The Plot Twist

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

‘L et me get this straight.’

Allie braced herself for whatever Jess was about to throw at her; she knew this tone, she had previous experience of being on the end of it.

‘You told your ex, Dominic – Disappointing Dominic – the man who, after breaking up with you, left your flat in the car of his new girlfriend, the exact time and place of a party you are going to?’

‘Yes and?’ Allie was failing to grasp what Jess was getting at.

‘Don’t you think he’ll have taken that as an invitation to turn up?’

‘No!’ exclaimed Allie in absolute disbelief. ‘Of course not, why would he?’

‘Because,’ sighed Jess, ‘he came round to your flat because he wanted to see you, because he’s hoping you’ll take him back.’

‘No!’ interjected Allie again.

‘And then you tell him exactly where he can find you on Friday night?’ Jess continued, ignoring Allie’s protestations. ‘What were you thinking, Allie? He just told you he’d split up with his new girlfriend, an open invite to see if you were still interested!’

‘Not his girlfriend,’ interjected Allie.

‘Not the point,’ sing songed Jess in return. She was really not impressed with Allie, and given the circumstances, and the way in which Jess had just presented her with the evidence, Allie was beginning to understand why.

‘I have one question … why?’ There was a muffled exchange on the end of the phone while Jess pointed out one or more flaws in the house that she and Tom were viewing that day. ‘No, not there.’ Jess sounded exasperated and Allie kind of hoped that, much as she loved Tom, it was him testing Jess’s patience that day and not her. ‘It’s not going to fit there, is it?’ There was a pause. ‘Over there, yes, it could definitely fit in that space.’

‘Going well, is it?’ Allie asked.

Jess harrumphed in response. ‘It’s a nice house, good location. Just trying to work out if we’ll fit my wardrobe in any of the bedrooms.’

Allie said nothing. The size of Jess’s wardrobe had been the sticking point to every single flat and house move of the last decade. Sometimes it was nice that nothing changed, and sometimes Allie wished that Tom had the guts just to tell Jess that her antique wardrobe would have to find a new home.

‘Anyway, beside the point. Please tell me why you told Dominic about this party?’

‘Oh, I don’t know. He turned up all contrite, and I was feeling vulnerable and didn’t think it through. You don’t actually think he’s going to turn up, do you?’

‘I think there’s a good chance…’

Allie thought this over. ‘I guess it would be nice not to go to the party on my own.’

‘No!’ It was Jess’s turn to protest. ‘Do not even go there. If you want a date, you could ask me.’

‘No, I can’t. You’re leaving me, remember? Moving out of London,’ Allie said sulkily.

‘Al,’ Jess said in a warning tone, ‘not fair. I haven’t moved yet and anyway I’m not leaving you.’

‘Whatever,’ Allie muttered.

‘Don’t whatever me. You should make sure Dominic hasn’t got the wrong idea.’

‘He has not got the wrong idea. I made it quite plain that I was not interested in getting back together with him.’

‘Oh, you did, did you? And how did you go about doing that?’

Allie thought back to her conversation with Dominic and struggled to work out exactly where she had made it crystal clear that she was not interested in having him back in her life. It was glaringly obvious to her but perhaps not so glaringly obvious to Dominic and perhaps, god forbid, Jess had a point and that she had made a terrible terrible mistake just by allowing Dominic back through her front door.

‘Just don’t blame me if this all comes back to bite you…’

Allie stuck two fingers up at her phone and silently wished for Tom to finally win the battle of the antique wardrobe.

* * *

‘I’m so glad you came!’ Verity engulfed Allie in a hug, wrapping her in a floaty delight of orchid patterned silk and her signature scent of verbena and lemon, which Verity seemingly now knew to spritz rather than douse and was all the more appealing and less suffocating for.

‘Of course I came,’ came Allie’s muffled reply, ensconced as she was somewhere close to Verity’s boobs. She extracted herself as tactfully as she dared. ‘It’s a celebration, right?’

‘It is a celebration, isn’t it?’ Verity’s eyes flashed with excitement. ‘We did it, Allie, we really did it.’

