Cassie plunges her face into her hands. ‘You were a lucky near miss, Rory. I was pissed off when I went to bed that you hadn’t turned out to be the date I wanted, but after hearing all this, I think I might actually be glad we didn’t go to bed together.’
‘Right, I need to go home. I will walk in the dark and the snow. Might be good for my hangover.’
Cassie nods. ‘The city centre is about half a mile walk in that direction.’ She points behind her. ‘Just keep following the main road. You will probably be able to flag down a taxi.’
As we get to the door, she touches my arm. ‘Good luck, Rory.’
I smile. ‘Thanks for everything, Cassie, the tea and the chat.’
She studies my face. ‘Is fatherhood a bad concept for you?’
Pointing to myself I let out a nervous laugh. ‘Look at me, Cassie, do I look like someone’s father? Two weeks ago, I lost my job due to cutbacks, I have spent the last few weeks blowing holes in my savings, I go out far too much, get blind drunk and end up having short, meaningless relationships with women who I think are Emily. Also, I was a bit of an arsehole to Emily.’
Cassie opens the front door. ‘Did you get on well with the boy?’
The subject of Felix will make me feel sadder than I already am. Ignoring her I stride out into the snow which is lit up by the streetlamps. ‘I think I better go. Thanks for everything, Cassie.’
She stuffs her hands in her dressing gown pockets. ‘Goodbye, Rory and happy Christmas. Good luck with your life and missing Emily.’
I smile and wave. ‘Sorry I was a near miss.’
She frowns and folds her arms. ‘Have you ever thought of trying to make it work with Emily as opposed to torturing yourself by looking for random flings?’
‘I’ll get over her, one day,’ I say, staring down at my shoes, which are submerged in fluffy white snow.
I turn and begin to trudge away.
‘At least give Emily her locket,’ shouts Cassie. ‘That is a beautiful locket. The fact you got their photos inserted is so sweet. I would be pissed off if someone had not given me my late sister’s gift.’
The thought of sending Emily the gift stays with me all the way back to my flat in the snow. Up until now hanging on to the chain and locket hadn’t felt wrong. I don’t know why I thought keeping hold of Emily’s present from her late sister was all right. It’s been in my pocket for weeks, something I’ve secretly held or stroked whenever my new life in Leeds hasn’t felt right. I often find myself opening the locket and gazing at Emily. The more I think about the locket the worse I feel about taking it out of its box all those months ago and carrying it around with me like some good luck charm. Perhaps I could send it back to Emily by special delivery?
Wearily I climb the stairs to my flat as the lift is once again out of order. Once back in my flat I head for the sofa and in the darkness think about what to do with the gold locket Vivi asked me to buy on her behalf for Emily’s birthday. I take it out of my coat pocket and hold up the chain so the locket twirls in front of me. Vivi had taken me aside and asked what Emily would like for her birthday. The locket was something I should have bought Emily months before. Whenever we walked past the jewellery shop, she always pointed it out. When Vivi asked me for ideas on something nice for her older sister the locket was the first thing I blurted out. I knew Emily would treasure it.
It doesn’t take long for my eyelids to grow heavy and my head to hit the cushion.
‘Rory?’ My flatmate, Tom, is standing over me, clutching a bowl of cereal. His blond hair is dripping wet and he’s wearing his black bathrobe, ‘You had a good night? How did it go?’ He raises his thumbs. ‘Were you successful in ourchallenge?’
With a groan I haul myself up to a sitting position and rub my bleary eyes. It’s light outside. I’m not sure I want to tell him about how I pulled Cassie, thinking she was Emily, went home with her, tried to sleep with her but kept calling her Emily, threw up all over her sofa and then ended up pouring out my heart to her in the kitchen. ‘It was good.’
Tom grins and slaps me on the back. ‘That’s the fighting spirit. Did you manage to score?’
I can’t lie anymore to Tom. ‘No, did you?’
‘Ah, no, I wasn’t so lucky with our challenge.’ He shakes his head. ‘I pulled some girl, lovely figure and a sexy smile. We were leaving the club and I saw Suzie. Mate – why did I have to see her in the club?’ He groans with frustration. ‘Suzie looked amazing. She was wearing that glittery gold dress I like. There I was embarking on our challenge. Suzie yelled she wouldn’t take me back even if I was the last bloke on earth and then told the girl everything.’
‘I’m hoping the girl you pulled ignored Suzie.’
Tom clamps his hand over his forehead. ‘This girl linked arms with Suzie, and they went back into the club together.’
Tom is the guy who owns this flat. He’s a newly qualified solicitor, and when I moved in back in May he was weeks away from proposing to Suzie, who he claimed was the woman of his dreams.
Suzie dumped him after they had a drunken night of revealing their secrets to each other. She’d sold him the idea of having an evening where they told each othereverything. Apparently, she wanted to knoweverythingabout her future husband before she got married.
Eager to get started, Suzie confessed to snogging a bridesmaid at her brother’s wedding when she was nineteen, having sex in an office supplies cupboard with a previous ex-boyfriend and having an affair with a married bloke at work before she met Tom.
Lulled into a false sense of security, Tom confessed to sleeping with a woman at a work conference in Norwich just after he’d started seeing Suzie. He thought his secret was bulletproof as he explained to Suzie that they hadn’t had theexclusive conversationuntil the afternoon he’d got home from Norwich.
Suzie took a different view of Tom’s antics in Norwich. She left shortly after he had stopped chuckling, and she’d poured his favourite Scotch all over his head and screamed at him.
