She’s not the only one who’s worried I’ll emigrate. Dad is terrified, too.
To be honest, I don’t want to move. I loved Australia, but England is my home and it is so much easier to travel and see the world from here.
But Elliot, who grew up in this country, has no intention of returning here permanently. He loves his Sydney lifestyle, the harbourside bars, the beaches.
It’s a tricky one, that’s for sure.
Chapter 32
I’m sorry to see Marty go the next day – much earlier than I was hoping.
‘I really don’t want to get stuck in traffic,’ she says with regret.
‘It’s okay, I understand. Say hi to Ted for me.’
He called her last night when we were up on the hill, finishing off our bottle of Prosecco. He was right smack bang in the middle of his stag do, but was clearly missing her madly.
She went up the hill again this morning – couldn’t go another minute without touching base with him. She came back beaming. They’re clearly besotted with each other, and I’m happy for them.
I spend the rest of Sunday doing my washing and trying to get a bit organised, before heading up the hill to catch up on my own work. I haven’t bothered checking my emails since Friday, so I’m surprised to see one from a girl at a production company – a former colleague passed on my details. She wants to know if I’d be interested in going on daytime TV later this week to talk about my blog. A romantic comedy with a blogging storyline is about to hit cinema screens and the show wants to do a piece on relationship blogs, generally.
I really don’t have any interest at all, but Sara has been urging me from the beginning to do talking-heads stuff, so I write back and say yes, knowing I should feel a whole lot more grateful and excited than I do.
‘Good morning,’ I call out to Charlie as I let myself in on Monday.
‘Hey,’ he calls back.
I walk into the kitchen, where he’s tidying up a bit.
‘How was the rest of your weekend?’ he asks.
I tell him what Marty and I got up to. ‘I’ll have to check out Padstow Beach another time,’ I say eventually.
‘Maybe we could head there one day for lunch.’
‘That would be nice,’ I reply with a smile. ‘This week might be difficult, though. I have to go to London. I need to be there on Thursday, so that will probably mean leaving Wednesday afternoon and coming back Friday morning. Do you mind? I can make up the time at the weekend.’
‘What, you’re not going to be here for pizza night?’ He sounds mortally offended.
‘Oh, shit!’ I exclaim. He might be teasing, but I’m a bit gutted.
He smiles. ‘Of course, that’s fine. Remember it’s April’s birthday party on Sunday, though.’
‘As if I could forget... Oh! You’ve got Nicki’s family staying, haven’t you? I can work fromHermieon Saturday, obviously.’
‘You don’t have to. Kate and Valerie want to meet you, actually.’
‘Do they?’ This makes me nervous.
‘Don’t worry, they’re not going to bite.’
‘Are you sure?’
He smiles at me. ‘So why do you need to go to London?’
As I fill him in, I become aware of a shift in the atmosphere.
‘I don’t want to do it, to be honest,’ I admit when I sense he’s not impressed. ‘But Sara would kick my arse if I said no.’