Allie shook her head. ‘Oh no, I take no credit for this. You did this Verity, you and Tessa. Is she coming tonight?’ Allie looked around the crowded room wondering just how many authors Verity was responsible for now and suppressing a moment of panic that maybe Verity really didn’t have time for her and all her nonsense.

‘She said she might. I think it’s been a lot for her the past few days. She’s been so brave, but she’s had to do a lot of talking to a lot of people, and I think another round of that, albeit in a party situation, might just be too much.’

‘Yeah, of course. The poor kid. I still feel bad about dismissing her and thinking of her as just one of Jake’s lackeys.’

‘Don’t.’ Verity took Allie’s hand. ‘Remember, she said it was partly you who inspired her to tell the truth about Jake.’

Allie looked at Verity sceptically.

‘This comes direct from Tessa herself,’ Verity continued, ‘she said you gave off an air of not giving a shit, about not believing in Jake’s special brand of coercive control, and it gave her the courage to do the same.’

Allie raised her eyebrows. ‘Wow, well, I’m glad that my total bafflement in the face of insidious evil worked out this time. Will you say hi from me next time you see her? Will she come back and work for you at Brinkman’s? Now that you practically run the place!’

Verity wafted her hand in dismissal. ‘Oh, don’t be silly, I don’t run the place.’

‘You don’t?’ Allie questioned teasingly. ‘Remind me of your new job title?’

‘Publisher.’ Verity coughed and looked slightly embarrassed.

‘Sounds like you run the place to me.’

‘Well, I am the boss of you , so don’t go forgetting that, will you?’

‘Absolutely not.’

‘Good. Now about this plan of yours, for your book. How’s that coming along? Of course, I am one hundred per cent in charge now,’ Verity grinned at Allie, ‘but I still don’t think I can swing you any more extensions.’

‘I’ve got it all under control,’ Allie confirmed. The butterflies in her tummy were trying to persuade her otherwise, but she felt more and more confident with each chapter that she wrote.

‘Good. By the way, you should try some of the canapés here, they’re really good.’ Verity winked at Allie and then saw someone over her shoulder, and with a ‘Darling!’ she raced off to greet the newcomer, leaving Allie confused by that wink.

Allie made her way to the bar and picked up what looked like a margarita from a silver tray. She took a sip and turned round to face the room, wondering who she might know that she could talk to and wishing that Martin would have a change of heart and would turn up, bringing Angie with him. But on second thoughts, Allie decided maybe she wasn’t quite ready to face Angie yet. Soon, yes, but she needed a little more time to work on something first.

She raised her glass to a couple of authors she recognised, and was just about to make her way over to say hello when she felt a hand on her elbow and a platter of canapés came into view under her nose. She took a sharp intake of breath, immediately realising why Verity had winked at her when she mentioned the food and cursing herself for not thinking this could happen.

‘Hi,’ she said and turned to look up at Will, who was, of course, the person holding the tray.

‘Hi,’ he said gently, the corner of his mouth turning up in a slight smile. She bit her lip, not daring to hope what that faint smile might suggest.

‘You’ll be pleased to see that management took your feedback seriously and implemented some changes…’ Will held the platter a little higher, his grin spreading across his face.

‘What? Oh, I see!’ Allie looked down at the platter, seeing row upon row of tiny, perfectly formed vol au vents, filled to just the right level with no risk of spillage and no need for more than one hand.

‘You want to try?’

Allie took one and lifted it to her mouth, flushing slightly as Will watched her carefully.

‘Perfectly bite-sized?’ he asked.

Allie flushed a deeper red. ‘Are we still talking about the canapés?’

‘Do you want us to be?’ Will held her gaze.

‘Not really, no.’ She bit her lip again, and then a grin broke out on her face. ‘It’s nice to see you. I probably should have guessed you’d be catering for this.’

‘Because I’m a spoilt nepo baby?’

‘Yes, precisely for that reason.’

