Page 21 of The Plot Twist

‘Wow,’ she said after a pause. ‘I mean, she sounds amazing Martin, she really does. I hope you can fix things.’

Martin smiled wanly across the table at Allie and they both sat in silence for a moment.

‘Have you told her this?’ Allie asked. ‘The stuff you just told me, about how she’s your everything, about how much you adore her?’

Martin waved his hand. ‘No!’ Seeing the look on Allie’s face, he added, ‘She’d just think I was being soppy.’

‘Aren’t you?’

‘Well, yes,’ Martin admitted, shuffling in his seat a little. ‘But it’s not like you actuallysaythese things when you’ve been married as long as we have.’

‘And how long is that?’

Martin looked up at the ceiling, obviously doing a mental calculation. ‘Thirty-seven years, no, hang on, it must be thirty-eight. Our son is thirty-seven and he was born the year after we got married.’ Allie made a mental note of the look that came over Martin’s face and decided that if her future husband had that expression on his face when recalling their thirty-eight-year marriage, then she would be winning. Hell, if someone half-smiled after a second date right now she’d take that as an achievement.

She sat forward and put her hands on the table. ‘I’m going to level with you, Martin.’ Martin looked nervous. ‘Firstly, I think you should always know exactly how many years you have been married,’ she said slightly prissily. ‘I don’t know why men seem to find that so hard.’ Martin had the sense to look a little ashamed. ‘And secondly, this is exactly why you should tell her this! You shouldn’t lose the romance just because you’ve been married for years. If the romance has gone, Martin, you need to get it back,’ Allie exclaimed, ‘before you lose her forever!’

Martin shifted back in his chair and looked alarmed, which was fair enough because Allie was fighting the urge to lean over the table, grab him by the lapels of his tweed (of course tweed!) jacket and shake him until he ran out of the cafe, all the way home and arrived on his doorstep, soaked through with rain and sweat, got down on one knee, declared his eternal love for the amazing Angie and begged to be allowed to renew his vows.

Instead, Allie took a deep breath and downed the last dregs of her tea, all the while staring across the table at Martin, daring him to defy her orders. Martin meanwhile looked as if he was starting to regret taking pity on this strange romance writer and inviting her for a cup of tea.

‘Is this like the plot of one of your novels?’ he asked tentatively.

Allie put her head on one side and considered it. ‘It could be. Although I’d want you to win her back with grand romantic gestures, put the spark back in your marriage and fix the problem with your daughter too. Think that’s possible?’

‘Anything is possible within the pages of a book!’ Martin said, smiling wryly at Allie who snapped, ‘Martin, I am trying to fix your marriage!’

‘I’m not sure I asked you to,’ he snapped back grumpily. ‘Sounds to me like you’re trying to use my marriage as inspiration for your next book.’

They glared at each other across the table. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air before they both started speaking at once.

‘Actually,’ Allie began.

‘I’ve had an idea,’ Martin said.

They looked at each other, a smile creeping across both of their faces.

‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ Martin asked.

‘Yes!’ exclaimed Allie. ‘One hundred per cent! We should absolutely definitely have Jake Matthews kidnapped, lock him up somewhere and take over Brinkman’s ourselves.’

‘Oh.’ Martin looked both shocked and crestfallen at the same time. Allie laughed. ‘Sorry, I couldn’t resist.’

Martin bristled. ‘You’re actually pretty funny, Allie Edwards,’ he said grudgingly. ‘I can see why your books are so successful.’

‘And how would you know that?’ It was Allie’s turn to look shocked. ‘You looked me up?’

‘Of course. Isn’t that what the internet was designed for?’ Martin rolled his eyes. ‘Thought you young people knew all about that.’

‘Ha bloody ha,’ Allie retorted and then paused. ‘But going back to your idea...’ She felt a delicious smile taking over her face.

Martin started smiling too. ‘We could switch plots.’

‘How would it work?’ she asked.

‘Well,’ he began, ‘you’ve already given me the outline of a plot – serial killer with a penchant for cleaning up the financial industry. And I’m guessing you’ve got more in your head than you told me?’

Allie nodded, not yet wanting to admit that she had mapped a lot of it out and that the demise of the bankers was especially grisly and gruesome, in particular the one who, in her head, would look like Dominic in the Netflix series.

---