Evie let it drop for now, but once they’d gone up to another floor and bought their frozen yogurts and she was enjoying the peach passion, she asked, ‘Do you think he recognised me? Jackson, I mean.’
‘I don’t know.’ Nicole grinned.
‘What?’
‘He couldn’t take his eyes off you!’
‘Stop it!’ She knew it was true, although unlike Nicole was insinuating, Evie suspected it had more to do with trying to place her than finding her attractive. Aurelia hooked on his arm told her his taste in women was a stratosphere she was unlikely to ever enter.
Wrapped up in their coats, scarves and gloves once more, they left Macy’s, and as Evie walked home to her apartment, she wondered what Jackson Churchill would think when he realised who she was.
The second she got home, she flicked on the fairy lights around the front door inside, the line strung beneath the overhead cupboards in the kitchenette, the trees lights and the lights strung across the top of the small window that looked out to nothing but brick. She filled the kettle and clicked it onto its stand before flicking the switch, dropped a fruit tea bag into a sky-blue mug from the set of four she’d bought herself when she moved in, and let the teabag steep for a couple of minutes. She rubbed her hands briskly in front of the radiator, begging all heat to come her way. The single bedroom apartment was tiny—a bedroom just big enough for a double bed, at basement level with minimal natural light and a bathroom that had seen better days—but it was all she could afford on the Upper East Side, and she’d wanted this specific location so she’d be near Nicole, the friend who wanted to keep an eye on her. It felt like a lifetime ago that anyone had even cared.
When her tea was ready, she sat next to the fake Christmas tree in the corner, clutching her cup between her hands. She smiled at the twinkly lights surrounding her now, the tree dressed in the only set that would be packed away at the end of the season. She’d bought the tree in the sales at the end of last year at a bargain price for something most people couldn’t stand the sight of for another eleven months. The day after Thanksgiving she’d teased its branches into shape again after it had been rudely squished into a box, and she’d adorned it with gold baubles that glowed against tiny white Christmas lights, silver beads that began at the top and wound all the way down like a shiny helter skelter. She’d picked up a few decorations in the sale too when she’d bought the tree, and she had snow-sprinkled pine cones and a round, china Santa bauble from Nicole. The bauble had a china bell inside that tinkled every time you accidentally knocked the tree, walking past in the compact apartment. Lizzy, who lived in the apartment upstairs, had given her a set of three silver reindeer. In return, Evie had made a batch of oatmeal and raisin cookies, which Lizzy had devoured. As a doctor, Lizzy worked ridiculous hours and, Evie suspected, rarely cooked a thing in her life, surviving on takeaways given the number of times the delivery guy had knocked on her door at the basement by mistake rather than taking the few steps up to the entrance of the main building.
Evie touched her fingers to the end of one of the branches. With her job going so well, maybe in a couple of years she’d spend a bit extra and treat herself to a real tree. Not every year—it was so extravagant—but at least once so the scent of pine could fill the room, sneak into the bedroom off the living room and wake her each morning with its heady scent.
When there was a gentle knock at the door, Evie hauled herself up, checked through the peephole first and then opened the door to Lizzy’s smiling face.
‘Come in!’ she ordered. ‘It’s freezing out there, where’s your coat?’
Lizzy did as she was told. She brushed flakes of snow out of her red hair that hung loose around her shoulders. ‘I was only coming down from upstairs.’
‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’
‘I can’t stay, I’m afraid.’
‘That’s a shame. Work? Or hot date?’
Lizzy grinned. ‘The latter, I’m happy to say.’
‘Who with?’
‘Carl.’
‘Wow, what’s that … the fifth date?’
Lizzy smiled sheepishly.
‘I’m happy for you,’ said Evie. ‘He seems lovely.’ Since Evie had moved into the building and made friends with Lizzy, who’d rescued her on moving day when the first thing she’d done was stumble down the steps to the basement and cut her knee, Evie had seen a few men come and go, but this one was sticking.
‘I came down to tell you that a guy was here looking for you.’ Lizzy’s eyebrows lifted up and down as she teased Evie.
‘Who?’
‘You tell me!’
While Lizzy had had her fair share of boyfriends, Evie’s love life had stalled five years ago when she was twenty-three, right before everything began to go so horribly wrong. Lizzy had suggested setting her up with a guy she worked with, but Evie had told her not to. Meeting someone was something she hoped would happen in time, but she was in a good place right now where she knew what was what. She didn’t want to upset the equilibrium.
‘I really don’t know. Didn’t he leave a name?’ Evie asked.
‘No, nothing. He just said he’d be back again another time and there was no need to pass a message on. He was a little old for you though.’ She pulled a face.
Evie gulped as reality began to dawn. ‘How old was he?’
Lizzy thought about it. ‘Fifty-ish. Maybe a bit older. But I’m useless with ages.’
‘Did he ask for me by name?’