‘Well, I thought about turning it down, just to prove a point. But then Verity showed me the guest list and suddenly it seemed hard to say no…’

‘I’m glad you said yes,’ she exhaled breathily. ‘Look, Will, I’m not sure here is the right place to talk properly, but I want you to know how sorry I am for what I did and how it all went down.’ Will waved away her attempt at an apology. ‘No,’ Allie insisted, ‘I should have told you as soon as I realised, and I definitely should have told you, and your dad, exactly how much of the book was based on his story.’

‘Allie, stop.’ Will put his hand on her arm, which made her not want to stop anything at all. ‘I owe you an explanation. I shouldn’t have shut down like I did that morning. I shouldn’t have let you leave.’

‘Not sure you actually let me do anything,’ Allie half-muttered and it was Will’s turn to flush.

‘You’re right. I behaved really badly. I shouldn’t have made you leave.’

Allie looked up at him. ‘So, what changed?’

‘I did. I did a lot of soul searching. Been doing a lot of work on myself.’ He said this with such a po-face that Allie couldn’t help but laugh.

‘So, what did you find on that soul searching mission?’ she questioned, raising an eyebrow in such a way that her nine-year-old self would have been immensely proud of, justifying as it did all that time and effort practising in the mirror.

‘I found that I was a pompous ass and that I shouldn’t shut down just because a situation overwhelms me emotionally.’

At this Allie really did laugh. ‘Therapy?’

Will nodded. ‘I’m a work in progress. And the other thing I found on my soul search was that I really, really didn’t like my life without you in it. And that if my parents were fine about you using their story as inspiration then I really didn’t have an issue with it either.’

‘I am sorry Will. I should have?—’

Will interrupted her. ‘Allie, it’s OK. I actually don’t think you need my forgiveness, but knowing you, I expect you’ll be worrying about this until you have it. So, you have it, OK?’ He took her hand in his and then pulled her closer to him, his head resting on hers, his lips in her hairline as he whispered, ‘You have my heart, too.’

Allie went wobbly. She reached to the side, putting her cocktail glass down on the bar, grateful it was still in close proximity. It all seemed so easy … too easy? She’d never been so swept off her feet before, she’d never felt so clear on how she felt about a guy before. With Dominic, they had danced around their feelings for each other; every so often, when he had one too many beers and his face was a little shiny and red, he would call her ‘his girl’, and tell her she was the one for him. But it never felt as certain and stomach swoopingly delicious as hearing Will whisper these words into her ear. She pulled back and looked up at him. ‘I think you have mine, too.’

Will laughed. ‘You think?’

‘Well, let’s not jump the gun. You can’t sweep in here expecting me to declare my intentions when I have only seen one of your trays of improved canapés so far.’

‘We’re definitely not talking about the food, are we?’

Allie stood on her tiptoes and reached up, pulling Will’s head towards her, finding his lips with hers. ‘No, we’re not.’

‘Okaaay,’ Will exhaled deeply. ‘I should go check on the rest of the food and, erm, I guess we should save this for later? I don’t want everyone here thinking this is what they get as a side order tonight.’

‘I’m the only one who gets you as a side order tonight…’ Allie picked up her margarita and put it to her lips before saying, ‘I think we’re done with the food-related double entendres tonight. Should we agree on that?’

‘I agree with anything you say.’ Will squeezed her waist. ‘How long are you staying?’

‘How long do you have to stay?’

Will looked around the room. ‘Think you can entertain yourself for half an hour while I check everything is OK? My van is parked round the corner, I could meet you there?’

Allie’s smile couldn’t get any bigger. ‘Absolutely,’ she said.

