Page 76 of The Plot Twist

‘You know, one of those home offices that people went crazy about and built in their gardens?’

‘Yeees, but why would you call it a sex shed?’ Allie didn’t want to know what Tom and Jess were planning with the shed, but she couldn’t help but ask.

‘Don’t you think that’s what most people built them for?’

‘No,’ said Allie incredulously, thinking about their friends who had them in their back gardens and then shuddering slightly at the thought that all this time she had been presuming they had been using them as a home office, and all this time maybe ‘working from home’ had a totally different meaning for the vast majority of the population, who, unlike Allie, worked in an office for most of the week.

‘Well, I think it is.’

Allie stared at her friend, momentarily jealous about the sex life that she and Tom evidently still planned to have even when they had left behind their London youth and moved out to the provinces. ‘Anyway,’ she said, shaking unwanted images from her mind, ‘why on earth are you excited to tell me about this sex shed?’

‘Because I thought you could use it!’ Jess said excitedly.

‘What? We’ve just established that my relationship with Will is over and that my ex is too disappointing to be considering getting back together with.’

‘You’re not seriously thinking about getting back together with him, are you?’ Jess asked in concern.

‘No.’ Allie batted Jess’s question away, not willing to delve into the depths of her concerns about loneliness right now. ‘So, who do you think I’m going to be using your shed with?’ Allie harboured some vague hope that Jess might have her romantic future all mapped out and that the property details she had been looking at had listed ‘hot single neighbour’ in the particulars. It was Jess’s turn to look confused.

‘Oh, no, not for sex! God no.’ Allie couldn’t keep the look of disappointment off her face that Jess had seemingly quickly dismissed the idea of Allie having any kind of sex, with anyone, anytime soon. ‘I meant for writing!’

‘Oh, OK.’

‘You could come down and write in there, whenever you wanted to! It would be great.’ Jess’s face was a picture of nervous expectation. ‘A break from London, a change of scenery could really help with the writer’s block! Tom could cook dinner every night.’ Allie felt grateful that at least Jess hadn’t suggestedshecook dinner every night, knowing that this would result in smouldering ashes and fire blankets, which was recoverable when there were a billion different options on Deliveroo, but not so much when the local chippy was, from Allie’s recollection, a twenty-minute drive away, and closed at 7.30pm each night. And Allie didn’t have the heart to tell Jess that her writer’s block was never a result of her environment, and that actually she loved writing in her flat, and was even starting to feel guilty about scaring her friend the robin away.

‘Sure, that sounds lovely.’ Allie couldn’t help smiling at the look of relief and pleasure that spread across Jess’s face as she agreed with her. And who knew, maybe it would be nice to have that escape. Maybe she wouldn’t have quite so many ties to London in the future… Allie’s heart clenched at the thought of leaving London and all those in it, and one person in particular, behind…

The beep of her phone dislodged the uncomfortable lump in her throat and she was grateful for the distraction. ‘Sorry, I just should check this…’ she said fumbling in her bag. ‘It’s Verity,’ she said, looking up at Jess. ‘She says she’s heard on the publishing grapevine that Jake is definitely being summoned to a meeting tomorrow morning at Brinkman’s. Rumour has it he’ll be leaving the office with his belongings in a box!’ Allie grinned.

‘Result! This is great, just what you wanted, right? And what about Verity? Any news on her job?’

Allie’s smile widened. ‘She’s being invited back in for a meeting straight afterwards. I can’t imagine it means anything other than a grovelling apology and her job back, can you?’

‘Brilliant. You should go.’

‘What?’

‘You should be there. Watch it all unfurl. It will be cathartic.’

‘I can’t just march into Brinkman’s and insist I attend the meetings.’

‘No, but you can watch from outside.’

Allie contemplated Jess’s suggestion for a moment.

‘Wouldn’t it be something though? To watch Jake leave, carrying a box?’ Jess prompted.

‘I guess I could… I mean, there’s a cafe over the road, I could watch it from there I suppose … it would be fun to actually witness his downfall.’

‘And Verity’s redemption,’ reminded Jess.

‘Yes, yes of course. Maybe I could deliver her some flowers straight to the office as soon as it’s confirmed?’

‘One hundred percent, and then you can ask her for a small extension seeing as you now apparently have two books to write.’

‘Don’t remind me!’ Allie sighed and glugged back the rest of her wine as Jess’s phone took its turn to interrupt them. ‘Tom?’ she asked.

‘Of course,’ replied Jess. ‘Honestly it’s depressing how little anyone but you and Tom ever contact me.’

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