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‘It’s a marketing director role for Children in Crisis. So a step up, but the pay would be the same because, well, it’s a charity, isn’t it?’
‘What do they do?’
I bit my lip. This was the part I wasn’t sure about. ‘They work with children who have lost parents or siblings. Offer them bereavement counselling, organise days out, match them with another child going through something similar. I remember feeling really lonely when it happened to me. I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone else because you didn’t want to upset them and because I didn’t think they’d really get it, anyway.’
Val took my hands and squeezed them. ‘It sounds great, Becs. But why now, do you think?’
I thought about it and Jack popped into my head. I’d only known him a couple of months, but seeing him talk about his acting, realising what he was prepared to sacrifice to go after his dream, had triggered something inside me. And he believed he was good enough to make it, that was the thing that stuck with me. Was I staying at Kingsland because I didn’t quite believe I had the talent to do anything else? Did I really want to spend the rest of my life doing a job I didn’t love because I was too scared to try something new?
‘I think it’s that I feel ready to do something like this, finally,’ I said to Val by way of explanation.
It was true, I did, I just missed out the bit about Jack. I’d tell her at some point, but she’d only jump to conclusions if I mentioned him now and would go off on one of her matchmaking crusades. Jack was lovely to talk to and also, admittedly, very nice to look at, but he was the very last person I was going to get involved with, even if there was a chance he’d be interested in someone like me. It would be asking for trouble to fall for an actor who could get his big break at any second and disappear off to Hollywood. Plus he was my neighbour. Marlowe Court was where I was happiest – if anything was to happen between us (which obviously I didn’t want it to, but just say it did) and it went wrong, then him living opposite me could ruin everything.
Val beamed at me. ‘Well I’m proud of you,’ she said.
I beamed back, feeling a bit choked up.
‘It’s going to be awful at Kingsland without you,’ she moaned. ‘How am I going to cope? Who am I going to have wine-fuelled lunches with?’
‘I’m not going anywhere yet, am I?’ I said, laughing. Trust Val to run ahead of herself.
