Page 129 of The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love

‘You’re that irresistible, huh, George?’ my brother asks.

‘It’s the British accent,’ his wife, Terese, whispers to CeCe.

‘I wish.’ George chuckles.

I want to look at him so bad. Did he mean he wishes that he was irresistible to me?

‘I’ve been through some stuff recently,’ he admits, ‘and you know Ashleigh for collecting people up and helping them.’

Oh, crap. He somehow thinks he’s here to push me into the spotlight and throw glitter over me?

No, no, no, no, no.

‘Leave no man on the field?’ CeCe sums up. ‘Yeah, she’s started doing that.’

I want to run so bad but where would I go?

With every fibre of my being, I wish I could ask Sarah what to do – how to put a stop to this. But there’s not even a sarcastic comment floating in on a white charger – I mean feather – and I know why, don’t I?

It’s payback.

For leaving her on the field.

‘And what have you been through, recently, George?’ my mother pries.

‘Ma, you’re going to give him indigestion.’ I turn to George. ‘I forgot to mention she works for the CIA.’

George looks confused. ‘The cleaning company’s a cover?’

My mother smiles wryly. ‘It suits my daughter to pretend I’m more than an interested mother hen trying to ensure all her chicks are okay.’

‘Got you.’ George smiles back.

No. I will not have this.

George is winning over my mother?

My world paradigm shifts, turning my breathing unsteady as I let in the fact that George is the type of guy my mother always wanted me to meet. Zach’s laid-back attitude would have worried her instantly. The irony sucks.

‘The truth is,’ George says around a bite of glazed doughnut, ‘my job came to an unexpected end and I’m not doing great at deciding my next move. I spent my life working to get where I was in that job and then…’ He tails off and shoves another bite of doughnut into his mouth and I’m left looking around the table at my family hanging on his every word. Where’s the talking over each other? Instead, he’s holding them in the palm of his hand. Holding me in the palm of his hand, right up until he says… ‘It’s hard to describe the panic, but of course with everything Ashleigh’s been through, she totally gets that “world collapsing around you, staring into the void” feeling. Her picking herself up after leaving something that was making her ill is inspiring.’

‘Ill?’ My mother pounces on the word.

‘At the magazine,’ George explains.

‘Please stop,’ I implore but, apparently, not loudly enough because George carries right on putting his foot, his leg, his entire body into his mouth.

‘Recent experience,’ George adds, ‘has shown me you can legitimately feel like you’re dying during a panic attack.’

‘You had panic attacks at the magazine?’ my mother asks quietly.

I want to die but who would notice because George is carrying on in his jolly, amiable tone, ‘Anyway, I’m grateful she left to go to Sparkle. The place makes her happy.’

‘I’m impressed you know where Ashleigh worked and where she works now, George,’ my mother says leadingly.

‘Like I said, we’re close friends. The lack of support she had at that other place must have made you all crazy too, right? You go through something like losing your best friend, you’re in a new place, and she gets, what, five minutes before they’re piling on the pressure. I get that business is business but you still have a duty of care, right? Everyone has their breaking point.’

My skin suddenly prickles with sweat and my heart jackhammers in my chest because, he knows…?

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