Page 33 of The Plot Twist

‘But not without precedence,’ mused Martin.

‘Yeah, but my romances don’t tend to involve murder.’ Allie bit her lip, thinking back to how much she had actually felt like murdering Dominic over the past couple of years and deciding not to share that thought with Martin. ‘I was intrigued to see what I came up with but I don’t think it’s quite my style. And anyway, we had a deal.’

Martin looked a little awkward and made a move to stand. ‘Shall I get us tea?’

Allie regarded him. She was almost entirely convinced that this cup of tea would come with a side order of ‘I’m sorry, the dog ate my homework’, but, despite having had a surfeit of tea already that day, she agreed and watched Martin amble slowly over to the counter.

She took a deep breath and once again contemplated whether this agreement with Martin was really going to be worth it or whether she should just call the whole thing off. What was she actually going to get out of this? She had just handed over a partial synopsis to Martin and all she had got in return was the promise of a cup of (admittedly high-quality, well-steeped) John Lewis tea. This didn’t look like a fair trade by any metric. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so quick to show Martin what she had written. Maybe she should have asked him what he had done for her book first. She looked back to her right, watching Martin as he stood in line. He wasn’t a bad man, she knew that, she was sure if she told him she was calling the whole thing off he wouldn’t even consider using her plot. He had integrity, she knew that. But if she did call it off, where did it leave her in terms of her own book? Things seemed to be going great with Will, and she was starting to write again, and not just murder outlines… but what if things with Will ended? What if her passion for him stopped translating into passion on the page? No, she decided, she’d stay the course a little longer. See what Martin came up with, because she had a deadline to meet and very few other options available to her.

She sighed, looking away from Martin and over to her left where a mother was busily berating her two children for eating their sandwiches with their fingers. Allie rolled her eyes, feeling sorry for the kids. They were dressed as if they were actuallyinthe John Lewis ad, not just sat in the cafe – starched shirts and dresses that looked uncomfortable for grown-ups to wear, let alone kids. Allie held back a laugh and watched with interest as the mother unfolded actual linen napkins and tucked them over the laps of her progeny. The children didn’t look startled or concerned, as if this kind of event happened to them every day.

‘Are you seeing this?’ Martin put a mug of tea in front of her and gesticulated with his elbow to the events that Allie was observing.

‘Uh-huh,’ said Allie, unable to drag her eyes away from the two exquisitely dressed tweens, now expertly eating sandwiches with their cutlery. ‘As far as I can make out, they’re called Marmaduke and Artemis,’ she hissed under her breath.

Martin rolled his eyes and sat down heavily. ‘Are you sure they’re not cats?’

He said this rather more loudly than Allie would have liked. ‘Shhh!’ She winced.

‘We used to bring our two here when they were little.’ Allie’s gaze flitted quickly away from their neighboring table and back at Martin.

‘Aha! So that’s why you chose this place.’

Martin nodded.

‘I was wondering.’

‘You don’t approve?’

‘No, it’s not that,’ Allie paused ‘It’s just … don’t take this the wrong way, but it hardly screams romance.’

‘You don’t think so?’ Martin deadpanned, raising an eyebrow. ‘Oh fine, no, maybe it’s not romantic to everyone but it reminds me of Angie and that’s romantic enough for me,’ he said gruffly.

Allie felt her heart constrict and decided to cut him some slack. Maybe this was the chance to get him to talk more about Angie, get him to express some emotion. She snuck a look at him, wondering when she could safely start questioning him, but in the end she didn’t need to do a thing, Martin started without needing a prompt.

‘Angie loved bringing the kids here at Christmas. We’d go see the Christmas lights, maybe a show. Bring them here for high tea afterwards.’ He raised his voice. ‘Never made them use cutlery to eat sandwiches though.’ He shot their neighbour a withering look.

Allie waited for him to continue, but he fell silent, looking around the busy cafe, a wistful and slightly sad expression now on his face.

‘So,’ she nudged gently. ‘How are things going with Angie?’

Martin looked down at the floor which was suddenly extremely interesting to him. ‘Have you talked to her yet?’ Allie pressed. ‘About your book? About things with your daughter?’

‘Not exactly.’ Martin raised his eyes to meet Allie’s and had the grace to look sheepish. ‘But I did buy her flowers.’

‘Well, that’s a start, I suppose.’ Allie was not impressed and replied in an icy tone that suggested that if this was the start then they might as well skip the rest of the winning-the-wife back part and move straight on to a decree nisi.

‘I used to do it all the time, buy her flowers, I mean.’ Martin was starting to sound like a man who had just been served those divorce papers, and despite her irritation Allie’s heart went out to him. It was so obvious that he adored Angie, but that he had completely forgotten how to show her that.

‘So why did you stop?’

Martin shrugged. ‘I guess it just didn’t seem necessary after a while. She made some comment about it being an extravagance and I took her at her word.’

‘And you never bought her flowers again?’ Allie was aghast. ‘Never?’

‘Well, I mean I’m sure I did…’ Martin tailed off indicating that actually he was pretty sure that he didn’t.

‘Wow, I mean, Martin, it’s nice youlistenedto your wife. But I’m guessing she didn’t meannever buy me flowers again. What did she say when you gave her the flowers the other day?’

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