‘Awesome. I know a great place near Gramercy. I’ll pick you up ateight.’
As I hail a cab, he leans in and I think we’re going to start snogging again, right in the middle of the street, but instead he kisses me softly on the cheek and it makes myinsidesflip.
I grin at him and he grinsatme.
‘WATCH MEPIDDLE!’
I look up to see a group ofSunday Night Livefans, outside the building, pointing at me and snapping pictures. ‘ENGLAND IS SOOOOO AMAZING!’ they giggle. I think of what the guy at the Rockefeller reception said about how many people would love to be immortalised on a show that big. Even if it is for entirely nefariousreasons.
And these people taking pictures. They seem really happy to see me. They’re laughing and smiling and waving. And for someone who, until this week, has gone pretty unnoticed in the world, it’s a damn nicefeeling.
OceanofPDF.com
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Text from Birdie:A date! A reallivedate!
Text from Olive:It’s not a date. It can’t possibly be. We live in different countries. What would be thepoint?
Text from Birdie:Fair enough. But you could have a fling with him? If you fancy him that much it would be a great way to dip back in, so to speak! If it’s not good it doesn’t matter because you’ll be back in Manchester soon, farfaraway!
Text from Olive:I do fancy him… I finally get what all the fuss is about. My loins are gaggingforhim.
Text from Birdie:Haha. Also, that’s gross. Text me later. Doctor BJ just came in for his rounds and he’s wearing a shirt with SHORT SLEEVES. He might be too much of a professional to get it on with a sexy patient but that doesn’t mean I can’t do some high-qualityogling.
Text from Olive:He’s a fool for not crossing the boundaries of patient-doctor relationships with you. A fool to resist you! A damn fool! Also do you know how much I love you? I miss you and I love you and I think you are amazing and brave and pretty and smart and cool and strong. Just thought I would tellyouthat.
Text from Birdie:Gushmuch?
Text from Olive:Shuddup. I love you, allright.
Text from Birdie:Not as much as Iloveyou.
Iwakeup the next morning with a brand new feeling in my stomach. It’s a feeling I’ve not had before, at least not that I can properly remember. Maybe I had it when I was in school – when I did my creative writing lessons and the teacher said I’d done well. Or maybe the day I met Birdie and we talked for six hours straight. I’m not sure. Either way, it feels entirely unfamiliar. Like everything is in colour. Like everything is louder and crisper and more and less terrifying all at thesametime.
Like I’malive.
After showering in Anders’ wet room, stocked with as many Sisley products as I could ever hope to see and white towels that are as soft as puppies, I pull on my jade-green long-sleeved jersey dress, and head downstairs to the kitchen. Anders is already sitting at the large white marble table, Mrs Ramirez sitting right up next to him. The pair of them are hunched over a laptop,chatteringaway.
‘You’re here already?’ I remark to Mrs Ramirez. ‘Thank you! That’s so kindofyou.’
‘Anders here had a car sent for me,’ Mrs Ramirez says proudly. ‘Not a cab.Acar.’
‘Of course,’ Anders says with a benevolent smile on his tranquil face. ‘You have to take care ofthatknee.’
I give them a curious look. They appear to have made firm friends. I’d never have put them together in a million years. But they seem completely relaxed in each other’s company, Anders not quite as stiff and sinister-seeming as he was the day Imethim.
‘Why are you staring at us?’heasks.
‘Come on!’ Mrs Ramirez claps her hands together. ‘We have worktodo!’
Over three hundred brightly coloured leaflets are printed off, showcasing a close-up picture of Chuck’s head from the old photo that Anders kept from college. The text at the top of the leaflet asks, ‘Where In The World is Chuck Allen?’ And below that there’s the number (of a burner phone that Anders has acquired for the occasion) for people to call if they have anyinformation.
We spend the rest of the morning walking all over Manhattan, giving out leaflets to everyone we see, asking shops, cafes and delis to display them in their windows. It takes us a little longer than anticipated: Mrs Ramirez’s bad knee slows us down a tad, but mostly, we’re held up because she wants to know the life story of everyone we meet and ends up exchanging phone numbers with around half of them. I’ve never met anyone who makes friends so easily. I don’t know what we’d have done without her actually. I reckon Anders’ ghostly aristocratic presence either intimidates or terrifies most people (I’ll go for terrify), and me? Well I am polite and awkward and British. Not exactly great for getting busy New Yorkers to stop and talktome.
Mrs Ramirez returns to the Upper West Side after lunch so she can take her usual siesta, while Anders and I head back to his place. While he slides off to do a yoga session in his home gym, I shoot off a bunch of emails to all the media contacts Sharon gave me.Immediatelyafter sending them I refresh my emails about five times in the hope of speedy replies. The thought of going on the radio makes me want to burrow down into a hole of my own making, but I can’t deny that the opportunity to reach people on a national level, to really have a great shot of finding Chuck, is too amazing to not completelygofor.
When I FaceTime Birdie to update her on our progress, she answers not with her usual bright smile, but with tired,tearyeyes.
