickly as she could, ‘I didn’t know at first he was your dad. I mean when I met you both for the first time I definitely didn’t know. And I honestly didn’t know that he was your dad when all this started – between you and me. And between Martin and me. God no! Not like that, that sounds weird. I mean when Martin and I, I mean your dad and I, decided to start working together and helping each other with our writing. But then I saw your photo and realised, but by then it was too late and he had told me loads about your mum and about your sister…’

Will’s face, which had been a picture of puzzled bewilderment as he listened to Allie vomit up her confession, suddenly twisted. ‘Gigi?’ he asked. ‘He told you about Gigi?’

Allie nodded slowly.

‘And about my mum?’

Allie nodded again.

There was a pause.

‘What exactly did he tell you?’ he said slowly.

‘Pretty much everything.’ Allie grimaced. ‘I mean, not like really intimate stuff, don’t worry. But about how he didn’t think he’d been a good husband, how he and Angie, sorry, your mum, hadn’t been getting along. About bailing out Gigi for years and how he needed to write this book because Gigi had already spent the advance…’

‘Christ.’ Will leaned back on his elbows on the bed. ‘That really is pretty much everything.’ He smiled grimly. ‘And there I was thinking it might be a bit weird between us because you and my dad had been helping each other write. This takes it to a whole other level. I’m really sorry you had to deal with all that.’

Allie sat up straighter. ‘Will,’ she said earnestly, ‘stop apologising. None of this is your fault.’

‘I know, but I’m just sorry you’ve got dragged into it all. I can’t imagine what gave Dad the idea that you would want to hear all about the sorry drama of our family.’

Allie swallowed nervously. ‘For my book.’

Will looked at her sideways. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked sharply.

‘It’s for my book.’

‘You’re writing about my family for your book? ’

‘Well, yes, I mean no, I mean kind of,’ Allie floundered. Finally, after looking up at the ceiling for inspiration she confessed, ‘Not your family. Just your parents.’

There was a long pause. The kind of pause that made Allie wonder if she should just get up, get dressed and leave. She cast her eyes around Will’s bedroom and wondered how long it would take her to gather up her clothes and how undignified she would look as she scrabbled about on the floor to get them. And whether this would make Will think she was more or less dignified than the revelation that she had been using his parents to write her next novel . She decided it was best to stay put and see what happened next. Because, after all, she did still have her knickers on, and was mainly covered by Will’s duvet.

Eventually Will broke the silence and said in a tight voice that Allie had never heard him use before. ‘Does my dad know?’

‘Weeelll…’ Allie almost asked him to define exactly what he meant by ‘know’, before deciding, on reflection, that the time to question semantics had long passed. ‘No, not really. I mean, he knows I’m using some of his stories as inspiration, but I don’t think he realises I’m using as much of their marriage as I actually am.’ Allie thought sadly of the half a manuscript she had sitting on her laptop and about how much of her heart, along with Martin and Angie’s love story, she had poured into it over the last few weeks. She knew it was different to any of the novels she had written before, more heartfelt, more heart-breaking in many ways. She had yet to reach the apex, the turnaround point, she was still in the darkness before the breaking of the dawn, and so Martin was still behaving like a jerk and misunderstanding the needs of Angie. And even though it was all rather sad at the moment, Allie already knew what was coming, she knew that Martin was about to embark on his grand redemptive journey, where he was going to turn things around, become the husband that Angie deserved. Allie almost started tearing up as she thought about it, crossing her fingers and hoping that her storytelling would do justice to Martin and Angie’s love story.

‘Will, tell me what you’re thinking.’ There was a note of desperation in her voice. ‘I know this is weird, I know I should have told you.’ She tugged at his hand, asking him to look at her.

‘Yes,’ he replied flatly, ‘it’s weird. I’m not sure how I feel about you … using my dad…’ His voice petered out.

‘Because of my dad?’ Allie said suddenly, remembering Jess’s accusation.

‘No. What do you mean?’

‘You think I’m using him as some kind of dad substitute because my dad is dead?’ Allie couldn’t help the defensive note that had crept into her voice.

‘Christ, no, Allie. Of course not. I never said that. I never even thought that.’

‘Sorry,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

There was a long uncomfortable silence, which Will finally broke by saying, ‘I’m not sure I can talk about this right now.’ He was standing up from the bed and beginning to reorganise his bedroom, which mainly seemed to involve picking up Allie’s discarded articles of clothing, folding them rather too aggressively and piling them in such a way as to suggest Allie would do well to get into them pretty quickly before the sentiment in the room deteriorated further.

‘I’m really sorry, Will,’ she said as she pulled her ruffled mini skirt towards her and wondered how many more times she could regret her decision to wear it. Having no other choice, other than to go home in just her knickers, she pulled it on underneath the duvet, making a very undignified hip wiggle as she struggled to straighten it.

‘For what?’ Will finally looked at her and she could see the hurt and confusion on his face. ‘For using my dad? Or for not telling me?’ Allie was stunned. She had known that this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation to have and deep down she knew that there was a good chance that Will really wasn’t going to be able to get past this. But she had so successfully buried her head in the sand that she really hadn’t prepared herself for Will’s reaction.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she stammered aware of how insufficient this now sounded. ‘I didn’t mean… I like your dad, Will, and I really like you…’

‘Not just using us to write your book then?’ A new hardened tone had entered Will’s voice and it chilled Allie’s heart to hear it, knowing she had caused it to be there.

‘No!’ she exclaimed. She stood up, thankful that she had managed to get her skirt and her bra on and as she wrestled with her T-shirt she said, ‘I know how this looks, I really do. But I never meant it to get this far. I should have told you sooner, that I knew who your dad was and that we were working together. And I really should have told Martin that I was using his stories as more than just inspiration.’

‘But you didn’t?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ she said quietly. ‘And I am sorry.’

Will was staring at the floor. His look screamed dejection. Eventually he sighed and looked at what he was holding in his hand. He thrust it at Allie. ‘I think these are yours too.’

If there was a worse way of experiencing the morning-after effect Allie didn’t want to know about it. Because right now she was sure that nothing beat standing in your maybe boyfriend’s bedroom, who you really, really liked, knowing you had majorly fucked things up and that there was a good chance he might never talk to you again, and that you had a half written book which needed to go straight into the trash folder as soon as you got home, leaving you with nothing to show the next time Jake Matthews made his unwelcome present felt, and you were now clutching yesterday’s sweaty socks that the aforementioned dejected maybe boyfriend had just handed you. Allie stood ungainly on one leg as she put her socks on.

‘Should I go?’ she eventually asked.

Will took a deep breath and just for a moment Allie thought he might be about to have a change of heart and that a reprieve could be on the cards. But then he said, ‘I think that might be for the best. I feel there’s a lot I need to think about.’

Allie nodded sadly. ‘OK.’ She walked towards his front door, bending to pick up her shoes and bag as she passed them. On the doorstep she turned. ‘I’ll talk to Martin, OK? I’ll explain everything and I’ll delete the manuscript.’ She bit her lip and looked up at him. ‘Will, I’m so sorry.’

He smiled weakly and said he knew she was, and then suddenly Allie was stood in her socks on the wrong side of Will’s front door, not wondering how she had got here, because she knew exactly how it had happened, and that it was all her own fault.