“Oh gosh, don’t worry. I’ll get Chloe to help. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do,” she says.
I’m about to protest but then I remember that tomorrow is one of Jessie’s themed nights – her ladies night, if I remember right.
“Ok, if you’re sure.”
“Sorry for crying all over you,” she says again, looking away from me. “Not sure the drowned rat look is my sexiest.”
I pinch her chin lightly between my finger and thumb, turning her widening gaze back to me.
“You never have to apologise to me. And Christ, Em, you could be covered in tears and snot and still be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” I add, giving her a chaste kiss on the nose. She laughs.
“Thanks Luke,” she says. She holds my gaze for a beat, as if she’s choosing her next words carefully. Another beat and then: “I better get going. Sloane’ll be wondering where I’ve got to, I said I’d be back for spicy margs and another re-run ofThe Great British Bake Off.”
With that, she peels herself off me and gets dressed. I watch as she pulls her clothes on, putting the pieces of herself back together as if she hadn’t come apart in every sense just a few moments ago.
“I’m going to grab a shower,” I say, standing as she pulls her shoes on. “I’ll call you this weekend, ok?”
“Ok, Luke,” she says, with a soft smile. “Goodnight.”
She slips out the door, leaving me naked in the middle of room eight with an empty bed, damp sheets, and her tears still ghosting my skin.
CHAPTER 31
Emmy
“You know, I could always ‘accidentally’drop a few lit matches on the way out,” Chloe says, hefting another box into the boot of her car. For the second time within weeks, we’re packing up the scraps of my old life and carting them away to my new one.
“Don’t tempt me,” I grumble, rubbing the ache in my biceps. We’ve been at it since half five, dashing around to grab the last of my essentials – clothes, Mum’s vinyls, the vintage lamp I found in a market on Brick Lane – and I’m exhausted. It’s nearly 9pm and we’re finally down to the last few boxes. Sloane ferried the first lot over to her flat in an Uber and promised to have wine waiting for us on arrival.
“Or we could sew raw prawns into the curtain linings, like that guy did. Send them mad trying to work out where the smell is coming from,” she suggests, giving me an evil grin.
“I’m pretty sure that’s an urban legend,” I say. “Still tempting though.”
She disappears back into the house and returns with a small shoebox of photographs from my childhood. We don’t have a great deal of them – my teenage years were mainly caught on digital camera – but the photos of my parents from their ownyouth and my earliest years are hugely precious. I can’t believe I didn’t get them the first time round.
“That’s the last one.” Chloe sets the shoebox gently in my hands and smiles. I clutch it tight, staring up at the house that’s been my home for most of my adult life.
“This chapter’s really over, then.” I blow out a breath.
Chloe puts an arm around my shoulder, and I lean into her warmth.
“A better one has begun,” she says, squeezing me.
I carefully place the shoebox in the footwell of Chloe’s car before I pull the door shut on my old home. The thought of Colin and Stacey building their shiny new life here guts me. My side of the bed isn’t even cold, and the idea of them raising a baby in the house we bought with having our own family in mind… It stings like hell.
Chloe climbs into the driver’s seat and we set off for Bermondsey.
“How you feeling, babe?” she asks, glancing over at me as we pull out onto the main road.
“Not great,” I sigh. “I feel like I’ve been coping so well with being single and starting over, but that was when I thought he was having a fling. Now I know it was going on for months behind my back and they’re having a baby together, I just feel like a fucking idiot. Thank God we didn’t have kids, but why is he suddenly ready for one with his 23-year-old colleague when he was never ready with me?” My voice cracks and I grit my teeth, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“He wasn’t worthy of you,” Chloe says, frowning at the road. “And this is a shitty move. Especially moving Stacey into your home like that. It’s ok to be upset, darling. I’d be raging if I were you.”
“Thanks, Chlo. I feel like I just need the weekend to mope about it and then I’ve got to put my big girl pants on. I refuseto let Colin and Stacey wreck my brilliant new life. Speaking of which, I had a full breakdown on Luke last night.” I grimace, remembering the extent of my hysteria.
“Oh love. What happened?”
“After Colin told me his news, I basically went straight to Salt and asked Luke to, er, distract me.”
