Page 41 of The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love

‘Oh, but?—’

Mrs. Lundy looks at me like I’m about to say I have work so I smile and say, ‘Of course.’

‘You’ll do it now? Because you know Davey will be upset if he wakes up in the night and discovers it’s gone.’

‘Yes, Mum,’ I tease as I go to my other neighbour’s front door and raise my arm to knock on it.

Mrs. Lundy heads into her apartment, and I’m left standing outside the door to Apartment 33B and then suddenly Julia’s door is opening and my ears are being assaulted with the worst sound I’ve ever heard in my life.

The perpetrator of the assault on my ears turns out to be a violin.

I say a violin – as it can’t play itself, I’m afraid that I do, uncharitably, lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the person playing it – young Abigail.

It’s amazing how fast small people can make things happen. One minute I’m holding out a plastic dinosaur, the next I’m being dragged by Davey and Abigail through the door and then being shoved onto a chair in the middle of the living area, like a prisoner being exposed to white noise in the hope of getting me to talk.

I can confidently confess that having to listen to beginner’s violin practice is torture. As I sit, trying desperately to keep the encouraging smile from slipping off my face, the nerve-shredding notes jumble together in a discordant symphony that I can’t help feeling could have been specially composed to play in the background of my pitch tomorrow.

‘Abigail, I think Mr. Northcote has heard quite enough of that for now,’ Julia says.

I can’t help turning my head to Julia and giving her a pleading look that says, ‘Maybe extend that to the rest of my life too.’ Out loud I say, ‘Please, it’s George,’ and then smile as the correction reminds me of Mrs. Lundy.

Julia looks apologetically at me and mouths the words thank you over the top of her little girl’s head as she puts the violin back carefully in its case.

‘I really should be going,’ I say, needing to rehearse the pitch for tomorrow.

‘Noooo,’ screams Davey.

‘Davey, come on,’ his mother, Julia, cajoles softly and I can tell it’s an effort to keep the tiredness out of her tone. ‘I explained Mr. Northcote would only be here for a little while.’ She catches my eye. ‘He doesn’t like it when people leave.’

‘I get it, my niece is the same.’ I squat down next to Davey and roll up my sleeve to show him my new watch. ‘How about I stay here with you for another ten minutes.’

His eyes zoom in on my wrist. ‘You’re wearing a different watch.’

‘Very astute of you, Davey,’ I answer, thinking I could do with that kind of detailed observation on my team. ‘It is a new watch. See all these dials? I can even set a timer on it – just like on a phone. How about I set the timer for ten minutes and when it goes off, that’s when you’ll know I’m leaving?’

‘Mom would set it for eight minutes,’ Abigail helpfully adds in full-on big-sister mode. ‘To give Davey a two-minute warning.’

‘Even better idea. You want to set the time, Davey?’

Davey nods and immediately works out how to set the timer for eight minutes. As he places it on the floor beside him and goes back to playing with his returned dinosaur, I think of my niece and nephew and make a promise to myself to video chat with them this weekend.

I can book a romantic break with Anya for the following weekend instead. We’ll probably all take the client out for drinks after the pitch tomorrow anyway, so it would have been lunacy to try and book something for as early as this weekend.

‘Here, at least have a piece of this while you’re here,’ Julia says and I look up to find a plate of cake being held out.

My stomach grumbles.

Julia laughs. ‘Hildy brought some of the leftovers over from the batch we ate at her tea party last week.’

I take a bite and moan. ‘Oh my god, that is seriously good.’

‘I know, right?’

I stand up and wander over to the kitchen island to investigate the cake box. ‘Oscars? Never heard of it but now need it in my life.’

‘Hildy’s new cleaner put her onto them. Damn. I forgot. I was supposed to get her cleaner’s details as well. I swear if I don’t write everything down – wait a minute – I actually do write everything down.’ She walks over to her phone and scrolls before glancing back up at me with a rueful smile. ‘I just need to set reminders to look at what I’ve written down.’

‘As it happens, I know Hildy’s new cleaner. Well, when I say know her. I don’t “know” know her.’ All I really know about her is that my apartment no longer, thankfully, smells of bleach, looks spotless yet feels welcoming all at the same time. She never disturbs anything on my desk and she’s a whizz at crosswords. ‘I could let her know you’re on the lookout for a cleaning service if you like.’

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