‘How did you guess?’ I confirmed. His assistant subscribed to the bigger is better school of thought when it came to gifts and the oversized spray of roses, hydrangeas and blue delphiniums filled the space literally and figuratively, knocking us all out with its overpowering scent. ‘He said he would try to come but it depends on the trains.’
Charlotte snorted out a pretty laugh. ‘If he’s relying on trains, we should expect him by Christmas. I’d say I’ll save him a seat but seats are for paying customers.’
I glanced out the tiny window up at the frozen November sky, not even the slightest amount of lightto let in now. No matter that it happened every year, the dark winter nights always came as a surprise. On the drive over, William said it was an evolutionary thing, we forgot how painful winter was, so we didn’t throw ourselves off the edge of a cliff when the nights started drawing in, but then Mum reminded him that was childbirth and started talking about her episiotomy and he shut up soon enough.
‘Knock-knock,’ said a voice as the door opened again, allowing the excited chatter from the bookshop to crackle into the stockroom. I gulped down my Diet Coke and wiped damp palms on my jeans.
‘Thank god you’re here.’
I jumped to my feet, immediately tripped over Mal’s floral arrangement and fell face first into Sarah’s chest, smushing my shakily applied make-up against her freezing cold coat.
‘Your fans are rabid,’ she replied, visibly quaking. ‘I didn’t think I was going to get through alive. Some of them even knew my name?’
‘We should look into doing a collab,’ Charlotte said, snapping her fingers. ‘Buy a copy ofButterflies, get a free cookie at your coffee shop.’
‘You scare me,’ Sarah said to my sister who, as ever, took it as a compliment. ‘It’s not sane out there, Taylor. I hope you’re ready or they’re going to devour you whole.’
‘I should’ve said yes toI’m a Celebrity,’ I whispered, Hobnobs churning in my stomach.
‘You hold out forDancing with the Starsor you don’t do anything,’ Charlotte corrected. She picked up her phone and scowled
‘Is there a problem?’
‘Uninvited guest,’ she replied, hammering away at the screen. ‘Not an issue. I’ll be back to get you in two minutes.’
The door slammed shut, closing out worryingly raised voices, and Sarah sat down beside me, digging into the open box of chocolates. ‘You’d better get changed if you’re starting soon,’ she said as she unwrapped a strawberry cream. ‘Show me what you’re wearing.’
‘This is what I’m wearing?’ I pulled at the sleeve of my new striped cashmere sweater to demonstrate. ‘You don’t like it?’
‘It’s jeans and a jumper,’ she said, completely unimpressed. ‘I thought you’d be wearing something a bit more, you know …’
She waved her hands around, Sparkle Motion-style.
‘Brand new jeans and a brand new jumper,’ I amended. ‘And the jumper is cashmere. I won’t even tell you how much it cost.’
‘No, please do,’ she insisted. ‘I had to spend two hundred pounds on new school uniforms for the boys last week because they decided to tag team on a growth spurt and have already grown out of everything I bought them in September but, do enlighten me, Este Cox, how muchwasyour cashmere jumper?’
‘It was a bargain,’ I muttered, wrapping a strand of my carefully curled hair around my finger. ‘Also remember to send me their Christmas holiday dates so I can book the Disneyland Paris tickets. And the Eurostar. And the hotel.’
Smoothing the empty chocolate wrapper into a flat sheet before folding it into a neat little package, Sarah nodded. ‘Will do.’
The three months since Dad’s birthday might’ve passed quickly but that didn’t mean they’d been uneventful. Charlotte’s accidental TikTok reveal went viral and it didn’t take long for the internet detectives to find me, but it wasn’t as awful as I’d expected. Getting a new phone number was annoying and having to set up all new private social media accounts was an inconvenience but so far the only people who had turned up at my house were some very sweet Brazilian bookstagrammers who pushed dozens of gifts through my letterbox, and the only reason they had to do that was because I wasn’t home to let them in. I would’ve been powerless against them if I’d been home; I’d seen the videos they posted, they were so incredibly cute.
Staying away from the Goodreads reviews had been good practice for avoiding all the posts and articles that came out after the reveal. Sarah occasionally took screenshots and sent me the more absurd rumours. We were both thrilled to find out I was having an affair with Austin Butler after casting him in the movie adaptation, especially since I wasn’t and we hadn’t. There was only one thing that really pissed me off and we all should’ve expected it: the ‘Saucy Author’s Ex Tells All’ interview that ran in one of the tabloids with CJ’s best attempt at a heartbroken face splashed right across the page. Only there was very little to tell and ninety-five percent of the feature was concerned with how annoyed he was not to have been featured in the acknowledgements, something I could relate to.
‘My main goal was comfort,’ I said, picking a bit of imaginary lint from my shoulder. ‘I’m here, ready to be trotted out like a prize cow. I didn’t think gilding the lily was necessary.’
‘Only if you consider yourself a lily in the first place,’ Sarah clucked. ‘And I wouldn’t sayprizecow.’
With one eye on the door, expecting Charlotte to burst through any minute, I took another chug of Diet Coke. ‘I do feel more like a regular dairy heifer. All I’ve done for the last three months is churn out pages.’
‘Better to be churning out pages than trying to decide who gets to play Mary in the Nativity,’ she said. ‘Remember last year?’
‘It’s not easy to forget a seven-year-old performing a dirty protest on the school stage because they were asked to play a shepherd,’ I replied, pushing the chocolates away. ‘But it is still weird to think I won’t be going back to school any time soon.’
Sacrificing my job was the one thing I’d been absolutely right about. I’d talked to my head teacher, Mrs Hedges, on the phone after the party but she didn’t seem to comprehend what I was saying. It was only after some of the less understanding parents saw CJ’s newspaper interview I was summoned into school during the summer holidays, something that felt wrong whether you were a teacher or a student. We had a very awkward conversation, followed by lots of crying on my part and annoyed grunting on hers, and agreed the best course of action would be for me to resign.
‘Still can’t believe they managed to replace me in less than a day,’ I said with a distinct edge of grumble to my tone as Sarah pulled a theatrically sad face.
