AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Drinking, dancing, excellent Chinese food …’ ventured Frank. ‘You’re welcome to bring a plus one of course.’
Sophie winced for a millisecond.
Helen gazed around the walls of the café. Just breathe Helen. You’ve got this. It was one of those cafés that had been created specifically to look good in Instagram pictures. All pastel walls, hanging plants and a very distinct golden trellising on either side of the bar. Helen did a double take. ‘Sorry, I don’t want to be rude, I just need to check something.’
Helen fumbled through her bag for her phone, and scrolled back a month through her pictures. Gold trellising. There was Brody holding his dog under one arm, a green juice in the other, standing against a gold trellis background.
‘This is the bar where Brody’s profile picture was taken. Sorry I know I’m not supposed to be talking about myself, I just never knew where it was …’ Helen’s mind drew a mental map and realised WeWork was about a five-minute walk away.
‘That’s so spooky! Can you imagine Frank, we chose this café out of all the cafés to meet Helen in, and it’s the one!’ enthused Sophie unfazed by Helen hijacking her engagement announcement to talk about that guy that she’d been on a date with once.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘We need to get you a sorry jar, Helen the amount you use that word,’ Frank chuckled, looking at Sophie to check if his joke was appropriate. She put a hand gently on his knee.
‘What do you think this means?’ Her eyes were fizzing again.
‘That I should probably delete this photo and turn myself in as a stalker?’
‘No there must be areason… have you searched this place on Instagram? For that picture?’ Sophie already had her phone in her hand.
Helen opened up Instagram and searched for James & Jim Juice. There were a lot of posts. Instagram types with heavy amounts of lip liner and too white smiles, leaning over iridescent juices. Then there it was: Brody’s picture. She thought he didn’t have socials? Helen clicked through to the account @aliceimagines.
Alice?!
Hanging out with this cute one, and the owner’s okay too @jamesandjimjuice.
It wasn’t Brody’s account. It belonged to a woman with a sheet of silvery blonde hair, and lots of interesting rings on her fingers. Oh. God.
She scrolled through the pictures.
Skiing in Courchevel last Christmas.
A loo selfie at Shoreditch House.
On the beach in Tulum (had everyone been there except Helen?!)
Alice had been everywhere. A bit like the fictional character. She even had the blonde hair and penchant for hair accessories to match.
Helen scrolled to see if she could see any more pictures of Brody. He appeared occasionally with his dog who Helen now knew was called Bean. He was with her in Thailand in locust pose about to go on a ten-day silent retreat. He stood covered in dust wearing a feathered headdress and goggles next to her at Burning Man. And yes, he’d been to Tulum.
None of the posts were that romantic, but look at her! She looked like Grace Kelly to Helen’s … well Helen didn’t look like anyone. Alice had great style, an enviable travel budget and really nice hair. The sleek, perfectly straight kind Helen always envied on girls at school. She started unplaiting her braids. She just needed to wash and blow-dry her hair more often, then it wasn’t that bad.
‘I wouldn’t say that it looks totally romantic … I mean yes there’s a lot of pictures of Brody but none are sort of couply photos, what do you think?’ Sophie was rotating Helen’s phone in her hand, her diamond ring blinking as it twisted in the sunlight.
Helen thought of Vernon. ‘I’m not sure … I mean it’s definitely not #couplesgoals like your pictures from Tulum.’
‘Why don’t you message her?’ Sophie gestured to the messaging feature.
‘What if she’s his girlfriend?’ Helen pushed the phone away from her on the table like it could explode on contact.
‘I’m sure Elle would say he deserves to be caught?’ Sophie paused. ‘Though maybe that’s not very kind?’ Her voice had a funny upwards inflection every time she considered doing anything ‘naughty’. Sophie was incredibly law-abiding, the sort of person who wouldn’t dream of being ‘unkind’ and who actively informed her accounts department that she needed to pay more tax on her bonus.
‘You don’t think it looks desperate? How do I explain that I found the account?’ There was no real good way of saying, ‘So I’ve been following your movements for weeks and I was excited to finally have a break in the case …’
‘I’m sure we can work out a way to put it across, if that’s what you want Helen?’ Sophie’s hand was now squeezing her knee.
‘I’ll think about it.’ Which really meant she had some googling to do.
