She wished she hadn’t sidelined her family for so long, especially as Tim no longer had one of his own after losing his mother, his one and only relative, to cancer.
Ellie wasn’t sure if it was the warmth of the central heating or the platefuls of food in her stomach that made her feel like she was glowing, and she didn’t care to question it. For so long she’d wondered if it was possible to have it all, and if she even deserved it. Now, looking at the people she loved the most, she knew the answer.
By the morning after Boxing Day, Tim and Ellie were strapped into their helicopter seats and on their way back to London. Tim had insisted they stay at her townhouse for a few days instead of his Leighton Buzzard home, but wouldn’t elaborate as to why.
‘Christ, if this place was any more sterile you’d be able to operate in it,’ he teased when they arrived.
‘What do you mean?’ Ellie replied defensively. The first time he’d visited her he’d also mentioned something similar. She didn’t have any photographs on the walls orknick-knacks on window sills. Tim had called it ‘utterly immaculate but soulless’, so at Christmas, she’d made sure to make much more of an effort.
‘Don’t you think the Christmas decorations look pretty?’
‘Ells, when I suggested we put some up, I meant that you and I go out and buy them. Not commission a stylist to go to Liberty and bring home a massive fake tree and a ton of baubles which she then put up for us.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that’s what you meant.’
‘I bet you haven’t even read the books on that case, have you?’ he continued, purposely striding towards one of the eight chunky floor-to-ceiling shelves.
‘Um, some of them I have.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Ellie perched in front of the case with her hands defiantly on her hips. Her eyes darted back and forth to take in the titles one by one, desperately searching for a familiar book to prove him wrong. However, one spine that she didn’t recognise caught her attention – it was titled ‘Ellie & Tim’. She glanced at him, puzzled, and he beckoned her to take a closer look.
She picked it up and read aloud. ‘Ninety-five things I love about Ellie Stanford.’
‘Come, let’s sit down,’ Tim suggested and she carried the book over to the sofa.
‘What’s this?’
‘Open it and have a look.’
Inside, hand-written on each colourful page was a reason why Tim loved her, along with a photograph of something relating to it.
‘“Number one – I love the way you clear your throat when you’re pretending not to cry atThe NotebookorThe Fault in Our Stars”,’ she read out. ‘That is so not true! “Number two – I love the way the only shape you ever doodle is a DNA double helix” … Where did you getthis?’ she asked, pointing to a picture he’d scanned of a page from one of her notebooks. ‘How long did this take you to make?’
‘I struggled to find ten things let alone ninety-five, to be honest,’ he joked, ignoring her question. ‘Anyway, keep going.’
Ellie devoured each page, frequently laughing at the pictures Tim chose and wondering how he had noticed so many of her quirks, habits and foibles when others hadn’t. He reallygother, she realised.
She turned to reach the final page. ‘And it’s for all of these reasons that I’d like to ask you …’ Ellie gasped. ‘Will you marry me?’
She drew her hands up to her mouth and looked at Tim. She hadn’t noticed he’d slipped his hand into his pocket and removed a small black box and opened the lid. Inside, on a chiffon bed, sat an engagement ring with a central diamond.
‘I asked your dad’s permission on Christmas Eve and he said yes, but I draw the line at getting down on one knee.’ He smiled. ‘However, I’d love it if my Match would do me the honour of being my wife.’
Ellie threw her arms around Tim and sobbed into his shoulder.
‘Shall I take that as a yes?’ he asked.
‘Yes!’ she bawled and slipped the ring on her finger. ‘Yes, yes, yes!’
Chapter 61
MANDY
Mandy recognised Michelle from her photographs – and of course the naked selfies – as soon as the café door opened.
She was immediately irked that Richard’s former girlfriend was even prettier in the flesh; her hair was now shorter and blonder, and she wore skinny jeans with a figure-hugging top. Her tan gave her a healthy glow and emphasised her white teeth. ‘Bitch,’ Mandy mumbled to herself, and subconsciously wrapped her coat tighter over her pregnant belly. As much as she was looking forward to the prospect of impending motherhood, the sacrifice of fashion for elasticated comfort clothing was getting on her nerves. She longed to slip on a pair of heels or find a pair of skinny jeans that could fit over her swollen ankles.
