‘But you havetwojobs and there’s all the other crap you do on top of it all. How is anyone meant to keep up?’ Lorelai looked up at Joanie. Her curls were freshly washed and bouncy and she had a pretty dress on. She looked lovely but she definitely wasn’t dressed for the autumn chill that awaited her outside.
‘Alright, you’ve got me.’ Joanie sighed, pausing at the door. ‘I am god of gods, ruler of all, specifically sent to Earth to piss you off.’
‘I knew it,’ Lorelai whispered. ‘Now I can go back to bed for the next twelve hours, guilt-free. Thank you and goodnight.’
‘Just save me some gin and some chocolate from the stash I know you have hidden in your wardrobe. And I don’t care how you spend yourday off.Honestly, Lollie’ – a nickname reserved for Joanie and Joanie alone – ‘who else has to be talked into having a day off without feeling terrible about it?’
‘Erm, you?’
‘Don’t be silly. I don’t have days off.’ Joanie planted another kiss on Lorelai’s forehead. ‘See you tonight!’ The door closed and Joanie was gone.
Lorelai sighed. She’d usually pick up a book to while away the hours but today she was too preoccupied. There was only one thing on her mind: Grayson Brady. She kept thinking about the way his hand had grazed hers, the looks that had lasted a moment too long, and the curve of his smile. Lorelai wasn’t much of an Instagram stalker but, as the day wore on, she found she couldn’t help herself.
‘Just one harmless search,’ she mumbled to herself later thatafternoon. ‘Everyone stalks everyone. It doesn’t mean anything at all.’ She settled back and hit the search button. There were a few different results matching with ‘Grayson’ and ‘Brady’ but only one matched the two names together. His username was @GraysonStage and his profile picture looked like a professional shot. ‘Ahh, so you’re an actor…’
As Lorelai scrolled through his feed, she saw photos of him with a woman and a younger-looking man, who turned out to be his mum and brother, and another lady who might be an aunt, she guessed. There were photos of Grayson in his front-of-house theatre uniform posing next to packets of sweets, fanning himself with several souvenir brochures. There were even a couple of photos in the seats of The Duchess, waiting for a movie to start. In the background of one, Lorelai spotted the blurred face of Riggs. She rolled her eyes. Lorelai had no idea how long she surrendered herself to scrolling through Grayson’s Instagram but for a while she revelled in the tingling sensation of a crush beginning to brew, allowing herself a little time to feelnormal. It was only when the doorbell rang that she quickly closed Instagram and threw her phone down like it had suddenly caught fire.
‘What am I doing?’ The warm fuzzy feeling had turned into a nauseating concoction of panic, disappointment and shame.Why am I even entertaining the idea of him? One handsome guy looks my way and that changes everything?But it wasn’t as simple as that. Lorelai knew how to walk away from attention that would only lead to those horrific images, but Grayson had stirred something in her. Why was he different?
A noise at the door to the flat pulled Lorelai from her thoughts. She quickly shoved all thoughts of Grayson to the back of hermind, and opened the door assuming it was a parcel delivery. But instead she found Joanie, her shoulders slumped and her head bowed. Joanie gently pushed her way inside and closed the door behind her. She put her rucksack on the floor, crouched beside it and busied herself searching for something at the bottom.
‘Everything alright?’ Lorelai asked. She could sense something was wrong. Joanie sniffed and raised her tear-stained face. Lorelai sat next to her on the floor. ‘Oh, honey. What happened?’
Joanie briefly put her head in her hands and let herself sink into pity. Lorelai waited, knowing Joanie would speak when she was ready. Joanie rarely showed this kind of vulnerability, so Lorelai sat there, silently, giving Joanie the space to cry without judgement.
‘Cassie says she’s too busy and too stressed to continue our relationship,’ Joanie said eventually.
Lorelai blinked at her in disbelief. She wrapped her arms around Joanie and pulled her closer. ‘What? No!’ Lorelai rocked her back and forth. ‘What did you say?’
Joanie shrugged, hopelessly. ‘I said we could still make it work. I could give her more space so she could focus on her training. I even suggested just taking a bit of a break but—’ a sob escaped ‘—she’d already made up her mind. I think she’d been rehearsing it for weeks. She just shut down on me; I couldn’t get through to her.’
Lorelai’s heart broke for her friend. She had assumed Joanie and Cassie were one of those couples who’d end up growing old together. One of those couples that made everyone else believe that the perfect, fairy-tale, happy-ever-after relationship could really happen because they were the proof. It killed her to see Joanie this devastated.
‘I’m so sorry, Joanie. Do you think you could try talking to her again in a few days?’
Joanie shook her head. ‘She wouldn’t even look at me when I left. It’s over.’
Lorelai hugged Joanie tighter. ‘Tell me what you need. Your wish is my command!’
‘Well’ – Joanie swallowed hard – ‘she’s asked that I don’t contact her for a while, so I propose I get very drunk tonight and call in sick tomorrow. Wallow in self-pity for a day or two. And then…’ Joanie’s face crumpled, and more tears ran down her cheeks.
‘And then,’ Lorelai continued, ‘then you give yourself a stern talking to.’ She pulled back and looked down at her friend. She knew Joanie needed one of her pep talks. Lorelai had given her many over their friendship and they always seemed to do the trick. They geed her up and gave her fuel to keep going. Joanie wasn’t the type who responded to mollycoddling. ‘Joanie. You, my dear friend, are amazing.’
‘Here we go.’ Joanie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
‘I mean it! You’re intelligent, funny, not to mention drop-dead gorgeous… Cassie was unbelievably lucky to have you. She didn’t appreciate you as much as you deserved.’
‘I didn’t realise you thought that,’ Joanie said, surprised.
‘I’m just able to be a little more objective than you can be right now. You’re currently only remembering the good and it’s my job, as your best friend, to remind you that your relationship wasn’t perfect. Yes, you’ve lost all the lovely stuff, but you don’t have to worry about all the other crap. You’ve broken up because something was obviously broken. But it wasn’t you. You are notbroken and this break-up will not break you.’ Lorelai punctuated her lecture with a nod. ‘Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.’
‘Can it ever be fixed?’ Joanie’s lower lip began to wobble again.
‘Maybe. One day. But not right now. Right now you need to focus on yourself.’
‘You know, for someone who “doesn’t do relationships”, you know an awful lot about how they work.’
‘Ha, that’s because I have a lot more time to watch telly than you do. Everything I just said to you is thanks to Oprah, Ellen,Love Island,Married At First SightandThe Bachelor.’ Joanie smiled and a little sparkle returned to her eyes. Lorelai heaved her off the floor and put on her best cheesy American TV presenter’s voice. ‘In tonight’s episode, we have Ben and Jerry on the show who are going to teach us how to drown our sorrows in pints of ice cream. Later on, we’ll also learn how a vat of margaritas can make life look infinitely better.’
