Just the Way You Are (26 page)

I stiffened my shoulders to quell the feelings building inside me. It wasn’t the time to let my heart rule my head. I was on a roll and if I wasn’t careful, I’d end up ruining things again.

‘We just need to put this behind us, yeah? It happened and it was great but now we need to move on.’

A slow smile crept onto his lips. ‘Oh so it was great, was it?’

Every muscle in my body relaxed. Finally this was beginning to work…‘You weren’t bad, let’s just say!’

‘I’ve had worse reviews, I suppose!’

We smiled at each other and sat in a convivial silence until Gwen returned with two toffee nut lattes.

‘I got myself a packet of stem ginger biscuits, hope that’s OK?’

She handed me the change and I nodded. If getting back on track with Gwen meant buying some posh biscuits and a coffee, then that was fine by me.

‘I see you two are friends again!’ She smiled and took a bite out of one of her biscuits, clearly happy that it wasn’t handbags at dawn any more.

Max and I exchanged friendly smiles and his hand softly brushed against mine as I reached for a packet of sugar. As we wondered what to do next,
Don’t Dream It’s Over
by Crowded House began to play.

Dr Ian Browning called back at bang on lunchtime, just after Max and Gwen had left.

‘You win,’ he said. ‘Where and when?’

I arranged a meeting for Ivy and Leo for the following week, did a little happy dance and left the café. All in all, the sorting-my-life-out project had gone well. I’d made up with my two best friends and was going to give Ivy the happy-ever-after she’d always dreamed about. Of course I was still alone but for the first time in a long time, that was OK. I jumped in my car and drove to
Sleek
’s offices. Miranda would flay me alive if I didn’t show my face.

As soon as I got there, I regretted turning up. Miranda pulled me into her office and shut the door. Just as I was starting to become a bit scared, I noticed Maddie sitting on the chair next to what I assumed was mine.

Oh holy hell, what’s happening now?

‘Take a seat Ava,’ Miranda ordered. She plonked herself down on her black executive chair and I had to suppress a laugh when the material of her skirt made the fabric squeak. ‘Maddie, why don’t you tell us your wonderful news?’

OK, now I was really worried. What Maddie and Miranda considered to be “wonderful news” would likely be my idea of hell.

‘As you know, I’m getting married –’

‘Ooh yes, she certainly is! Are you still going to try and book Leona Lewis to be your wedding singer?’ Miranda’s eyes sparkled as though she were a proud mother-of-the-bride.

‘
As I was saying,
Craig and I have set the date for our engagement party: eighth of January. It’s going to be a winter wonderland theme at a stately home in Cheshire.’

‘OK, that’s… good. Why did you have to tell me that in here?’

‘Because I want
you
to cover the engagement party and do a special interview with us to go alongside the article on the party! It goes without saying you’ll be doing the wedding too; we’re thinking of going somewhere really exotic like the Maldives or St Lucia. How’s tomorrow for you?’

I resisted the urge to reply with a sarcastic comment, going with a simple ‘Great, that’ll be lovely!’ and leaving as soon as I could.

The rest of that day was spent writing up articles I’d put off for far too long and solving the final mystery of the Mr Writer caper – MistySparkles27. After being quite quiet on the email front, she finally got in touch again.

Dear Ava,

My friend
–
the one who’s been writing the love letters to you
–
is back from his business trip and would like to meet you. I know it’s short notice but is today around 5pm OK? I hope it is, he’s very excited!

Thanks

Lisa (MistySparkles27)

After some emailing back and forth, the stage was set. I’d be meeting this mystery man in The Dog and Duck at five p.m. He’d apparently be wearing a dark blue scarf and a cable knit jumper. So aside from him possibly looking like Captain Birdseye, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

That, along with the fact he might be a serial killer, was why I dragged Gwen along to The Dog and Duck with me.

‘Should we have another code word like last time?’ she asked as we made ourselves comfortable in our favourite booth.

‘Like what, vodka and orange?’ I laughed as I remembered “Lapsang Souchong” and how useful it had been when I was ditching James Kelly.

‘That’s not a bad idea! Anyway, I’ll skedaddle over to the bar to keep an eye on things. If it starts to go pear-shaped, just yell vodka and orange as loud as you can and I’ll come running over. Good luck chick!’

