Chapter 2
Milly sat in her large, luxury flat, her hands clasped in her lap, her long blonde hair falling around her face as she stared down at her fingers.
She couldn’t believe she’d walked in on Tom in flagrante with Claire from Accounts.
Surely she was dreaming. Surely this wasn’t happening.
It was like she was floating, watching her life happen from the sidelines, but then the pain was so real, viscerally tearing her heart apart that she knew it was really happening.
This was her new reality. Her new single reality.
She reached for her phone hoping to see something from Tom: a missed call, a message …
anything. Anything but a stupid photo of the two of them together, smiling at the camera, their gurning faces staring out at her from under the numerous apps that littered the screen.
She didn’t normally do this type of thing – share this much of her personal life – but before she could stop herself, she stood, held up her phone and began recording.
‘My top life hack of the day … don’t have joint accounts even when you’re married.
I’m not married, thankfully.’ She scoffed and it almost turned into a sob, but she pressed down the wave of sadness threatening to engulf her.
‘But I’ve just found my boyfriend necking it with someone else in the stationery cupboard at work.
So, for the sake of those times when your relationship falls down the toilet faster than you can say “what the hell were you doing?”, always have your own bank account.
’ She pointed at the screen emphatically to emphasise her point.
‘Set up a joint account for bills and things if you like but keep your own money separate because, if we lived together, if we were having to split financials that would be …’ Words failed her as the humiliating moment of catching him sprang into her mind again.
‘That would be even worse than this. So there, you go. Top tip of the day. Enjoy.’ She lowered the camera, then swooped it back up to her face.
‘Oh, and men called Tom suck. Just saying.’
She stopped filming and posted the video without even bothering to edit it, collapsing back on the sofa again.
Before she could think of what to do next, her phone started ringing.
She leapt up, praying Tom was man enough to call, needing an explanation as to why he’d done this awful horrible thing.
Why he hadn’t just talked to her? She hadn’t realised he was unhappy.
She hadn’t spotted any signs that they were in trouble.
Had she been stupid or had he just been sneaky? Maybe it was both.
Her best friend’s name, along with her cheesy grin filled the screen and Milly swiped to answer.
‘What the heck was that video all about?’ Ada asked, concern creasing her brow. The sun was shining behind her, flooding the windows of the canal house she lived in, in Copenhagen.
Ada and Milly had been friends since they were children.
They’d done everything together, including going to the same university and ending up with similar corporate careers until a few years ago when Ada had faced burnout from her high-pressure job in mergers and acquisitions, and had instead opted to up and move to Denmark – a place she’d never been except for a long weekend – all because the word ‘hygge’ had been trending and it had spoken to something inside her.
She’d gone in a matter of weeks to finally pursue her twin passions for photography and animals and had retrained as a wildlife photographer, forging a new, successful career seamlessly.
Now she was travelling here, there and everywhere, coming back to Denmark in between and photographing every type of animal you could think of.
To say Milly had been surprised by her move was an understatement, and she still didn’t really understand what hygge meant, but then Ada was always better at taking chances than her.
She’d always wanted to be more like her friend but had never had the courage.
‘That was quick,’ Milly replied. ‘I literally only just posted.’
‘I was sitting here, wasting time when I should have been doing other, more important things. Lucky for you.’ She tucked her long brown hair behind her ear. ‘What’s happened, Mills?’
After taking a deep breath she told Ada everything about the morning, including Tom’s attempt to inspect Claire from Accounts’ tonsils while simultaneously checking her bra size, the email about sabbaticals and to top it all, the lump she had from the stapler landing on her head.
She gently touched the small bump that had formed, then pushed her fingers underneath her glasses to swipe away a tear.
Ada whistled. ‘That’s quite a lot for a Monday morning.’
‘Isn’t it?’
Ada’s voice softened and her expression filled with concern, her big brown eyes wide. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know. After this morning, I’m seriously thinking of asking for a sabbatical. I could work on my content for three months, see if things really take off.’
