‘This afternoon? I thought we were—’
Whoever it is on the other end of the line cuts her off.
‘Yeah, okay. Yep, I understand. It’s just—’
Again with the cutting off. Who the hell is talking to her like this?
‘I can get us something from Waitrose to eat before we go out.’
‘Yes, I know. But—’
I can only assume it is Helen on the other end of the phone. I mean, who else would she be buying groceries for?
‘Yeah. Okay.’ She sounds so dejected. ‘Love y—’
She looks down at her phone, as if in shock that the other person hung up. I’m livid, mad as hell that someone, anyone, has the audacity to treat my sister like this.
No way. Not on my watch.
I send Cesca a message.
Of course I’ll be there for birthday drinks xx
I need to see the two of them together to see if my gut is right. If it’s Helen who’s stealing my sister’s light.
And then I need to get her out of there.
Chapter Twelve
It’s only one thirty in the afternoon. Which means that before I go to save Cesca I have enough time to find someone. Well, to findhim. Tyler Adams. I need to know if he’s made any progress with potential ways to get me home.
Except … for fuck’s sake! He won’t know me, won’t know what is happening. This Tyler will have no idea that yesterday we spent six hours in my office drawing up all the potential ways we could think of to send me back.
FUCK!
It’s likeGroundhog Daybut where you can’t learn from all the repetition. Because it isn’t the same day being repeated, it’s a brand-new day in a brand-new universe and the rules are different and no one is the same as they were in the last place.
Argh! This is so frustrating.
Okay, I tell myself.Calm the actual fuck down. You can do this.
But can I?
Yes, you can. You have to.
And that right there is the crux of it. Ihaveto go and find this Tyler and get him to help me because if I don’t? Well, I have no idea what happens then. It’s like when people say ‘Oh, I don’t know how you cope with …’ well … anythingthey think is difficult. Like when I was doing my PhD and working two jobs on top and then Dad got sick and I spent a lot of time driving up and down the A303 to help him and Rachel out and visit him in the hospital.
‘Oh, how do you do it all?’ one of the other PhD candidates asked, awe in her voice. ‘I can barely get through my studies and I don’t even have a job.’
Yes, I’ll admit that part of me was jealous about the wealthy family she came from. But there was only one answer to her question. Because I had to. Because I didn’t have a choice. Because we all just muddle through our lives, doing what we need to, hoping that maybe one day we’ll get a chance to settle down and rest for a few moments.
I just hope I have enough resilience left to solve this.
There isn’t another choice.
I decide to engineer a meeting with Tyler. By which I mean I hang around outside the office he keeps at Imperial College, hoping that he isn’t working from home. Actually, knowing my luck right now, he’s probably been jetted off to some far-flung place to film something pointless on a beach, looking pretty with a tan and with a cocktail in his hand. I chastise myself, partly for being negative, which never helps, and partly because the last Tyler made me think perhaps he isn’t quite the dick I’ve always assumed him to be.
Perhaps the universe has decided to throw me a bone, because at four thirty I see him leaving the faculty building and I follow him. I stalk him as he heads towards a small supermarket and then I decide to hang around in the biscuit aisle until he happens upon me – he told me yesterday he loved a custard cream and so this is where I’m standing.
