Danny wasn’t used to women’s clothes either. But that wasn’t common knowledge.
“I’m not used to folding them up.” Jude’s ears had gone red. “I’m plenty used to having them on my bedroom floor.”
Danny’s laugh was more like a snort. “Judith, you haven’t hooked up since last year. Hasn’t one of those fan sites got a review from someone you shagged and now no one’s interested?”
“What?” Jude’s head span round. “What site?”
Danny doubled over. Jude kicked him in the stomach.
I carried on putting what seemed like a store’s worth of jeans into a bag. The stupidity of Jude and Danny was making this just a little bit more bearable.
I thought of Otter, because all thoughts led back there, and how I’d feel if I was doing this with her belongings.
It wasn’t a good thought. Nate had somehow managed to keep going. He hadn’t allowed grief to bury him, although I knew there had been days when he’d wanted to drink himself into oblivion. Two young daughters meant he couldn’t do that.
“Man, I thought you were serious! Some hook up spreading shit about me!” Jude looked genuinely pained.
The grin on Danny’s face was pretty fucked up. One of his greatest pleasures was winding Jude up, and Jude fell for it every time. “Too easy. But I haven’t seen you with a girl for ages. What’s happened? Have they realised it’s not worth their time?”
Jude mumbled something, going redder.
“Or has someone caught your eye and you’re hoping they notice you? Has Judey-wudey got a crush?”
Jude put a pile of dresses into a bag and stormed out of the room.
I stared at Danny and shook my head. “You’re a fucking wind-up merchant.”
“I know. I can’t resist.” Danny put the last lot of sweaters into a bag. “I think that’s everything.”
I looked around the room. The wardrobe doors were all open, nothing left in them. The drawers under the bed had been emptied. All of Chan’s stuff had been packed up.
“What’s happening to it?”
“We’re going to stick it in my car, and I’ll drop it off at a charity shop. I’ll get Jude back.”
“Then time for beers.” Danny rubbed his hands together.
“Not for me.”
“Really? I thought your hot date was still in America.”
“She is. There’s someone else I have to meet.”
Lotte had mentioned staying with me, but I hadn’t lied when I’d said I didn’t know when Rowan was moving out. She’d booked into a hotel instead, one out of town but not that far from the airport. She could’ve stayed longer and arranged to see friends that I knew she still kept in touch with, but that would’ve meant conceding that she wasn’t just doing this to see me.
This trip was an inconvenience for her. She’d made that very clear.
I’d also made it clear that I wanted to sell my shares in the business. It was time. I would do freelance work for her to help her out when she needed – which she wouldn’t because she was too proud – because I still had the heart of a coder, but I didn’t want the commitment to the business.
My solicitor, Seph Callaghan, recommended to me by his sister, Ava, had drawn up a sales contract. The company had been valued and I’d offered to sell Lotte my shares at a reduced rate. She would be a fool not to accept the deal, and Lotte was no fool.
She had booked a table in the corner of the hotel’s restaurant, private enough that it would be difficult for us to be overheard, but with a view of the grounds, which were currently being rained on.
Lotte wasn’t used to this. She had thrived in Californian weather. Rain and grey days were not part of her lifestyle, which just underlined how much we’d both changed since we’d split up.
The sales contract was in front of her, a pen neatly placed on top. She smiled at me as I approached, her pretty face lighting up, and she stood when I got close to her.
We hugged, and I remembered the last person I’d hugged – Otter – and wished to fuck she was in Manchester now. Lotte didn’t feel the same. There wasn’t the same warmth or need to want to keep holding.
