Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
I t was like Groundhog Day. Allie was back at her computer, crashing out the words, Will had gone AWOL, presumably trying to make sense of what on earth was going on and whether he could ever trust her again and Jess was repeatedly calling her asking her to go to an exhibition opening later on that week.
‘Absolutely not,’ Allie had said upon hearing where the exhibition was being held.
‘Why not?’ whined Jess in her annoying but ultimately effective tone that almost always resulted in Allie doing whatever she was demanding she do.
‘I don’t ever want to go back there.’
‘To the V&A?’ Jess sounded bemused by Allie’s vehemence.
‘Yes. Never going there again.’
‘Okay, care to elaborate?’
‘It’s where I met Will. Don’t want to be reminded.’ Allie was only half listening to Jess as she was busy re-reading through what she hoped might be the final draft of her novel. But her ears had pricked up when she had heard Jess say ‘V&A’ and immediately she was back there, where all of this had begun, ogling Will’s forearms, trying to negotiate his unwieldy canapés and wishing they were on speaking terms so that she could see if she could make him laugh with that euphemism.
‘Strictly speaking, didn’t you meet him outside the V&A?’
‘Semantics.’ Allie was keen to get Jess off the line and rewrite an especially clunky sentence she had just spotted.
‘Well, you would be accompanying me inside the V&A, so technically you’d be OK.’
‘And how would you expect me to get inside the V&A, without first being outside the V&A?’ Allie could feel her resolve wavering. ‘Why can’t Tom go with you?’
‘He’s away. LA, work, again,’ Jess said morosely. ‘Please?’ She paused. ‘And anyway, soon enough we’ll move and I won’t be in London to go to these events.’
Allie started. ‘Hang on, you promised things wouldn’t change? Jess? Jess, you promised we’d still do things together?’
‘Well, it will be hard to say yes to tickets to these sorts of things if I don’t know that you’ll agree to go with me.’ And there it was – game, set and match to Jess.
Allie seethed ‘Fine. OK. On one condition though.’
‘Anything,’ Jess replied in a sickeningly saccharine tone.
‘That I’ve finished my first drafts before then.’
‘Suppose so. How close to finishing are you, honestly?’
‘Pretty close.’ Allie couldn’t keep the note of excitement out of her voice. Because despite everything, she knew what she was going to do and she still had a smidgeon of hope that it might just be enough for her redemptive arc, to stand as a grand romantic gesture and so that everyone (Will in particular) would forgive her. ‘Close enough that it should all be done by Friday.’
‘OK,’ Jess replied somewhat sulkily. ‘Write faster though, OK? I’ve got a fabulous dress and it has been making “take me out” eyes at me ever since it came into my life.’
Allie snorted with laughter. ‘Got it. Can I go now?’
Jess agreed that yes, Allie could indeed go. Allie put her phone face down and silenced it so she wouldn’t be interrupted again. She looked up into the garden where just that morning her friend the robin had returned. It was the first morning Allie had seen him since she had banged on the glass and frightened him away. Allie had spent an inordinate amount of time researching the best seed for robins and an obscene amount of money on purchasing said seed. And then finally, this morning, it had paid off. She raised a hand in greeting. The robin startled, as if expecting the crazy woman to pound on the glass again, but then he fixed her with his beady eye and if Allie could speak bird she was sure he would be saying, ‘What are you waiting for? Get on with it then.’ So she did as she was told and went back to her writing.