Page 38 of The One That I Want

‘Yes, he does.’

George emits a guttural purr. ‘I adore James McAvoy.Soscrummy.’

‘Hmm,anyway,’ I say, getting back to the case, ‘you should have seen them together, George.’

‘Fireworks?’

‘Less obvious than that, but definitely something, you know?’

George’s eyes dance with excitement. ‘Can you imagine if Mystery Man Ewan Wilder turns out to be the love of Greta’s life?’ he asks dramatically.

‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to see what Marie digs up before we get too excited. He could be a serial killer for all we know.’

‘God, you’re sodramatic, Poppy,’ he says, rolling his eyes without a trace of irony.

Greta

I’m in my office, attempting to edit an article for next month’s issue, but I’ve now read the same sentence five times. Ordinarily, it would be a compelling read – the connection between what we eat, gut biome, and brain health – but my mind keeps drifting.

‘Do you have a minute?’ Bex is at the door.

‘Yes, come on in,’ I say, grateful for the reprieve – anything to distract me from the errant thoughts my monkey brain keeps tossing up.

‘Have you seen Poppy’s column?’ she asks, perching on the edge of the chair opposite me. ‘The draft she submitted?’

I haven’t and Bex knows this, asshe’sthe editor of the column. I can tell she’s only asking to preface an issue.

‘Is there something wrong?’

‘I’ve just emailed it to you. Would you mind taking a look?’

I navigate to my emails and open the file, skim reading it to get the gist. ‘Oh,’ I say about halfway through.

‘So it’s not just me?’ asks Bex.

I look up from my laptop. ‘It’s very dry, isn’t it? Almost clinical.’

‘Mmm-hmm. I’m not sure our readers need that much detail about pleasure receptors in the brain.’

‘Are you able to… you know…?’ I mime typing with both hands.

‘Completely re-write it like I did the last time Poppy wrote forNouveau?’

Ah, sothisis why Bex was lukewarm about the column. She knew she’d probably have to do the heavy lifting to make it publishable. And as far as she knows, Poppy has legitimately been engaged byNouveauas a contributor. She must be as confused as she is frustrated.

‘I was going to say, “Work your magic”.’

The corners of her mouth curve downwards, proving my suspicions.

‘If you leave it with me, I could have a go?’ I offer.

She blinks at me in surprise. ‘Haven’t you got enough on your plate?’

She’s right, I’m already behind schedule for next month’s issue, but I can’t tell her why, so I wave her off. ‘I’m happy to do it.’

Her eyes narrow. ‘It’s all right. I’ll edit it. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t completely off base.’

‘You were on base,’ I say, eliciting a small smile at my play on words.

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