‘What do you mean really take off? You’ve got nearly half a million followers already, that’s pretty impressive.’
‘Yeah, but sometimes I feel like I’m not giving my community value because I have to get content made and out there at the end of a busy day and it’s not the quality I’d like. Not that I’d ever make it a career but—’
‘Why not?’ Ada said. ‘You totally could.’
Milly sighed. ‘You always say that but it’s not …’
‘Not what?’
‘Stable. A normal career. Could you imagine what my mother would say?’ She sighed. ‘Maybe I’m just dreading going back into the office and seeing him and Claire and everyone else whispering about me. Urgh! It sucks!’
‘Listen,’ Ada said, her voice suddenly serious. ‘I wasn’t going to say anything yet, because I was waiting on confirmation, but I’m pretty sure I’m about to land a brilliant gig photographing Arctic foxes in their changing summer habitat.’
‘You always say the coolest things.’
Ada’s change of career had made her even happier, and Milly envied that level of job satisfaction.
‘I do, don’t I?’ The two grinned at each other and it lifted Milly’s spirits a little. ‘But my point is, my room here will be available.’
Ada lived in a shared canal house in a particularly picturesque part of Copenhagen.
While it might seem weird for people in their late twenties to live in a shared house here in England, it was perfectly normal in Denmark.
In fact, it was encouraged to help with loneliness and protect mental health, and Ada had certainly seemed happier since she’d moved there.
And for Ada, who was always darting off on new adventures, camera in hand, not having a mortgage or a huge rent suited her perfectly.
‘You could come out here for a while,’ Ada continued. ‘I’ll be away for ages, only nipping back now and then, but you could take a holiday at least. Or …’ She paused, clearly thinking, and Milly waited.
‘Or what?’ Milly said when she couldn’t take the suspense any longer.
‘Well … you know that café I co-own with my housemate?’
‘Yeah?’ Milly replied nervously. She’d never been sure about this investment of Ada’s.
Not long after moving to Copenhagen and finding her house-share, Ada had suddenly announced she was investing in her housemate’s café.
Naturally, Milly had worried it was some sort of scam.
Ada, like Milly, had a good financial buffer from her corporate job, but Ada had assured her it wasn’t.
She’d said she was learning to trust her instincts more, and as she still had some business sense from her old career, she was one hundred per cent sure about it.
Milly had worried it was another rash decision and one that, unlike the photography, wasn’t going to end well.
According to Ada, her housemate had been reluctant to accept her money as they lived together and didn’t want things to get weird, but she’d assured him she was happy to help and could see the café’s potential.
The word ‘potential’ still worried Milly and now her nerves were tingling.
‘Well—’ Ada continued. ‘It’s not going as well as we’d like. You could help actually! You’re so good with money and helping people achieve financial success; you could give us your expertise.’
‘What like, consult?’
Ada’s brown eyes widened, and she nodded so vigorously her dark hair bounced around her face. ‘Yeah, kind of. And you could make content out of it too. Copenhagen is beautiful as well, so you won’t be disappointed. You’ll love exploring here.’
Guilt bit at Milly that she hadn’t come out to visit in the eighteen months since Ada had moved. She’d always wanted to, but holidays had been spent with Tom (the evil heartbreaker) or visiting her mum. Which reminded her of another stumbling block.
‘If I take a sabbatical to consult on a failing café in Copenhagen—’
‘Hey! We’re not failing exactly; we’re just … not as busy as we’d like to be.’
‘Sorry.’ Milly chastised herself at her thoughtlessness. ‘But if I take a sabbatical for this, what will Mum say? She’ll freak out; you know what she’s like.’
Milly’s mum was more than just cautious when it came to her only child’s welfare.
She had a full-time job in worrying and a PhD in parental anxiety.
It was only in the last year or so she’d stopped texting several times a day to check Milly was eating regularly, sleeping well and generally looking after herself, but she wasn’t sure how she’d react if she told her she was off to Denmark for the summer.
