She shook her head. She supposed the flats must be awash with the successful, rich and famous. ‘Just promise me you won’t touch anything.’
‘Okay,’ he sighed.
When Johnny looked around at the luxurious foyer, his face became a little boy’s again. Liv recalled his same expression when she took him to see the holiday light displays in the local shopping centre at Christmas.
‘This place is awesome,’ he said. ‘You need to be loaded to live here.’
‘I know.’
When the glass lift door opened, his mouth dropped. ‘It’s see-through,’ he said. ‘When I’m older I’m going to live here.’
‘Start saving now,’ Liv laughed. ‘You might get a mortgage when you’re eight hundred years old.’
Johnny unfastened his laces in Essie’s hallway. He cocked his head, looking and listening. ‘Isn’t she home?’
‘She’s working away,’ Liv said, the lie now rolling off her tongue like dice from a gambler’s fingers.
When he stepped inside the living room, Johnny pretended to stagger backwards. ‘It’s like being in heaven,’ he said. ‘Why can’t we live somewhere like this?’
‘Because I’m not a bestselling author.’ Liv put her hands on her hips and looked around her. As the sun sparkled on the glass and the city stretched out before her, she couldn’t help feeling like the flat was hers, somehow. She was the only one who used it. Might Essie have left it to her in her will, or things from inside it? Or was that crazy thinking? It would mean she could carry on writing as her job.
She just had to keep focused and not invoke the proviso Anthony had mentioned in Essie’s will.
It was the first time she’d thought about the solicitor for a few days, and she wondered if he was still in Bologna. ‘What are you going to do while I’m working?’ she asked Johnny.
He shrugged a shoulder and settled down on the sofa. ‘Go on my phone?’ He raised it.
‘You’re not doing that all day. Essie’s got lots of books you can look at.’
‘Maybe later,’ he said, clicking around the screen with one finger. ‘Hey, have you seen the memes about Essie on Instagram?’
‘What are those?’
‘People put together photos and quotes, and post them online.’ He held out his phone for Liv to see.
I’ve given up on boyfriends and husbands. I have affairs with my characters instead. I can tell them what to do and they don’t cheat on me.
I always hoped to have children one day. I try to see my books as my offspring and my readers as my family instead.
If you meet something insurmountable, don’t try and fight it. It will only leave you with bruises. The trick is to outsmart it and do something it wouldn’t expect.
If you’re not enjoying a book, there’s a solution for that. Close it up and move on. It’s not the end of the world.
I’m drawn to books with happy endings. Who wants to spend time reading a story where things don’t work out?
It would be splendid to be remembered for my books. However, I’d prefer to be remembered kindly.
‘She must have said those things a long time ago,’ Liv said. ‘She refuses to do interviews these days.’ The last quote struck her as particularly poignant. She would always remember Essie’s kindness.
She took some blank sheets of paper from the printer and looked in Essie’s desk drawer for a pen. There was a mass of elastic bands, staples, pencils, erasers and scraps of torn paper. Among all the stuff she found Anthony’s business card. Written on the back was…
Call me anytime, day or night. A xxx
Liv recognized his handwriting from his attempt to write a sonnet. She assumed the solicitor didn’t offer this personal touch to all his clients. It had been five weeks since they’d last spoken, and she assumed he must have been busy juggling his family and work. She decided to call him.
After passing a copy ofThe Moon on the Waterto Johnny, she closed the kitchen door to keep her conversation private.
‘Liv? Hello,’ Anthony said, sounding pleased to hear from her.
