‘That’s a real shame. I have to go,’ said Joe. ‘You do understand that, don’t you?’
Ellie nodded. ‘I do.’
‘I’ll really miss you.’
‘I’ll miss you too.’
‘But not as much.’ The lopsided smile was back. ‘Otherwise you’d come along.’
OK, here goes. ‘Joe, the last few weeks have been brilliant. We’ve had a fantastic time.’
He spoke with rueful resignation. ‘That means you really aren’t going to change your mind.’
‘You wouldn’t want me to. Listen, can we be honest with each other? Marks out of ten for how you feel about me.’ Ellie held up her hands. ‘And don’t say ten. You have to be completely honest.’
Joe raked his fingers through his damp hair. ‘Nine. OK, not nine. Eight and a half. But that’s good, that’s really good.’
‘Thank you. Now it’s my turn.’ Ellie had been going to say eight. To be kind she said, ‘You’re an eight and a half too.’
‘They sound like pretty high marks to me.’
‘They are. But not high enough. If you’re planning to live with someone, it has to be tens all the way.’
His eyebrows went up. ‘You told me not to say ten.’
‘Because it wouldn’t have been true.’ Ellie reached for his hands. ‘But you’ve given me my confidence back, and that’s the best present in the world. Thanks to you, I know I can feel normal again, do all the stuff that normal people do, have sex and enjoy it.’
Joe said gravely, ‘It’s a special talent of mine. I’ve always been excellent at sex.’
Everything was going to be OK. She felt herself relax. ‘You’re great in bed. And out of it.’
‘In an eight and a half out of ten kind of way.’
Ellie broke into a grin. ‘When you meet your perfect ten out of ten woman, I want you to phone me up and say, “Now I get it, now I understand. Ellie, I’m sorry. You were right and I was wrong.”’
‘Come here, you.’ Joe pulled her into a hug. ‘It’s OK, I already know you’re right. I’m just going to miss you, that’s all. We’ve had a good time, haven’t we?’
‘The best.’ She planted a fond kiss on his mouth. ‘Thank you. For everything.’
His face softened. ‘Trust me, it’s been a pleasure.’
‘For me too.’ It had stopped raining. Ellie said, ‘Come on, we have to go out and celebrate. My treat. You’re going to Hollywood!’
‘You’re feeling normal again.’
‘We’ve had a fantastic fling,’ she agreed happily.
‘And some fantastic sex,’ Joe modestly reminded her.
Ellie smiled and kissed him again. It had been good. Inside her own head, though, it hadn’t always been Joe she’d been having the fantastic sex with.
But she wouldn’t tell him that. There was no need for him to ever know.
Chapter 46
Yasmin finished cleaning the old polish off Roo’s toenails and began massaging her feet with exfoliating scrub. ‘Go on then, tell me more!’
Roo smiled; Yasmin loved hearing about the bizarre goings-on in the charity shop. ‘OK, yesterday this girl came in. Early twenties. Skinny, huge boobs, blond extensions, big blue eyes. She gave us two huge bags of clothes. Really good stuff, all size eight. Said she hoped we’d get a good price for everything.’
Yasmin looked up expectantly. ‘And?’
‘So first thing this morning she came back. Except this time she wasn’t smiling. Mad as a box of maggots. I waved to her and she said, “Has that bitch been in here?” Then all of a sudden she saw one of her dresses and went berserk, started screaming and swearing and trying to rip it off the mannequin…’
‘Why?’ Yasmin sat back, mystified.
‘Yesterday morning she had a massive fight with her sister,’ said Roo. ‘Her identical twin sister.’
‘Oh…’ Yasmin started to laugh. ‘That’s brilliant! We had a pair of twins here last year; they were retired schoolteachers but they still argued about what color they were going to have their nails painted. One of them wanted pearlized pink and the other had her heart set on glossy plum, but—’
‘Yaz?’ Jackie, one of the other beauticians currently manning reception, was peering out of the window. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but he’s back again. He’s on his way over.’
Roo’s blood ran cold; there was something about the urgency in Jackie’s voice that gave it away. And Yasmin had frozen too. It couldn’t be him, surely not… and if it was, what could she do?
‘He’s got flowers!’ Jackie hastily backed away from the window. ‘OK, here he comes…’