‘It’s fine. You’d just won a tournament, of course that was your priority.’
‘Also . . .’ he said.
‘Also what?’
He sighed. ‘I guess my head was a bit all over the place after the other night. I kept remembering what you said about us being friends, after I’d pretty much just laid everything on the line. I thought maybe you weren’t that into me.’
‘Wasn’t it obvious? Of course I’m into you, even if sometimes I wish I wasn’t.’
‘Why would you wish that?’ he asked.
I swallowed. ‘I don’t know. Because I’m not your type?’
‘You’re totally my type.’
‘Because tennis will always come first?’
‘It won’t, Ava. It doesn’t.’
‘You’re just saying that.’
‘What happened between us the other night – it meant something to me,’ he said, reaching for my hand.
I shook him off. ‘In that moment, sure. Just like the other nights you’ve spent with women that you never wanted to see again afterwards.’
‘What women?’ said Marcus.
‘Do I really need to spell it out?’ I said, getting frustrated now. ‘You might not read your press, but everyone else does, and there are countless photos of you with models and actresses and Zuzanna Kaczmerek and rich girls in bikinis.’
‘Because these are the people I meet, Ava. When you’re in a scene like this, that just happens, and it’s not something I crave orneed. In fact, what I really crave is normality – I just want to be a normal person who happens to be quite good at playing tennis. To be doing normal things with normal people.’
I spotted a Tube station up ahead and leaned forward in my seat to speak to the driver.
‘Could you drop me here, please?’ I asked him.
He flicked on his indicator and began to pull over to the kerb.
I couldn’t have this conversation in the back seat of a car when I felt all hemmed in and on the verge of being over-emotional. And despite everything, I didn’t want to make Marcus feel bad, not when he was in the middle of playing the most important tournament of his life.
‘Ava, please,’ he said. ‘It was easier to keep women at arm’s length, and it was fun for a while, I’ll admit it. But that was then. It’s different with you. I find myself wanting to be with you all of the time. Running away from this hasn’t even crossed my mind.’
I swallowed. I could feel my resolve going, and it couldn’t – he was saying all the right things, but the evidence spoke for itself. He’d let me down at the wedding and he would let me down again and ICould Not Do That to Myself.
‘I’ll leave you to focus on your game,’ I said.
The car came to a stop and I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door almost simultaneously, desperate to get out of there so that I could get my emotions under control again because suddenly I didn’t trust myself to say or do the right thing. Marcus was stony-faced and looking straight ahead as I slammed the door behind me. I tried to put his grim expression out of my mind’s eye as I crossed the road towards the entrance to the Tube station, blinking back hot, angry tears. The worst thing was, it felt like I didn’t even know exactly what it was I was so angry about.
It was only then that I noticed Cassie. She was standing outside a pub in her work clothes, with her phone in her hand. What on earth was she doing in this part of town? I was justabout to call her name when a man came up from behind her, spun her around and lifted her into the air. She laughed as he kissed her, eventually returning her to the ground, where they continued to beam at each other, talking softly, intimately. It took my mind a few beats to catch up with what my eyes were seeing, because something was very wrong. The guy she was kissing ... it was unmistakably Charlie.
‘Cass?’ I said.
She casually glanced around at me, taking a few seconds to register who I was. Then a look of pure fear flooded her face.
‘I thought you were at Wimbledon? Mum said.’
Which was whenhelooked at me, too, with a face like a lost puppy. Charlie. My Charlie. Kissing my sister.
‘Does one of you want to tell me what’s going on?’ I asked, my voice sounding as though it was coming from somewhere outside of my body.
