Then I told her everything. Even the awful bits at the football ground when, at the same moment that I’d been confronted by a stranger’s backside, I had also been confronted with the immutable fact that I had lost my mind. Jenni awwwed and tutted and sighed and even, when I showed her my final message to Eddie, welled up. She did not mock me for any of it. She did not even raise an eyebrow. She just nodded sympathetically, as if my actions had been entirely understandable.
‘You can’t let a shot at love slip through your fingers,’ she said. ‘You were right to try everything.’ She eyed me. ‘You did fall in love with him, didn’t you?’
After a pause I nodded. ‘Although you shouldn’t be able to fall in love after only—’
‘Oh, quit it,’ Jenni said quietly. ‘Of course you can fall in love after a week.’
‘I suppose so.’ I picked at the hem of my top. ‘Anyway, I want to get back to what I know. I want to win that hospice pitch in Fresno; I want to get George Attwood on board in Santa Ana. It’s time to move on.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. There’ll be no further attempts to reach Eddie. Infact, I’m going to remove him from my Facebook friends. Right now, with you as witness.’
‘Oh,’ Jenni said, unenthusiastically. ‘I suppose that’s for the best. But it’s so sad. I thought he was it, Sarah.’
‘Me too.’
‘To have met him on that date, in that place – it was just so perfect. It sent shivers down my spine.’
I said nothing. I’d been trying to forget what Tommy had had to say on this matter. Jenni’s explanation, on the other hand, was more comforting. A big, romantic coincidence; an incredible piece of timing. That worked for me.
I glanced over at her. ‘You OK?’
She sighed, nodded. ‘Just sad for you. And full of hormones.’
I flopped back down next to her as I waited for Facebook to locate Eddie from within my friends list.
My stomach turned over.
‘He’s unfriended me,’ I whispered. I reloaded his profile, in case it told me a different story. It did not.Add friend?it asked.
‘Oh, Sarah,’ Jenni murmured.
The freezing pain returned to my chest, as if it had never gone away. The bottomless longing, a well down which a pebble could fall forever.
‘I . . .’ I swallowed hard. ‘I guess that’s that, then.’
At that moment Frappuccino exploded into life as the front door opened and Javier strode in. ‘Hey, Sarah!’ he said, offering the weird salute he always offered in place of a hug. Javier did physical only with Jenni and cars.
‘Hey, Javier. How are you? Thank you so much for giving us some time alone tonight.’ My body felt droopy and unformed.
‘You’re welcome,’ he told me, mooching off to the kitchenfor a beer. Jenni kissed him and passed through to the bathroom.
‘You been looking after my girl?’ he asked. He sat down in his chair and opened the beer.
‘Well, she’s mostly been looking after me,’ I admitted. ‘You know what she’s like. But I’ll be here for her tomorrow, Javi. I can be here all day if she needs me.’
Javier took a long swig of his beer, watching me with guarded eyes. ‘Tomorrow?’
I looked at him. Something wasn’t right. ‘Er . . . yes,’ I said. ‘For the test result?’
Javier put his beer bottle down on the floor, and I knew, suddenly, what he was going to say.
‘The test was today,’ he said shortly. ‘It didn’t work. She’s not pregnant.’
Silence echoed between us.
‘I guess she wanted you to be able to talk about your own . . . ah, problems . . . first,’ he said. ‘You know how she is.’
