‘What? I thought you were planning on hanging round for the week? What’s the point of flying out just to fly back again?’ Victoria demands, slathering butter onto thick white toast at the dining table.
‘Ruby emailed. There’s something that needs my urgent attention.’
‘Huh, are you sure it was Ruby and not Pedro who emailed?’ Victoria snorts, blissfully unaware of the knife she’s twisting into my already crumbling heart.
Jayden hasn’t called. Not that I would have picked up. He hasn’t even texted. I thought he might at least try. Clearly, he doesn’t give a fuck. Oh, unless you count the hundreds of fucks we shared behind his fiancée’s back.
I’m so angry with him, but even more so at myself. What I need is to get into my office and work myself into the ground because it’s the only thing I’m good at. The only thing that never leaves me.
‘Me and Pedro are over.’ I didn’t intend to say it out loud, but the weight sitting on my chest lifts a fraction simply by sharing.
Perhaps I haven’t regressed completely, even if I am jumping the country again.
Victoria’s toast slips through her fingers. ‘Oh, Chloe, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to put my foot in it.’
‘It’s not your fault, petal. Don’t worry about it.’ It’s a battle, but I muster a small, tight smile.
‘What happened?’ Sasha watches wide-eyed from across the table. ‘I thought you were working through things?’
A sigh whooshes out of my chest as I slump forwards, elbows on the table. ‘I honestly don’t know.’
‘But did he call you? Did he end it? Or did you?’ Victoria probes.
‘It wasn’t what I thought it was.’ I take another sip of coffee because I don’t know what else to do.
‘Chloe, I hate to say it, but are you sure you’re not just panicking and fleeing at the first sign of trouble?’ Sasha’s coaxing voice sounds like a police officer pleading with a violent offender to put down a gun.
‘If the first sign of trouble is him being in a relationship with someone else the entire time, then yes, I guess I am.’ Tears threaten again. The castle walls are closing in on me. I need to get out of here. The chair legs screech against the varnished wooden flooring as I push it back from the table to stand.
‘What?’ Sasha’s tone sounds as incredulous as I feel. ‘Are you sure?’ She stands, skirting round the table to reach me. ‘You seemed so happy the other day. Pedro, or whatever his real name is, seemed to breathe life into you. Life you’ve been missing since the accident. I can’t believe it.’
‘I heard it from the horse’s mouth.’
Victoria stretches across the table, taking my hand. ‘Please don’t go, Chloe.’
It yanks on every single fractured fragment of my broken heart, but I can’t stay.
‘I really have to work.’ Even if it’s for personal reasons. ‘How about I meet you in Edinburgh a few days early and you can show me the college you applied for? We can look at apartments for you?’
Given Sasha’s high-profile status these days, it goes without saying that Victoria can’t reside in traditional student digs like most of her peers. She might even require her own personal security, something we’ve yet to discuss.
‘Okay.’ Her reluctant acceptance does nothing to ease my guilt, but the need to escape wins.
On the way to the airport, I ring Ruby.
‘I’m on my way back.’ Familiar landmarks whizz by in my peripheral vision. The Irish Sea to my right. Portmarnock. Velvet Strand. All the places Mam and Dad used to bring us when we were kids. I miss them so much my heart swells at the memories. But now I can finally remember them without the guilt.
Maybe Jayden had his uses after all? What is it they say? The people you meet in life are a lesson or a blessing? When I calm down, maybe I’ll see Jayden was both. Or maybe not if the agonising pain pressing against my chest is anything to go by.
‘Is everything ok?’ Phones ring in the background against a low hum of the office.
‘Jayden’s engaged.’
‘He’s what?’ Ruby’s shriek rings through my ear. I pull the phone away for a moment until I’m certain my hearing is safe.
‘I don’t really want to talk about it, but if you’re free tonight, can we please go for three thousand glasses of wine? I need to get out of my head.’
‘Sure. Brad and I are over-over. As Taylor Swift would say, ‘we are never, ever getting back together’.’