I locked my fingers together and began twiddling my thumbs as I waited. I kept scanning the room for a young Captain Birdseye character but didn’t have any luck finding one. My stomach started churning like a tumble dryer. I already knew this wasn’t going to Mr Writer – that much was obvious – so who was it going to be? Of course, it could’ve all been a mistake on MistySparkles27’s part and this meeting could’ve been born out of her good intentions. However, I couldn’t help feeling that there was something nasty lurking in all of this. To distract myself, I cast a glance over to Gwen. She seemed to be getting on very well with the hunky barman. I smiled; it was refreshing to see her deviate from her usual type.

Just as I was thinking about joining her at the bar to tell her I wanted to leave, the door swung open and in walked an unwelcome yet very familiar figure.

Chapter 24

‘Well, well, well, look who it is.’

The voice made a shiver work its way down my spine. I knew who it belonged to and it definitely wasn’t my secret admirer, unless I’d seriously misjudged their gender.

‘What are you doing here?’ I finally got the nerve to look up and saw Maddie McQueen, the Ice Bitch herself, standing in front of me. I was shocked to see she’d been crying. I didn’t think it was possible; people like her didn’t have tear ducts, did they?

‘Are you OK?’ I asked.

‘I don’t need your sympathy!’ The crack in her voice told a different story. ‘I just came down to see whether my little experiment for my article worked; so happy to see it did!’

I nodded as the pieces fitted together in my mind. Of course Maddie had been MistySparkles27: who else could come up with a name that girly? I waited for the rush of anger to come, but it didn’t. Instead, looking at her tear-stained face, I felt sorry for her.

‘You’re probably expecting me to go mental at you, Maddie. In fact, I was until a couple of minutes ago. Well, I’m not going to. I don’t know why you hate me and I probably never will, but pulling a stunt like this just shows you for what you really are: the girl who never quite managed to leave high school behind. You always want to be Queen Bee, well guess what Maddie? You are! You win; I’m done with this. I’m sick of all the sniping between us, the competition to see who can bag the best job or give the wittiest comeback. It’s pathetic. Right now, you look like you could use someone to talk to, so I’m here if you need me.’

She looked taken aback. Her lips were pursed into a trout pout, her eyes were wide and wild and her square jaw was set into a solid line. In some ways, she reminded me of a demented mannequin.

‘Why are you being nice to me?’ she asked

‘Because we’re not eighteen any more.’

Over a drink and a bag of crisps, Maddie told me about the problems she was having. Her mum and dad had just been through a very bitter divorce and were refusing to attend the engagement party if the other was going. Also, her mum was telling her she’d put on weight and that she’d look like a heifer on her wedding day if she wasn’t careful.

‘She’s suggesting this stupid juice diet,’ said Maddie. ‘It’s as if she’s forgotten that I had a bloody eating disorder for ten years!’

My jaw dropped. ‘I-I didn’t know that…’

She nodded as though she’d just told me her favourite colour. ‘Yeah, it started when I was eleven. When I went to high school, I saw all these skinny girls around me and I wanted to be like them. So I tried to be the only way I knew how: I stopped eating. My mum and dad didn’t notice for ages. They were too busy hating each other to pay attention to anything I did. It was only after I collapsed at school that they saw how bad I was. I’d dropped to five and a half stone, my ribs were showing…’

Half of me wanted to hug her, the other half didn’t have a clue what to think. I’d always assumed Maddie was a cardboard cut-out Mean Girl with no substance. Just goes to show how wrong you can be, I thought.

‘It was all a massive inconvenience to my mum,’ Maddie continued. ‘She was embarrassed by the whole thing. While I was in the hospital, all she kept saying was “what will I tell people?” as if what our neighbours thought was the most important thing in the world. I’ve had relapses over the years, but when I was twenty-one I finally got it under control. I can actually look at a hamburger without gagging now!’

She chuckled a little, which softened her features and made her look prettier.

‘Maddie, I don’t know what to say…’

She waved her hand dismissively and I could see her defences start to restore themselves.

‘Tell anyone about this and I’ll let the whole office know about my little experiment with you and this Mr Writer bloke!’