* * *

For Allie, the next half an hour was one of the longest of her life. She caught a glimpse of Will a couple of times and each time she did her heart did the sort of thump that would have made her worry she was having a heart attack if she didn’t know with complete certainty that it was the promise of meeting up with Will later that was having that effect. She didn’t want to be the annoying party guest who constantly checked her watch and as she knew she was on thin ice with Verity she wanted to be seen to be politely chatting to fellow authors, enquiring about the lives of the publicity team, who never seemed to ever get asked those sorts of questions and always seemed so surprised to even be thought of, which made Allie feel uncomfortable, given these were the people who consistently anticipated every author’s need. But she was all out of oohs and aahs, having been subjected to dozens of baby photos from a publicity manager who appeared to be fresh back from maternity leave and wasn’t yet comfortable with being more than arm’s length from her child. Happily, the death of the publicist’s phone battery coincided with the half hour being up and so Allie left the poor woman to frantically go searching for a charger so that she could check in one more time with her presumably long-suffering partner at home. Allie secretly thought that the partner might be quite relieved not to be subjected to constant demands for updates on the sleeping/feeding/pooping of their baby.

Allie was halfway down the stairs that led from the private function room down to the street-level public drinking area when she came face to face with Dominic, and so surprised was she that she put out a hand to stabilise herself and found it resting on his chest. She quickly moved it, but not before she noticed a rather smug, pleased-with-himself expression cross Dominic’s already shiny face.

‘Dom!’ she exclaimed. ‘What are you doing here?’ She quickly thought back to Jess’s words of warning and not for the first time wondered whether the universe was conspiring against her.

‘I thought it would be a nice surprise.’

Allie wondered how best to phrase the proper response, which should have been. ‘Well it’s not, please leave,’ and, because she really couldn’t help herself she politely settled for an ambiguous, ‘Erm, OK, it’s a surprise certainly.’

‘And I brought you this.’

Allie peered at the item that Dominic was now brandishing towards her.

‘What is that?’

‘Tweezers.’

‘Tweezers? Why did you bring tweezers to a party to surprise me with?’

‘They’re yours.’

‘They are?’

‘Yes, I forgot to put them in that box I brought round the other day, so I thought I ought to bring them to you. And as I knew you were going to be here…’ Dominic tailed off, and he looked from Allie to the pair of tweezers he was now holding limply in one hand. If he had more self-awareness, Allie might even begin to think he was realising how ridiculous his excuse sounded.

‘I also thought you might want some support. I thought if I came along about now you might be ready to leave and I could give you a good excuse to do so.’ He paused. ‘You are leaving, aren’t you?’ His face brightened. ‘See? Perfect timing. I can get us an Uber.’ He reached in his pocket for his phone.

‘Will they be driving a red sports car?’

‘Allie, I said I’m sorry.’

‘Yes, and I hadn’t said I’d forgiven you.’ She thought back to her conversation with Will earlier that evening. How loaded it had been with attraction, how easy it had been and how far it was from this awkward exchange with Dominic, which was loaded only with recriminations and an eye on the closest available emergency exit.

‘Well look, Dom, I wish you’d told me you were thinking of coming, because I would have told you not to.’ She watched him try to digest this news and then compose his features accordingly. Dominic had never been the sort of man to not have the world arrange itself in ways solely to please him. ‘And if it was about the tweezers I could have just told you that I bought another pair.’

‘I thought we could go get dinner, you and me?’ He raised an eyebrow as he suggested this and once again Allie couldn’t help but compare this to the effect that Will had on her when he raised his eyebrow.

‘Dominic. No. I think you got the wrong end of the stick when I invited you in the other day. I don’t want to go for dinner with you, I don’t want to get back together with you and I really don’t need rescuing tonight.’ She started down the stairs past him, keen to put as much distance between her and Dominic as possible and wishing that Georgian-era builders had the foresight to build slightly wider staircases, so that one wasn’t forced to make bodily contact with ex-boyfriends when trying to leave parties. ‘Sorry, excuse me,’ she said as she awkwardly navigated Dominic’s body, which could have been a metaphor for the entirety of their sex life.

‘Come on, let’s just go get a drink?’ Dominic’s tone was switching from authoritative to plaintive.

