Strolling over to the window, floral tank dress clashing with literally everything in my room, Lydia climbed up on the window seat where I’d slept.
‘Oh my god, I think I’m in love,’ she said with a swoon. ‘Check out that girl by the fountain. My window looks out on the dumb garden, the most exciting thing I see is thegardener’s ass crack every Thursday morning. You must see the craziest things up here.’
‘You’re welcome to come over and watch Lafayette Square TV any time,’ I offered, joining her at the window. The girl by the fountain really was cute. ‘But please know this is the only TV Icanwatch because the only other television in this entire house is in Ashley’s room and I am definitely not welcome in there.’
‘Then I couldn’t have come at a better time.’ Lydia delved deep into the well-worn tote bag she carried on her shoulder. ‘Wanna see if any of these work?’
She pulled out a ball of thick grey-white cables and I gasped as though she’d presented me with the crown jewels.
‘Chargers for Dad’s laptop,’ I exclaimed. ‘Lydia Powell, you are amazing.’
‘It’s true,’ she agreed with a toss of her hair. ‘But I try not to let it go to my head.’
I practically dove under my bed, retrieving the laptop from my backpack before joining her on the other end of the window seat, my hands shaking with excitement. I’d more or less resigned myself to never getting into the laptop again and the thought of actually getting it to work, of accessing all of dad’s writing, it was too much.
‘One of these has to work,’ she said, weaving a grubby rubber plug through the tangle of cords and wires. There were at least four different chargers all coiled around each other and as she yanked at different parts of the puzzle, loosening one end but tightening the other, I could feel myself getting impatient. Rather than sit by and watch, I hurled myself at the floor, crawling around on the hunt for the closest outlet. Old houses never had enough outlets.
‘Got it!’ Lydia yelped triumphantly as she freed the first charger. ‘Try that while I deal with the rest.’
The first cable we tried was the right brand but the wrong model, the second plug fitted the socket but had a loose connection and the third was for a completely different kind of computer. With her fingers crossed, Lydia tossed me the fourth and final one. The three prongs of the grounded plug clunked into place and I heard a familiar start-up chime.
‘I don’t believe it,’ I breathed. ‘It works.’
‘Well, don’t I feel like Cinderella.’ She held up her hand for a high five and I gladly obliged. ‘You said this was your dad’s laptop, right?’
‘Yup.’
‘Any idea what’s on here?’
‘His work,’ I said, watching the empty battery icon appear on the black screen. ‘He was pretty deep into the research for a new book and he’d been digitizing his archive for a few months, all his notes and journals, that should be on here too.’
‘What if it’s full of porn?’
The look I gave her could have scorched the sun.
‘OK, fine,’ she replied, holding up her hands in surrender. ‘I’m just saying. Single man, passed away unexpectedly, no one to wipe his search history? Don’t be upset if you see something you’re not prepared for.’
‘Thanks,’ I muttered. ‘Now I don’t even know if I want to open it. What if hewaslooking at something weird?’
‘Babygirl, he was definitely looking at something weird. There is not a doubt in my mind that you will definitely find something random, like when we found out all guys are obsessed with the Roman Empire. In my experience, the more normal the person, the freakier the search history. You just need to be prepared, is all.’
‘In your experience?’ I replied with a quizzical eyebrow.
‘Limited as it may be,’ she admitted. ‘But there have beentimes when I borrowed Jackson’s laptop and let me tell you, I have seen some things I was not prepared for.’
I knew I’d regret it but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
‘Like what?’
Lydia shook her head. ‘I literally cannot talk about it or my brain will explode but know that it wasnotthe Roman Empire. Besides, I don’t think he’d want me talking to you about that stuff. My brother totally has a crush on you.’
‘He does not.’
‘Uh, yes, he does.’
She swung her legs back and forth on the window seat, each of her toenails painted a different colour, while I made an incredibly unattractive spluttering sound in the back of my throat.
‘He talks about you all the time, he hasn’t mentioned a single other girl since we met, and one of the creepy things I saw in his search history was your name, so don’t freak out or anything but you definitely have an admirer. Not a stalker though. He’s still laid up thanks to his busted leg.’
