Page 123 of I Knew You Were Trouble

‘Hi. I’m afraid I don’t have long,’ she clips, glancing at her watch, and I’m thankful.

‘I won’t keep you.’

She looks me up and down. ‘Come on through.’

She leads me into a small office. ‘What can I do for you?’ she asks, her voice devoid of any emotion, crossing her arms over her chest.

‘I wanted to come and see you before I go to California. I fly to San Francisco tomorrow. I’m presenting the documentary to all the various stakeholders in Silicon Valley.’

‘It’s finished?’ Paige asks. ‘Oh. I mean, I don’t exactly approve of your filming methods, but congrats, I suppose.’

I look to the floor.

‘You said on the phone you had something to give me?’ she says.

I step forward, unzipping my bag, pulling out the items. ‘Um. A few things, actually. This is Aidan’s gift. I wonder if you could maybe drop it back into his room for me?’ I hold out the box containing the bangle that Aidan bought me in Dubai.

‘Lexi, I really don’t think Aidan wants you to return any gifts. He bought it for you.’

‘It cost a lot of money. It doesn’t feel right… keeping it.’

‘Fine,’ she huffs, taking it. I watch her put the box in a drawer. ‘Anything else?’

‘Will you be seeing Aidan in person anytime soon?’ I ask, pushing down the tremor in my voice that appears whenever I say his name out loud.

‘He’s coming here in a couple of days,’ Paige responds. ‘They’re flying in from New York tonight or tomorrow I think, sometime soon. They’ve being working on a new album. They released a new track last week; did you not see the video?’

‘Uh, no, I try not to—’

She looks down. ‘Right. Of course.’

I want to ask questions but I’m scared of getting tangled up in my own emotions. I hold up two USB thumb drives in two different colours for Paige, blue and green. ‘The reason I asked is that this contains my version of the documentary. The one that I’m presenting in California. I don’t know if the boys will get to see it otherwise, as I’m expecting the suits to request changes. I would like the band to see my attempt at telling their story.’

Paige nods and takes the two thumb drives. ‘And what’s on the other one?’

I take a breath. I deliberated at my flat about whether or not to hand it over. ‘The green one is for Aidan only. It’s an unedited copy of Miller’s interview. At least, the short interview that we actually managed to complete. I thought I’d switched the camera off before the end but it turns out it was still recording. I want Aidan to know what Miller said to me.’

Paige looks down at the green thumb drive and pulls a disgusted face. ‘I can already imagine.’

‘Not a lot of Miller’s interview ended up in the final cut.’

‘Why am I not surprised?’

‘Could you please pass them along for me?’

‘Of course. I’ll give them to him personally when he gets here.’

I swallow tightly. ‘Thank you. That’s everything. I’ll let you get on with your day.’

I turn to leave. Paige stares at me. She has his same piercing eyes. ‘I flew down to Buenos Aires back in April,’ she says. ‘He was falling apart. It was like he couldn’t hold onto to all the pain and anger anymore.’

I look to the floor, unsure how to respond. ‘Is he alright now?’ I ask.

‘He’s doing a lot better. Things could have been very different if you’d just been honest with him. In the end, you were another Lucy, all over again.’

‘I don’t understand.’

She looks confused. ‘You said… what did he tell you? At New Year? About Lucy.’

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