“Well, to be fair, without the signage, there really isn’t a theme. There will be bunting and lights, but that’s hardly a creative direction. So this would, I guess,informthe theme.”
She nodded as she considered this. Then she nodded some more, and considered some more. She was quiet long enough this time that I was sure she’d forgotten I was sitting there.
“There’s no way,” she finally said, and I felt myself deflate, sitting back in the chair, wet spots be damned.
“Oh,” I muttered. “Sorry, I just thought?—”
“You couldn’t possibly get this done on top of all your fundraising work. I’ll have to reassign your call list.”
I sat back up again. “You would do that?”
She handed me the tablet back. “Well, we can’t very well have no signage, can we? And no one else has brought me a better idea. So let’s try it.”
I smiled as I turned off the screen and stood. “Thank you, Simone.”
“But you have to promise me that you’ll tell me the moment you get stuck.”
“I promise,” I said, turning to leave.
“And Morgan?” she said as I reached the door. I stopped and turned back to her.
“Yes?”
“This is good,” she said. “Really good. Well done.”
* * *
I got homea few hours later and instantly collapsed on the sofa, breaking my “don’t sit down” rule. Now that my feet were up, I’d be unlikely to get anything productive done for the rest of the evening. And by the time I’d finished a takeaway that only required me to be standing for about twenty seconds whilst I opened the door, it was clear I wasn’t going to be tackling anything but my Watch Later playlist on YouTube.
Which was a problem, because I only had a few days until the new pictures were being taken, and I’d done exactly zero things from Cara’s mum’s list. I did have a large box from her that had arrived a couple of days ago, which I assumed was the “forthcoming supplies” for Cara’s room that she’d mentioned in her note. I’d yet to open the box.
I started making a mental schedule; I’d have to fit everything into just two days, including a trip to the shop to get some paint. It didn’t leave me much wiggle room for Monday’s slot with the estate agent. Really I needed to get myself going now so that I could gain a day, but the idea of that sounded horrible when all I wanted to do was be as cosy as possible.
Or maybe there was a way I could get it all doneandstay put this evening…
No, bad idea, I told myself. I’d only just hung out with Jack over the weekend – this would be the shortest time yet between seeing each other, outside of Monday nights, anyway.
As I debated texting him, my eyes scanned the room, looking at everything I needed to do. I would probably have to donate a few books, which broke my heart, and it would be good to have a car, right? What if we needed supplies suddenly? I couldn’t walk to the big hardware store from here. And plus, he’d apparently built his whole house on his own. And he was an absolute nerd about plants; I didn’t even know what in the neglected back garden was plant and what was weed.He would certainly be useful…
My eyes landed on the book he’d bought me in Hay over the weekend, which stood propped up against the bookshelf. On paper, it was a pretty safe choice – we’d watchedThe Lord of the Ringstogether on the group weekend away, he knew I liked illustration, and my name was in the front of the book – but there was something about the idea of him combing the shelves for something I’d like, actually taking the time to open the books and run his hands across them, that made me feel all fluttery. It was how I’d felt shopping for him, too. And as I looked at the gorgeous cover and remembered his crinkly-eyed smile coming out of that bookshop, I admitted to myself that I also just wanted to see him. And not just because I knew he’d look good with a tool belt on; because I actually craved his company, weirdly enough.
I knew nothing would come of it; he’d made that much clear. But with everything that was going on – work, the house, Pablo, all of it – being around him made me feel grounded. Excited. Brave. And that wasn’t nothing.
Still, it took me a solid ten minutes to talk myself into texting him, despite the fact that we exchanged casual texts all the time, and another five to craft a message that I thought sounded casual enough that he could easily say no if he didn’t want to come. As soon as I was done, I chucked my phone across the room onto the window seat as if it were about to explode, attempting to distract myself with my tablet.
Less than a minute later, it lit up, and I practically sprinted over to it to read Jack’s response. Then I did a highly embarrassing happy dance into the kitchen, where I cracked open a bottle of beer. Tonight I could be cosy. And tomorrow … well, tomorrow I’d get to be grounded and excited and brave.
Chapter23
Jack
By Friday night, I was completely shattered. I’d spent the day with Phil and a few old school friends doing something called “canyoning” for Adam’s stag do, which essentially involved jumping off cliff after cliff into the cold water of the Irish Sea on the North Wales coast. I’d enjoyed it, but it was nothing short of exhausting; with all the time I’d been spending with Morgan, I’d gone on way fewer solo adventures than usual, and I was feeling it in my lack of stamina.
I wasn’t the only one who had struggled; Adam himself was terrified of every single jump, and his best man Freddie who had planned the weekend was karmically rewarded for the choice of activity with a too-small wetsuit. Whilst none of us had enjoyed looking at the effect that had created, the waddle it had caused had us all in stitches for the entirety of the hiking portion.
Now we were back at the big house Freddie had rented, eating a massive takeaway order, the leftovers from which were supposed to be our lunch the next day, too. I didn’t relish the idea of leftover Chinese, nor was I keen on the next day’s loose agenda; Freddie was trying to rally everyone to go to a strip club, but he seemed to be the only one interested. Which was saying something, because he was also the only married guy on the trip.
I wasn’t used to quite so much laddish socialisation – I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through another day and a half – so instead of playing drinking games, I was off in a corner, sitting in an armchair in a little bay window, holding a beer in one hand and scrolling on my phone with the other.
