‘He should bring you. Surely you’d get discounted tickets as the pilot’s girlfriend? And if you stay with Stephen it’d be free accommodation. I could stomach his company if you all wanted to meet up.’ I was dying for Beth to come over on vacation so we could go out for cocktails. Actually, maybe not cocktails.
She smiled, but it was dimmer than usual, and she shook her head. ‘I mentioned it a couple of times, but he didn’t seem keen.’
I tilted my head. ‘How come?’
‘He didn’t really say. Just sort of changed the subject. Maybe he just wants to spend some time with Stephen – brotherly bonding or something.’ She pulled one leg up to rest on her chair, so she was hugging her knee.
‘He’s missing his brother that much? I didn’t get the impression they were that close.’
‘No. They are. They were just going through a hard time when you saw them at Christmas. But…is it weird? Shouldn’t he want me to come with him on a romantic city break or am I being completely self-absorbed and jealous to think that?’
‘No. You’re never those things, honey. Are things all good with you and Nick generally?’
‘Yeah, they’re good,’ she said automatically and then her brown eyes went kind of hazy and she drifted off into a daydream. ‘They’re really good.’
‘Excuse me, ugh, can’t deal with the lovey-dovey nausea.’ I grabbed my wastebasket and brought it into view, pretending to be sick into it.
‘Noelle.’ She glared at me, but I could tell a laugh was threatening.
‘I’m kidding. You know I love you guys. I take credit for you getting together.’ I dropped the wire basket to the floor again. ‘So, you’re all happy and he just wants to spend some time with his brother. I guess it’s not that weird – it’s just hard for me to imagine needing to schedule in more time with one of my brothers or sisters. I can’t go to the grocery store without tripping over a sibling, y’know?’
She laughed. ‘And to be fair, Nick did say that Stephen is trying to find someone while he’s on this secondment. Nick wanted to see if he could help him while he was staying with him.’
‘What, find someone, like, “the one”?’ I raised my eyebrows.
‘Oh God, no. Stephen? Are you kidding?’ She waved a hand as though swiping the crazy idea away. ‘Someone their mum left money to in her will.’
‘Don’t the lawyers usually deal with that sort of thing?’
‘I don’t know.’ She pressed her lips together for a second and I sensed she wasn’t telling me everything. ‘Stephen decided he wanted to deal with it, but he hasn’t found the guy yet.’
‘What details do they have for him then? Just a name? How do they know he lives in New York?’
She pointed at me. ‘Ha, look at you – your eyes have lit up. You’re a regular Nancy Drew. One whiff of a mystery and you want to get straight on it.’
‘No. Not me. I have a book to write.’ I groaned as the realisation swam over me again. I’d forgotten it for ten minutes while we were chatting.
‘You get on with that book then. I have to go set up the dining room for dinner service.’
‘Okay, sweet cheeks. Let’s do this again soon.’
‘Definitely.’
We blew kisses to each other and disconnected the call. My apartment was quiet apart from the conspicuous humming of my refrigerator as it struggled to keep my food cool.
I knew what I needed to do. I had to go fetch my notebook and open my edit letter file and my outlining file and startthinking.
But when I did all that, the thoughts, they did not come. I drummed my fingers on the edge of my keyboard, then rifled through my drawers for my sticky notes. Maybe if I broke the problems down and dealt with them one by one…
An hour later, I had helped Daisy with an English assignment, played Animal Crossing with SamandDaisy, agreed to meet Alfie and Teddy for tacos this evening, and I had three pink Post-it Notes on my wall, which were the big issues my editor had flagged up. The bones of the book. All the issues she had with characters and consistency would depend on these main elements being fixed:
1) Up the stakes in the plot – make it more personal
2) Setting needs to be more integral to plot
3) More emotional investment in the love story
And then I had my own mirroring set of Post-its in blue, which showed the only flimsy ideas I’d had to fix things:
