Page 85 of The Plot Twist

‘Yes,’ agreed Allie sadly, it really did look like he had. ‘Wait…’ She turned towards Dominic and held up an accusatory finger. ‘How do you know that’s Will’s van?’

‘Who’s Will?’ Dominic looked confused. ‘Oh right, the catering guy. I didn’t know his name.’

‘OK, but how do you know he was the catering guy?’

‘We were chatting.’

Allie’s eyes narrowed and she advanced menacingly towards Dominic who seemed aware of the shift in temperature of this exchange, which had gone from testy to properly threatening in the space of time it had taken them to walk down the stairs and out into the street.

‘And what,’ Allie’s eyes were now boring a hole into Dominic, ‘exactly were you “chatting” about?’ Allie said the word ‘chatting’ in the tone of voice more commonly associated with gangsters.

’Just … just…’ Dominic looked suddenly very aware that Will wasn’t ‘just’ that catering guy; the penny was dropping. ‘Well,’ he floundered, ‘I helped him carry some of those trays out to his car, held the door open and such…’ His voice petered out.

‘And what did you discuss while you were being ever so helpful?’ asked Allie in an icy tone.

‘He asked me why I was here, and I told him I was here to meet you,’ Dominic blurted out.

Allie knew what was coming next, it was so obvious, and she cursed herself for ever letting Dominic back through her front door and then having the stupidity to mention tonight to him. She took a deep breath, deciding to rip the plaster off. ‘Dominic, think very carefully.’ She hoped her measured tone struck fear into Dominic. ‘Did you, or did you not, suggest that there might be something going on between the two of us?’

The chatter of the people drinking in the pub reverberated around the question she posed. The door swung open behind them, two men making their way to the designated outside smoking zone, cigarettes already between their lips. The lights up the road, the ones Will’s van had so recently sped through, changed once again and still Dominic said nothing, he stared down at his feet.

‘Dominic!’ Allie shouted, making both Dominic and the smokers jump. ‘Just answer me.’

‘I might have done,’ he admitted in a quiet voice.

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, what were you thinking?’

‘I was hoping… Are you and he…’ He pointed up the road in the direction Will’s van had travelled. ‘Are you two seeing each other?’

Despite her rage Allie could see how much this question pained Dominic, and she didn’t really have a good answer. Was she seeing Will? She certainly had been at one point, and then she hadn’t. But she had hoped earlier on this evening that she might be again, and now… given what Dominic had said, and the way Will had left, she very much felt that all the signs were pointing towards not – they werenotseeing each other. Allie felt tired and dizzy at all the comings and goings, the changes, about Dominic showing up here, about Will leaving so quickly, and at all the very many words she still had to write to keep Verity and the Brinkman lawyers happy. One thing she did know for certain, was that it really was none of Dominic’s business who Will was or was not to her.

‘Oh, go home, Dominic,’ she said wearily, ‘and let’s agree not to contact each other again. You can keep the tweezers.’ She turned on her heel and walked off towards home.

ChapterTwenty-Six

It was like Groundhog Day. Allie was back at her computer, crashing out the words, Will had gone AWOL, presumably trying to make sense of what on earth was going on and whether he could ever trust her again and Jess was repeatedly calling her asking her to go to an exhibition opening later on that week.

‘Absolutely not,’ Allie had said upon hearing where the exhibition was being held.

‘Why not?’ whined Jess in her annoying but ultimately effective tone that almost always resulted in Allie doing whatever she was demanding she do.

‘I don’t ever want to go back there.’

‘To the V&A?’ Jess sounded bemused by Allie’s vehemence.

‘Yes. Never going there again.’

‘Okay, care to elaborate?’

‘It’s where I met Will. Don’t want to be reminded.’ Allie was only half listening to Jess as she was busy re-reading through what she hoped might be the final draft of her novel. But her ears had pricked up when she had heard Jess say ‘V&A’ and immediately she was back there, where all of this had begun, ogling Will’s forearms, trying to negotiate his unwieldy canapés and wishing they were on speaking terms so that she could see if she could make him laugh with that euphemism.

‘Strictly speaking, didn’t you meet himoutsidethe V&A?’

‘Semantics.’ Allie was keen to get Jess off the line and rewrite an especially clunky sentence she had just spotted.

‘Well, you would be accompanying meinsidethe V&A, so technically you’d be OK.’

‘And how would you expect me to getinsidethe V&A, without first beingoutsidethe V&A?’ Allie could feel her resolve wavering. ‘Why can’t Tom go with you?’

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