‘Secret’s safe with me,’ I replied.

She got up and walked out, cutting our conversation short. As I watched her tiny bird-like figure shrink into the distance, I felt a shift in our relationship. Maybe Maddie was more human and fallible than I’d given her credit for.

Gwen and I stayed for a few drinks to mark the end of my search for Mr Writer. Every stone had been turned, every avenue explored and as far as she knew, I hadn’t found him. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was really Max; she’d been besotted with him and it wasn’t fair for me to ruin that. I felt terrible and awkward about lying to her by omission. Despite a few snarky comments, she’d been nothing but helpful to me on my quest.

‘Can I borrow your phone for a second?’ she asked at the end of the night. ‘Mine’s dead and I want to phone a taxi for later.’

I was only half-listening; I was too focused on getting served at the bar. I slid the phone out of my pocket and passed it to her, thinking nothing of it.

I knew something was wrong as soon as Gwen came back in. Her face was milky-white and her eyes blazed with anger.

‘Why the
fuck
didn’t you tell me?’ Her voice barely rose above a whisper.

‘What are you talking about?’ My heart began to thump in my chest and all I could hear was blood pumping in my ears.

‘Don’t you dare play the innocent with me, Ava! When were you going to tell me that Max was Mr Writer?!’

Blood froze in my veins and my mind went into overdrive, trying to work out how she’d found out. My first instinct was to start apologising ‘Oh my God Gwen I’m so…’

‘I don’t want to hear it, not this time. You finally found out who was writing all those amazing letters to you and you didn’t tell me about it! I wouldn’t have given a stuff that it was Max. Yeah I liked him, but if I’d known he was Mr Writer that would’ve changed everything! You’ve made me look like an absolute twat!’

‘How did you find out?’ I asked, dreading the answer.

‘Just as I was about to phone the taxi, Max called. He must’ve thought I was you and he started pouring his heart out down the phone to you, saying how sorry he was that you found out about him being Mr Writer like you did. He said he knows you guys are friends again and he’s beyond happy about that because he wants you in his life, but he felt like he still had to apologise.’

‘Gwen, I swear I only found out after Max finished things with you.’ I reached out to touch her but she wrenched herself away from me.

‘Are you seriously telling me you had no idea before then?!’

‘What, and you did?’

‘I had my suspicions at uni, yeah. I didn’t say anything because I knew you’d pull the old “we’re just friends” card. After a while, I just…forgot about it, I guess. Then after that whole thing with Tom, I thought there might be something there between us. God, how stupid was I?!’

She ran outside and I took off in hot pursuit. As I did, the door swung open and in walked none other than Gary from Stockport! He was holding hands with a girl who had brown ringlets, glasses and slightly buck teeth.

‘Ava! How are you, it’s been ages!’

Yup, the speech impediment was still very much alive and kicking.

‘Hey Gary, you look…all right!’ I replied. I craned my neck to look out the window to see if I could see Gwen going down the road. I saw her heading in the direction of our flat. All I wanted to do was run after her and make things right.

His hair still had far too much hair gel in it and the smell of his aftershave hit me like a sucker punch. He was wearing a suit that looked like it belonged to his dad and a tie tied far too tight.

‘Thanks, this is Robyn by the way.’ He gestured to the girl beside him who didn’t look happy to see me.

‘Wobyn Wiley, nice to meet you.’ She extended a hand and I shook it, trying to suppress a smile. They were perfect for each other.

‘Well you two have a fun night. Nice to see you, W…Robyn!’

I dashed off into the night, leaving Gary and “Wobyn” to carry on with their evening. I had to catch up with my best friend in the whole wide world before I lost her forever.

‘Gwen, wait! Just stop and listen to me!’

I sprinted along the street, trying to attract her attention. For someone who was only five feet tall, she didn’t half walk fast.

‘Gwen, stop!’

‘Go away! How could you keep something like this from me?! I thought we were best friends!’ she yelled.

She stopped suddenly and spun on her heel to face me, narrowly avoiding a collision with two drunk girls walking along the street. An icy wind whipped my face and made goosebumps rise on my arms. Groups of girls passed us as we stood in the street, arms linked and giggling at shared stories. I wanted nothing more than to do the same with Gwen.