‘I love you, Pops. Please, please could we be friends again? I know that I shouldn’t have written that secret and that I could have handled things differently but I never, ever meant to hurtyou. I wouldn’t.’ Georgie sniffed loudly. Any minute now she’d be a blubbering wreck.
‘I know that. I love you too.’
Some of the best words Georgie had ever heard. Maybethebest.
Georgie stood up and held out her arms and Poppy stood up too and they had a big hug. They were both full-on sobbing by the end of it.
‘Raf loves you too, you know. You aren’t second best to him, you idiot,’ said Poppy, wiping underneath her eyes. Poppy had never been good on make-up knowledge – that was the kind of thing you knew about someone you’d been best friends with forever – and as usual she was wearing rubbish non-waterproof mascara and now had black rings under her eyes. ‘Seriously. You’re so obviously made for each other.’
‘I think I need to call him.’
‘Do it now. Pleeeeeeease.’ Poppy really looked like her fourteen-year-old self at that point.
‘Do you remember when you made me call Harvey Green? Twenty years ago. I think that was the last time you made me call a boy.’ That hadnotended well.
‘Yeah. Sorry about that. But this is different. Harvey Green was a shit and Raf is lovely, and we’re alotolder.’
‘Okay. That is true.’
‘Right. In recognition of the fact that wearea lot older, I’m going to go now instead of giggling in the background, but please, please phone Raf.’
They shared another big, fantastic, superb hug before Poppy left.
And then Georgie sat down at her kitchen table and stared at her phone. When it pinged about three minutes later, she physically jumped in shock. It was always weird when yourphone did something when you were watching it. Kind of like you were psychic, but not.
It was a message from Poppy.
PHONE HIM.
Then she got another one.
LOVE YOU LOADS. BLOODY PHOOOOOOONE HIM.
30
GEORGIE
It was a good job that Raf didn’t pick up when Georgie phoned because, just as her call went to voicemail, she realised that she didn’t know what to say.Hi. You know you said you loved me and you’d like to get more serious? Do you still mean it? Can I just confirm whether I’m second best or not?No. So she ended the call without leaving a message.
Then she realised that her number would show up as a missed call. So she sent a text saying, ‘Just tried to call you.’
And then she sent another one saying, ‘I wondered if we could talk.’
Okay. Done. Ball in his court. If he didn’t phone back, all good, she’d know that he was regretting his suggestion and it was therefore very lucky that she’d said no. If he did call back, she’d think about what to say then.
She hadn’t heard from him before she went to bed at midnight. Which felt pretty depressing if she was being honest,butshe did have the huge joy of having Poppy back in her life. She texted her just before she put the light out to say that she’d messaged him and had had no reply.
And Poppy replied saying, ‘He’s probably out. Try him tomorrow. Lots of love,’ just like she would have done in the past. Which was so nice that Georgie went to sleep smiling despite Raf.
She was woken at seven in the morning, by Raf phoning.
‘Hi, Georgie.’
‘Hello.’ This was a very heart-beating-fast way to wake up.
‘I got your messages.’
‘Thanks for calling back.’
