LUKE
Ten Months Before the Anniversary Party
He stares at the notification on his phone. It’s a short message and he can read most, if not all of it, without opening it up.
Hey. Just checking in.
It arrived a few minutes ago, an innocent message from a friend. There’s no reason for the soft flush through his body as he hears someone walk up behind him and he turns his phone over so the notification is not visible.
‘Sorry to disturb you,’ Hannah says. ‘What do you want to do about the Boston Road invoice? I’ve nudged them twice now and they’re ghosting me.’
She’s been working for Harris & Sons doing basic office admin for a while now, and he’s glad that what was intended to be a lifeline for her when her ex left her high and dry with bills to pay has turned into something more permanent. Hannah is punctual and efficient and the clients love her.
He always feels a bit scruffy around her at work, though, unless he’s off to an important meeting and has to wear a suit. She dresses as if she’s at a high-flying firm in the City, all high heels and fitted dresses but, hey, each to their own. Not the most practical attire for a local building firm, nor he imagines, the most comfortable, but it’s none of his business. Besides, it’s great to see Hannah feeling good about herself after the mess of her divorce.
‘Leave it with me,’ he replies. ‘I’ll see if I can chase them down.’
She smiles, gives him a wink. ‘My hero. Thanks!’ she says, then turns to go back to her desk in the outer office.
‘Does hero status get a bloke a cup of tea around this place?’ he calls after her.
‘Nice try!’ she yells back and laughs as she disappears through the door.
He chuckles to himself, too. Well, it was worth a shot. And it’s not as if he doesn’t know how to operate a kettle.
He pulls the office phone towards him and punches in the number for the clients renovating the Boston Road house. Hannah is too nice sometimes. A call from the boss might be what’s needed. While he’s aware they were having cash flow issues, refusing to communicate is not an option.
Five minutes later, he’s just finished working out a payment plan when a mug of tea arrives on the desk next to him. Hannah pushes it a little closer, careful not to spill any on the paperwork nearby.
‘Thanks!’ he mouths, as he listens to the promises pouring from the other end of the line. She gives him a one-shouldered shrug accompanied by a smile and disappears again. When he’sfinally ended the call, he yells, ‘You’re an angel!’ through the open door.
‘I know,’ she yells back. ‘Don’t you forget that next time I’m due a pay rise!’
He laughs again, shaking his head and then his gaze lands on the mobile phone facedown on the desk. He could say all sorts of things in reply.Hi! Nice to hear from you!OrDoing good. How about you?All very friendly, non-committal responses that would be perfectly acceptable. So why is he hesitating? If anyone picked up his phone and looked through the thread, they would see it’s completely harmless.
Which it is. Elena is a friend. He has nothing to feel guilty about. Nothing at all.
He picks up his phone and starts tapping.Hey. How’s things?
GOLD
The most malleable of all metals, yet it can be drawn into a wire the width of a single atom and stretched considerably before it breaks.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JESS
I thought saying ‘no’ to Luke when he proposed might change the future, or at the very least delay things a bit, but, no, here I am, having woken up exactly 365 days later, standing in a wedding dress at the entrance to St Michael’s church in Bromley.
This is cruel. Whatever is happening to me is cruel.
I know I can be tough on myself, that sometimes I beat myself up if I haven’t been the perfect daughter or the perfect wife or work colleague, but if this is my brain playing tricks on me, it’s taking it to new depths of self-hatred.
Luke’s stupid ‘lucky day’! Why, when he insisted we might as well not jinx it, that we should get married on May the fourteenth as well, did I not tell him to take a running jump?
I stare down at my left hand. I was hoping that maybe I’d have Great-Great-Grannie’s ring, that I could borrow some of its luck, but my old diamond solitaire is sitting on my ring finger. Everything is exactly the same as it was last time. It seems there’s no fighting it.
So, I put my wedding dress on this morning, allowed my hair and make-up to be done, and now I’m standing next to my dad,staring at a pair of closed doors that lead to the aisle of the local church. I glance behind me to see Hannah, my maid of honour, trying to keep my two overexcited half-sisters in check. They’re all wearing gorgeous deep emerald dresses – Hannah in a floor-length bias-cut dress that makes the most of her slender figure and the twins are in dresses that stop just above their ankles with large bows at the back.
