‘Don’t worry about it. I understand. You don’t want to tell me stuff.’
‘I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I was embarrassed…’
‘Liv…’ She turns to face me. ‘That’s a pathetic excuse.’
‘I know. Idowant to tell you stuff…’
‘Well, start talking. What else don’t I know?’ She folds her arms in front of her chest, her eyebrows high.
‘I… I went to his house… once and––’
‘For God’s sake, Liv!’ The lights change and she runs across the road, her shiny black ponytail, the envy of my entire childhood, bouncing as she runs.
‘Chloe!’ I yell.
But she doesn’t look back. She hops in the car, and a moment later, they drive off.
Chapter 44
May 1996
Emily tried for the fourth time that day to get through to Will.
The ring tone sounded alien, far away.
‘Hello?’ Just two syllables but un-mistakably Will.
‘Will, you’re there!’
‘Hang on, I’ll call you back.’
She put the phone down, and a moment later it rang. This was the arrangement, so there were no arguments with her flatmates about the phone bill.
She snatched it up. ‘Hi.’
‘Hello gorgeous. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘You don’t sound fine.’
There was nowhere to sit by the phone in the hall, so she slid down the wall to the floor. ‘No. I’m sort of mixed up.’
‘About what?’
She let out a breath. ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’
‘The good news.’
She could hear the hum of the shower down the hall. ‘I won the competition.’
‘The competition, that’s brilliant! You won the competition! Wow!’ He paused. ‘What competition?’
‘Remember, on our first date, I showed you the photographs? You said I’d win it.’
‘Oh yeah! The treasure chest with the butterflies and the beetles. You see? I told you! What do you win again?’
‘Five thousand pounds and my own exhibition at Marshalls, this cool gallery in Covent Garden.’