They laughed a lot, ate well, generally ended up sinking a couple of bottles of the kind of wine she’d never dream of buying herself, and ended up coming away with precious snippets of information they hadn’t known before about the boy they’d both loved.
This was the best bit; it was like discovering buried treasure. Today, amid the busy, buzzy atmosphere of the Ivy, Tony had already regaled her with the story of Jamie’s sixth birthday party, when one of the young girls had demanded a kiss in return for giving him his present and Jamie, utterly horrified, had promptly handed the still-wrapped gift back.
‘He was never that wild about social kissing.’ Ellie grinned, the tale triggering a memory of her own. ‘The first time he met the girls from work, one of them gave him a kiss on the cheek at the end of the evening, and you should have seen the look on his face. You’d think she’d licked him.’ She demonstrated Jamie’s reaction at the time, the way he’d grimaced and shrunk back. Then she spluttered with laughter, realizing that the waiter attempting to top up their wine glasses thought she was pulling a face and leaning away from him.
‘Speaking of which, anything happening in that direction?’
It wasn’t the first time Tony had broached the subject. He raised his eyebrows, nodding meaningfully to indicate that he was talking about her. Specifically, had she kissed or been kissed by another man yet? ‘No, no. Nothing.’ Ellie shook her head. ‘It’ll happen.’ His smile was reassuring. ‘Sooner or later.’ Later, then. She wasn’t remotely ready for anything like that. Just the thought of it made her feel sick. Apart from anything else, what if Jamie was watching her from somewhere, like through celestial CCTV? What if he didn’t approve?
Ellie dipped a tiger prawn in hollandaise. Not believing in ghosts was one thing, but heaven was another matter. You could never rule out the possibility that they were up there, looking down. Aloud she said, ‘I know. But not yet.’
Timing was Tony’s forte. Effortlessly changing the subject, he took an appreciative sip of white wine—the bottle had cost eighty-five pounds!—and said, ‘How’s the flat? Did those noisy neighbors of yours move out?’
‘Oh yes. Two weeks ago, thank God.’ She smiled and didn’t elaborate; he didn’t need to know that the replacements were shaping up to be a hundred times worse. The last family had played Eminem pretty loudly, quite often. The new lot made them look like rank amateurs. In the last fortnight there had been half a dozen major fights, the police had been round most nights, and the family’s dogs barked nonstop. Worst of all, Eminem had been replaced by Celine Dion and Josh Groban.
Given the choice, Ellie would have welcomed Eminem back with open arms. But never mind that, seeing as she was highly unlikely to be given the choice. Before Tony could start asking questions about the new neighbors she said, ‘Oh, I didn’t tell you, I’m redecorating the living room!’ See? He wasn’t the only one capable of changing the subject. She launched into telling him about last night’s disastrous battle with the wallpaper, turning it into a funny story and leaving out the bit where Jamie had turned up, because that was her guilty secret. Lots of people, following a bereavement, talked to the loved one they’d lost. She knew that, had been told many times that it was a completely normal thing to do. What was less normal, it appeared, was having the dead person talk back.
***
Zack McLaren had arranged this lunch meeting with the director of an IT company he might soon be doing lucrative business with. Normally he was able to concentrate on the subject in hand with no difficulty, but today was proving to be different. Earlier, as he’d been standing outside the restaurant taking a phone call, a girl in a pink coat had caught his eye as she headed down the street towards him. Her hair was long and dark, her eyes light brown, her cheeks rosy, and the effect she’d had on him was extraordinary; he couldn’t stop looking at her. Whoever she was, he wanted to know more. Heavens, what a weird feeling; he’d never experienced anything like this before.
As she passed him, Zack caught a waft of her perfume, something fresh and herby, unfamiliar but instantly leaving an impression. He turned, watching the back view of her glossy hair, fitted pink coat, and long legs