Page 107 of The Match Faker

‘Yeah. Boris seemed nice. He wasn’t you, but I couldn’t have you, so I had to move on.’

‘Fuck. I didn’t realise. For the record, you were the prettiest girl in school, not Natalie. I never really got over you. I tried. The girls I went with never came close to what we had. It sounds shitty now, but I think I was trying to numb the pain. I was using sex to distract myself from the arguments at home and the fact that I was missing you. So many times I went to speak to you, then talked myself out of it. And when I finally did, after Mum dropped the bombshell about moving to Spain, you ignored me.’

‘What?’ I frowned. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard you’d left. Even though at that point we hadn’t spoken properly for a while, I at least thought you’d come and say goodbye.’

‘I did! It all happened so quickly. Mum decided on the Friday night and we were gone by the Saturday afternoon. I came to your house that morning. Alice said you’d gone out with Boris. I told her to pass on the message that I needed to talk to you urgently. She said she would. And when you didn’t, I assumed you didn’t care because you were so into him.’

My jaw crashed to the floor.

‘Alice didn’t tell me anything! And I wasn’t out with Boris. I remember—I was food shopping with Dad!’

‘You’re kidding?’

‘Do I look like I’m joking?’

‘And what about the voicemail?’

‘What voicemail? When did you send it?’

‘After I left your house.’

‘I didn’t get that either! What the hell?’

‘I told you I was leaving. That I missed you and our friendship. I said if you wanted to stay in touch to call me soon because I didn’t know how long I’d have my number. I kept that phone for weeks hoping you’d get in touch. And when you didn’t, I just thought we were done for good.’

‘Fuck.’ My jaw hung open. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

I cast my mind back to that day. Dad had asked me to come with him to Brixton Market. Then we went to the supermarket. But if Liam had left a voicemail, why didn’t I get it?

‘Hold on. I didn’t have my phone with me. I remember because Dad asked me to call Mum to check something and I couldn’t. I ended up using his instead. If Alice didn’t pass on the message, there’s a chance she deleted the voicemail too. She knew my password.’

‘But why would she do that?’

‘She always liked you and I think she was jealous of our friendship. Shit. All that time wasted. All of those years. I should’ve been there for you. It must’ve been a nightmare being dragged through the divorce, then getting uprooted to another country and thinking I didn’t care. I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s not your fault.’ Liam took my hands in his. ‘You didn’t know. Can you believe their divorce was confirmed on the fourteenth of February?’

‘Oh my God. So that’s why when I first came here you called Valentine’s Day a bullshit day?’

‘Yep.’

‘Oh, Liam.’ I rubbed his shoulder. ‘I didn’t know.’

‘There’s no way you could’ve, so don’t worry about it. We both should’ve communicated better. There’s nothing we can do about it now. At least we’re friends again. That’s what’s important.’ He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

‘I’m glad we’ve made up. Hating someone is exhausting. Especially someone you used to really like…’ A warm smile touched my lips.

‘Come here.’ Liam pulled me in to him and we sat there, holding each other in silence for a few minutes. It was like all of the emotions we’d bottled up over the years were expelled with that one action and when we finally pulled away, we were starting anew.

‘You good?’ Liam asked.

‘Yep. Want to play some more?’

‘Definitely. But I hope you remember what you just said about the fact that hating someone is exhausting in a few minutes.’

‘Why?’

‘Because, Tutti-Frutti, I’m about to win the next game!’

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