Page 23 of The Plot Twist

Allie laughed. ‘Sorry, but seriously, you’ve already come up with a lead character, that’s amazing!’

Martin gave in and grinned. ‘This could be fun, don’t you think?’

Allie nodded. ‘And I hope you don’t take it the wrong way, about me not telling people about this? I would just rather keep it to myself for the moment. Between my sister and my friends they have A LOT of opinions, and I don’t think I need to hear them right now.’

‘A lot of opinions?’ Martin looked wryly at her. ‘Sounds as if you have much in common.’

Allie narrowed her eyes in response.

‘Agreed,’ he said, ‘we keep this to ourselves for the time being.’

ChapterSix

Allie was glad she had decided not to divulge to Martha the writing plan she had concocted with Martin. Martha was even more full of opinions than usual. She had been outraged on Allie’s behalf about Jake and the goings on at Brinkman’s (which was good) but had scoffed at Allie’s wailings about Verity (which was not the supportive attitude Allie had been looking for).

‘What do you mean you can’t contact her?’ Martha had demanded. ‘So what if they’ve taken her phone?’ Martha rolled her eyes in frustration, which was a look that always came to Allie’s mind when she thought of Martha. ‘This is the digital age,’ she continued, ‘for goodness’ sake, Allie, of course you can contact her if you put your mind to it.’

That was Martha’s answer to everything in life, it was all achievable if you put your mind to it. Thank god Allie’s writing career had been successful, putting aside this latest, recent hiccup, because Allie couldn’t imagine the disparaging remarks she would have had to endure if her writing gig had involved sitting around all day at homeandmaking no money. And from Martha’s perspective, it was true, she had worked hard, got an excellent job doing something unfathomable to Allie at a pharmaceutical company. Had met her partner Ruth through friends and they were now deeply, madly in love and absolutely devoted to each other. So whenever Allie was feeling especially bad about not having lived up to her father’s ambitions for her, she felt glad that at least one of his daughters had. And maybe Martha did have a point. Maybe if Allie had put her mind to things more, she wouldn’t find herself both single and cynical, with a terrifying lack of job prospects on the horizon.

‘Do you ever wonder what Dad would think of our lives now?’

Martha looked sharply at Allie, but her eyes immediately softened. ‘Yeah, course. All the time. You?’

Allie nodded but didn’t say anything. Martha switched to concerned sister mode ‘Allie? Are you OK? I mean apart from the work stuff and the Dominic stuff?’

Allie shrugged. ‘I can’t help worrying that I can never live up to his expectations.’ Martha looked at her curiously. ‘Why would you think that Allie, he would be so proud of your writing, you know that!’

‘I actually meant more my disastrous love life,’ Allie said in a small voice. ‘And my inability to pick the right man.’

Martha looked like she was considering saying something and then thought better of it. ‘Oh Al, don’t be silly. He would just want you to be happy.’

‘But I’m not, am I? You are. You’ve got Ruth, he would have loved her. And Mum had Dad, and we all know how happy they were. And she seems happy with Nigel now, doesn’t she?’

It was Martha’s turn to shrug. Nigel had been on the scene for the last ten years and to be fair to him, he was the best kind of pseudo stepdad. He never overstepped the mark, never pretended to be their dad, was always respectful at moments where one of them might be thinking of their dad. He made their mum happy, which was all they could ask for, and he owned a villa in Spain, which meant that they didn’t have to worry about their mother’s vitamin D levels.

‘But he’s not Dad,’ Allie confirmed.

‘No, course he’s not. But, yeah he’s OK, and yeah, Mum seems happy. Why are you so worried you’re letting Dad down?’

‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ Allie shook herself. She had never told Martha about her last conversation with their dad, never divulged his hope for their happiness and perhaps it was best not to rehash the past right now. ‘Just feeling a bit sensitive at the moment, that’s all.’

* * *

After her lunch with Martha, and inbetween making some notes for Martin, Allie conceded that of course Martha was right, shewasbeing ridiculous thinking that she couldn’t track Verity down. She quickly sent her a DM on Instagram, like any normal person would have done hours ago. Allie felt a little embarrassed not to have done it before, but in her defence, she thought, she had been blindsided by life and wasn’t thinking straight.

Later that evening, in need of some fresh air, Allie stepped outside the bookshop in Dulwich, and checked her phone for the billionth time. Verity still had yet to reply, but perhaps she didn’t use social media in the way Allie did; to distract her from work and to pretend she was conducting useful research.

She sighed and looked back in the bookshop windows, it was a lovely shop, full of handpicked staff favourites and special editions, all bespoke curated, but as predicted it had taken her two train changes and a bus to get to. Still, the author in question had been good to Allie when she had been starting out as a writer. So it was the least Allie could do to show up, buy a copy of the book that she probably wouldn’t get around to reading for months and praise the author on her latest success. She looked back down at her phone trying to decide whether she really needed to go back into the shop again, or whether she had networked enough.

‘Hello.’

Allie looked up from Google Maps straight into some familiar dreamy grey eyes.

‘Hi,’ she said, startled. ‘Will, right?’

He smiled, his eyes creasing, a hint of dimple flashing in one of his cheeks. ‘Allie Edwards.’ The way he said her name, not as a question but as a statement of fact, made her stomach drop. She immediately began fantasising about him saying her name in a much more intimate setting.

‘You remembered!’ Allie couldn’t help exclaiming despite realising how pathetic this might make her sound.

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