She always understood why her mum reacted as she did.
There were plenty of things that explained it, like her dad walking out on them when she was in her late teens, not to mention the accident.
He’d been out of the picture for years and apart from Christmas and birthdays they had barely any contact now.
Her mum had always been there and because of that, Milly didn’t want to cause her any more upset, but she couldn’t live her life like that forever.
Denmark for the summer. A niggle of excitement grew stronger in her stomach until it felt tight and fluttery.
She really did fancy a break from her boring job, and if she was advising a business she’d get it paid for by her firm through the sabbatical programme.
What’s more, the idea of working on her sideline was the only thing that made her happy on a day-to-day basis and would help chase away the pain of Tom’s affair.
Because it was definitely over between them – of that she was certain.
Trust had been broken and she’d never, ever be able to believe him again.
‘Won’t your housemate mind?’
‘Theo? No! Of course not.’
‘And is he okay with me advising on the café?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Have you actually talked to him about it? I’m guessing not as we’ve only just spoken.’
‘No, but honestly, it’ll be fine. He knows we need a bit of oomph.’
‘Oomph?’
‘Yeah. Oomph.’ She gave a single, sharp, authoritative nod.
Milly stared around her flat at the high-end furnishings, the fluffy carpet, and beige lamps.
They were all things she enjoyed owning, things that made her feel safe and secure, but she wasn’t exactly loving her life.
Not in the same way Ada did. Maybe a summer in Copenhagen would be the break she needed so she could come back here and pick up her career with renewed enthusiasm.
She’d never loved it, but her enjoyment of it had been waning even more lately.
And by then, no one would be talking about her, or Tom, or Claire from Accounts because some other gossip would have overtaken it.
This could work, she suddenly realised. This could actually work.
That niggle of excitement grew stronger.
‘Let me talk to my boss,’ she said, pushing her glasses up her nose, and Ada squealed so loudly that for the first time that day, Milly laughed.
‘I have to ask though, what are you going to do about Tom?’
Milly looked down at her phone and started swiping the screen knowing that all Ada could see was a finger jabbing. A second later she said, ‘There. Blocked.’
‘You don’t want to talk to him at all?’
‘And say what? He showed me exactly how he feels about me, or should I say exactly how he feels about someone else, today. There’s nothing to be said.’
‘You don’t want to hear what he has to say for himself? I’m not saying you should or that it should change your mind,’ Ada added hastily. ‘To be honest, I don’t think you owe him anything and he doesn’t deserve any more of your time. I just mean, you should talk to him if you want to.’
‘I don’t.’
‘Will you have closure without it?’
Milly sat for a moment, thinking it through.
Whatever reason he gave, it wouldn’t be enough.
In her books there was no excuse for cheating.
He should have split up with her first if he had feelings for someone else.
She’d never bought the whole ‘It just happened’ excuse and as she looked around her flat she realised that, as she’d said with the financials, their lives were actually quite separate.
He had one or two bits here, a deodorant and toothbrush in the bathroom.
A shirt and pants in a drawer in her bedroom, but this was her flat, her domain.
Their lives had never fully intertwined in the four years they’d been together.
‘Yes, I think I will,’ she replied calmly.
Though she still felt raw, bruised, and betrayed, the idea of moving forwards eased the pain. She wasn’t even sure how much she’d actually miss him. ‘I can’t imagine him saying anything other than excuses I don’t want to hear, and I could never go back. You know I’m not like that.’
‘I know.’ They shared a short, sweet silence of understanding like only friends who know each other inside and out can.
‘You’re going to love it here, Milly,’ Ada continued.
‘The canal house is gorgeous, the café is sweet and just needs a little bit of your expert help, and you’ll love Copenhagen too.
I can totally see you embracing the hygge lifestyle. ’
‘What does that even mean?’ Milly replied, emphatically.
Ada giggled. ‘I guess you’re going to find out!’