Page 149 of The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love

‘Yeah.’ I feel a little panicky. Why is it as soon as you get comfortable being brave, something new comes along to force you into being even more brave? Clinging to safer ground and not ready to stop talking I say, ‘So I’m pretty sure Hildy is breaking her dinner plates on purpose so that I can kintsugi them.’

‘Whoa…’

‘I know, right?’

‘No, I mean, I’ve no idea what kintsugi is but, whoa, you just called her Hildy.’

‘Wow. I guess I finally feel confident enough to. And kintsugi is the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold lacquer. Instead of hiding the cracks you highlight them. Embrace the knowledge that something can be whole again. Stronger even, for being imperfectly perfect.’

‘When I get back the first thing I plan to do is knock on her door and casually drop her name into conversation.’

‘Really? That’s the first thing you plan to do when you get back?’

George’s smile turns wicked. ‘Well now, maybe not the first thing. Maybe the first thing I’ll do is stop by to see you.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. Consider it a date. Now, tell me about this kintsugi thing again?’

I grin, happy it’s just the two of us, talking late into the night, making the time pass faster until we get to be together.

Chapter Forty-Five

FLYING WITHOUT WINGS

Ashleigh

Nerves and excitement vie for position as I stand looking up at the arrivals board. I press my hand against my belly, hoping to quell some of the jittery tangle inside and realise I’m still in my Sparkle uniform. What can I say, when inspiration struck, I didn’t wait to follow through and at least there’s no danger of missing me in it.

Beside me Oz complains to Carlos, ‘You’re not holding your signs up right.’

‘Like it matters,’ Carlos replies. ‘Do you see anyone coming?’

‘What’s with the ‘tude from these two?’ Hildy whispers out the side of her mouth to me.

‘Oh, it’s how their protectiveness comes out,’ I whisper back, looking down the line of my support network.

My friends.

And even as it feels bittersweet that I only have them because I lost Sarah, I hold close to my heart, the feeling that Carlos, Oz, and Hildy are standing beside me. I’ve given them each a sign, the reverse of which contains my pitch notes for Rhonda, which went super-well so if this all goes hideously wrong, at least there’s my job.

But this isn’t going to go wrong because this is just a casual swing-by. A cute way of welcoming George back.

‘Either that or they’re hangry?’ I add. ‘But no time for snacks because, look’—I point back up at the board—‘his plane’s landed.’

Now what?

I must have said the words aloud because Oz says, ‘What do you mean now what? Now you wait. And we wait with you.’

The nerves win out over excitement. ‘Yes, but then what?’

Anyone?

Sarah?

I honestly don’t know how I got here – I mean, okay, I know how I got to the airport arrivals lounge at JFK because I’m not likely to forget the farce that was the four of us getting into the cab. Not with all the worry about Hildy breaking a hip, Carlos breaking his jaw from whining or Oz breaking the cab with his size.

What’s harder to comprehend is how I made it here, out of the void I was in last year. The void that stopped me doing anything to take me out of my comfort zone because I was all good with the hollowness inside me. The numbness.

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