‘No, Dom. I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have just turned up here for many, many reasons. Firstly because I didn’t invite you, and second because … to be honest, this is going to be awkward.’ By now Allie was stood on the pavement outside the pub, Dominic hot on her heels. She looked around for Will’s van, wondering where exactly he had parked and whether she could shake Dominic off before she had to make incredibly uncomfortable introductions. Or whether it might be possible just to jump in the front seat of the van and shout ‘drive’ at Will, leaving Dominic spluttering in a cloud of exhaust fumes. But even that would require an explanation, and given she still felt she was on shaky grounds with Will in regards to being upfront and honest, she didn’t feel keen to pretend that Dominic was an overzealous marketing manager, who was desperate to try and get her to record bonus material for the audio book.

On all these points she needn’t have worried, because she quickly spotted Will’s van, parked as he had said it was on the corner of the side street. Except it wasn’t really parked, it already had its lights on and the engine running and was now beginning to pull away from the curb. Allie put up a hand to attract Will’s attention, he must be going round the back of the pub to collect more things, or perhaps he was looking for a better parking space. Because, yes, that space that the van was now rapidly exiting did look like it might be too small. But now the van was speeding up, and now it was pulling into the main road and going just a little too fast to beat those lights and to get as far away from the pub outside which Allie was standing and outside which she had arranged to meet Will.

‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, wondering what to make of this new development.

‘That’s the caterer’s van. Looks like he’s finished for the night.’

‘Yes,’ agreed Allie sadly, it really did look like he had. ‘Wait…’ She turned towards Dominic and held up an accusatory finger. ‘How do you know that’s Will’s van?’

‘Who’s Will?’ Dominic looked confused. ‘Oh right, the catering guy. I didn’t know his name.’

‘OK, but how do you know he was the catering guy?’

‘We were chatting.’

Allie’s eyes narrowed and she advanced menacingly towards Dominic who seemed aware of the shift in temperature of this exchange, which had gone from testy to properly threatening in the space of time it had taken them to walk down the stairs and out into the street.

‘And what,’ Allie’s eyes were now boring a hole into Dominic, ‘exactly were you “chatting” about?’ Allie said the word ‘chatting’ in the tone of voice more commonly associated with gangsters.

’Just … just…’ Dominic looked suddenly very aware that Will wasn’t ‘just’ that catering guy; the penny was dropping. ‘Well,’ he floundered, ‘I helped him carry some of those trays out to his car, held the door open and such…’ His voice petered out.

‘And what did you discuss while you were being ever so helpful?’ asked Allie in an icy tone.

‘He asked me why I was here, and I told him I was here to meet you,’ Dominic blurted out.

Allie knew what was coming next, it was so obvious, and she cursed herself for ever letting Dominic back through her front door and then having the stupidity to mention tonight to him. She took a deep breath, deciding to rip the plaster off. ‘Dominic, think very carefully.’ She hoped her measured tone struck fear into Dominic. ‘Did you, or did you not, suggest that there might be something going on between the two of us?’

The chatter of the people drinking in the pub reverberated around the question she posed. The door swung open behind them, two men making their way to the designated outside smoking zone, cigarettes already between their lips. The lights up the road, the ones Will’s van had so recently sped through, changed once again and still Dominic said nothing, he stared down at his feet.

‘Dominic!’ Allie shouted, making both Dominic and the smokers jump. ‘Just answer me.’

‘I might have done,’ he admitted in a quiet voice.

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, what were you thinking?’

‘I was hoping… Are you and he…’ He pointed up the road in the direction Will’s van had travelled. ‘Are you two seeing each other?’

Despite her rage Allie could see how much this question pained Dominic, and she didn’t really have a good answer. Was she seeing Will? She certainly had been at one point, and then she hadn’t. But she had hoped earlier on this evening that she might be again, and now… given what Dominic had said, and the way Will had left, she very much felt that all the signs were pointing towards not – they were not seeing each other. Allie felt tired and dizzy at all the comings and goings, the changes, about Dominic showing up here, about Will leaving so quickly, and at all the very many words she still had to write to keep Verity and the Brinkman lawyers happy. One thing she did know for certain, was that it really was none of Dominic’s business who Will was or was not to her.

‘Oh, go home, Dominic,’ she said wearily, ‘and let’s agree not to contact each other again. You can keep the tweezers.’ She turned on her heel and walked off towards home.