‘Oh, Anna, I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Anna put a hand on her friend’s arm. ‘You weren’t to know.’
‘No, but you should have. I can understand why Lucinda didn’t tell you, but what about Daniel?’
‘He forgot.’ Anna’s tone was heavy with sarcasm.
‘Typical bloke.’
‘I think he just assumed I would know.’ Anna shook her head. ‘Sometimes I don’t think he sees the difference between us.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’m not from his world. I’m not used to posh restaurants, fancy balls and designer clothes. Even if they weren’t all being so vile to me, I think I’d still feel like a fish out of water.’
‘I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Not being like one of them is a good thing. I thought I was living my best life being a model, but sitting here in this hospital bed, with so much time on my hands, it’s given me plenty of time to think about my life. I thought the models I worked with were my friends, but in all the time I’ve been here, only one of them has come to visit me, and I’m sure that was more out of curiosity than anything else. You’ve been a better friend to me than any of them and I didn’t even know you before.’
‘Oh!’ Anna felt a lump form in her throat and tears welled in her eyes. Eva was such a lovely person. She deserved to have a close circle of friends.
‘I’ve come to realise that what I had before wasn’t friendship. It was more a question of keeping your enemies close. Everyone is competition, you see, and no one trusts anyone. They pretendto, so that they can find out what’s going on in everyone’s life, but really it’s all just fake. I don’t want that in my life anymore.’
‘I can see why. So have you decided what you do want?’
‘Yes. I’m going to get back on my feet.’ She laughed. ‘Quite literally. And together we are going to create a bestselling book, which is going to make our fortune.’
Anna laughed with her. ‘I wish.’
‘Well, it will be a start at least. You know, I earned quite a bit of money when I was modelling, and I was working so hard and trying to live a healthy lifestyle so that I could stay in the game, I didn’t really have much to spend it on. I’ll be comfortable for a while, but, now, I’ve realised that I want to help other people. I’m not quite sure how, but I’m just going to take one day at a time.’
Anna nodded. ‘That’s a good philosophy.’ She’d been overthinking her and Daniel’s relationship. She needed to take a leaf out of Eva’s book and concentrate on the now, on what she wanted to achieve.
‘It’s a shame you won’t be able to come to my exhibition, but it’s in Chester and will be too far for you to travel.’
‘I know. I was hoping to be there too. To be honest, I don’t think I’d have been able to make it yet, even if it had been in London. But you won’t be able to stop me from being there in the future.’
‘That’s something to work towards, then. For both of us.’
‘One exhibition in particular,’ Eva said enigmatically.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I did have one visitor recently,’ Eva said. ‘Charlotte.’
‘Oh, yes, and what’s she been plotting?’
‘We were talking about my book. Obviously I can’t finish it for a while, because it needs to be about my complete recovery, but we were chatting about the launch. What do you say to it being a joint venture?’
‘How so?’
‘The launch of my book along with an exhibition of your photos inside it.’
‘Genius.’ Anna grinned. ‘And this was Charlotte’s idea, was it?’
‘Yes. She’s a force of nature, that woman.’
‘She certainly is. I hope you’re ready for it.’
Eva grinned. ‘Can’t wait.’
