After they hung up, Eva sat for a while without moving, her phone still in her hand. The spreadsheet waited on her screen. The problem she had been solving hadn’t gone anywhere. Everything was exactly as it had been before the call.
And yet, something felt off. She wanted to talk to someone about it. She wanted to talk to…
She picked her phone up again without quite deciding to, her thumb hovering for a second as if it might move on its own.
But Eva didn’t allow it to head anywhere it might have had in mind. Even ifthingshadn’t happened, even if there weretopicsthat might be uprooted, even if there was no tension, they didn’t know each other like that.
They were strangers.
Eva put her phone down. There were some things she knew how to fix. Some things she could organise. And then there were the things she very deliberately left alone.
Thirty-One
Maddy had almost convinced herself she was fine.
It had taken weeks of effort, of living her life the same way she always had, in a steadfast routine of sleep, work, Adam.
He helped, in his way, with his complete, unquestioning certainty that everything between them was exactly as it should be. Maddy had leaned into that certainty. He would get them both to the finish line. All she had to do was exactly what he told her to, and nothing could turn out that badly, could it?
As for the hen weekend, Maddy had just about managed to file under fiction. Subcategory: pre-wedding hysteria. The kiss—if it could even be called that—had been reduced, in her own mind, to a moment of temporary insanity. A lip misfire. The kind of thing that happened when emotions ran high, and people did things they did not mean.
She had repeated that story so often that it had started to stick.
Which was why, standing in the middle of this function room surrounded by Adam’s colleagues, Maddy felt almostnormal. No less than seventy percent normal, which equalled an A grade. Did it edge down to a sixty sometimes? Sure. But that was still a B. You could go as low as a fifty, and it was still a pass, right? A solid C. Even a C minus wasn’t the end of the world, was it? Some people would love a C minus existence.
The venue was sleek in a way that tried very hard not to look like it was trying. Low lighting, polished surfaces, soft jazz. A networking event, Adam had called it. But all Maddy saw was people in sharp suits talking about numbers and targets with people they already knew. She would have called it a propaganda event at best. Adam looked happy enough, though.
Maddy watched him from where she stood near the bar, holding a white wine. Adam was in the middle of a small group, animated, confident, telling some story that had the others laughing. He looked good. He looked effortless. Maddy had always envied him for that. He never looked like he was dragging himself through a day. He fit in wherever he went.
This was why they worked. If you didn’t know where you were going, a confident ship’s captain was key. And she had her captain. The man she was marrying. And she felt fine. Not thrilled, not giddy, but fine. Content, even. Comfortable. It all made sense.
‘You alright?’
Maddy blinked and turned as Adam appeared beside her, slipping an arm around her waist. She smiled at him automatically.
‘Yeah, of course. You?’
‘Yeah. Just escaped Martin before he started talking about his keto again. You sure you’re okay? Bit quiet.’
‘I’m just taking it all in,’ she said. ‘It’s your world.’
‘Our world,’ he corrected gently.
Maddy smiled again. ‘Our world.’
It sounded right. And wasn’t that the point of it all?
Adam leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her temple, already half-turning as someone called his name from across the room, adding, ‘Hey, I want you to meet…’
‘I’ll be two minutes,’ Adam said to Maddy. ‘Don’t go anywhere.’
‘I won’t,’ she vowed. Where would she go?
Adam disappeared back into the crowd, and Maddy exhaled slowly, letting her shoulders drop a fraction. She took a small sip of her wine, out of propriety, and turned toward the bar, leaning on it for support.
This was good. This was steady. This was what she had chosen. She had moved on.
Her phone buzzed in her hand.
