She turned the pile of papers over and said, ‘Eek,’ and turned them face down again.
‘Eek?’
‘I don’t want to read anyone else’s list. It feels really intrusive.’
‘I do get that, but you’ve come this far? Maybe just cross your eyes or something or just don’t read them? Or just forget what you read?’
‘Yep. Okay. I can do that.’
The first list was Ankita’s. Georgie managed to turn it over without seeing anything. Yesss.
The second was Beth’s. The lettersIVFleapt out at her from the page before she fumbled it over. IVF what? She was going to have a baby with Dominic? Dominic the Tosser, as Ankita (accurately) called him. What? Bloody hell.
The third was Raf’s and she only saw the word caffeine, thankgoodness.
The fourth was Poppy’s and oh shit the wordsDeclanandbastardleapt out at her before she managed to slam it over. Fuck. It seemed like Poppy really might genuinely hate Declan. Was she planning to leavehim? That would be terrible. Georgie didn’t know Declan well but it had sounded as though Poppy had a great relationship with him.
The fifth one was Georgie’s, so she hadn’t seen anything from Noah or Declan at least.
She took a photo of the – really very long – list and then shoved all the pieces of paper back in the envelope so there was no possibility she’d see any more snippets of shock revelations from her friends.
‘Are you okay?’ Raf asked.
‘Yes, yes, totally fine,’ she said, her mind racing. Beth and Dominic were going to have a baby? Poppy thought Declan was a bastard?
‘How are we going to stick it back?’ Raf asked.
Oh, yes. Good point.
‘Glue?’ she suggested.
‘Glue, though? Does anyone actually own glue?’
‘Noah’s a pub landlord,’ Georgie said. ‘Landlords own everything.’
‘Really?’
Raf was annoyingly sceptical about a lot of things, it seemed.
‘Yes, really.’ Georgie looked around. ‘Where, though?’
Raf stood up and pulled open a couple of drawers.
‘I can’t look,’ Georgie told him. ‘I’ve already intruded too much today. I can’t hunt through Noah’s house.’
‘Yeah, we can’t look anywhere else.’ Raf had finished checking kitchen drawers.
Georgie googledHow do you make glue.
‘Look, though.’ She showed him her screen. ‘You can make glue yourself from water, vinegar, skimmed milk and bicarb of soda.’
‘We could do thatorwe could put the envelope back where it was, unsealed, and I will buy some glue tomorrow and stick it down then, and if Noah checks it in the meantime, he’ll just think the envelope wasn’t great.’
‘That is a very good plan,’ Georgie said approvingly. ‘You’d make a good private investigator too.’
While Raf took the envelope and placed it back on the side where he’d found it, Georgie had a quick look at the photo she’d taken of her resolution list.
‘Nooooooo,’ she said.
