job? Friendly but not flirty, ironic but not idiotic? He sat back with his coffee while Ellie perched next to him on the arm of the sofa. Her tanned bare feet with the toes painted iridescent pink were visible in the outer corner of his field of vision. God, even her toes were irresistible…
‘This is us two years ago,’ said Ellie. ‘On Fistral Beach.’
Zack looked at the photo. An energetic game of volleyball was in progress. Ellie was wearing a lemon-yellow kaftan over a white bikini. There was Jamie, leaping in midair to knock the ball over the net, above the head of his opponent.
‘Who’s that?’ Zack pointed.
‘Todd.’
Todd. The one who had taken Jamie’s place. In fairness, he looked perfectly OK, wearing a gray Superdry T-shirt and red board shorts. His brown hair was short and tufty, his smile broad.
‘Who are the other people?’
‘No idea, they just joined in our game. Todd’s girlfriend Anna was taking the photos.’
‘What happened to her?’
‘They broke up a few weeks later. Anna wouldn’t play volleyball because she didn’t want to get all sandy.’ Ellie smiled and turned the page. ‘Hang on, this next one’s funny…’
A large dog had come bounding out of the sea and was racing towards the camera. The picture was blurred and taken at an angle.
‘He shook himself all over Anna. You should have heard her screaming,’ said Ellie. ‘She didn’t like getting wet either.’
‘Has she ever considered a holiday in a farmhouse in Tuscany?’ said Zack.
The next snaps showed Jamie, having hoisted Ellie up onto his shoulders, racing down the beach into the sea. He had thin legs and they were both screaming with laughter. The bond between them was clear to see. The final shot, a close-up, captured the look being exchanged between Jamie and Ellie as Jamie lovingly lifted a long strand of wet hair from her cheek. It was a look of pure love, to the extent that Zack realized with a jolt he’d never been in a relationship and shared that depth of feeling.
All these years, this was what he’d been missing out on.
‘That’s it.’ Ellie closed the last page. ‘You get the gist. That was Jamie. You’ve seen him now.’
He saw her casually wipe the corner of her eye, where a lone tear had escaped. ‘I can see how happy you were.’
She nodded. ‘We were happy.’
‘Ever argue?’
‘Oh God, yes, all the time. And over the silliest things. That’s something else I miss. We used to argue about toast. Jamie liked butter on hot toast, I like it on cold so it doesn’t melt. He used to make me his kind of toast because he couldn’t be bothered to wait for it to cool down and it drove me nuts. Or he used to go mad when I refused to listen to the GPS because I was always convincedI knew a shortcut. And I miss it.’ Ellie’s voice cracked as she struggled to maintain control. ‘I really miss all that stupid stuff. And the thing is, we had a camcorder and we used to record all the good times on film, but it never occurred to us that we should be recording the fights and the arguments because one of us might die soon and the other one might want to sit down and watch them again.’ She stopped and took a deep breath. ‘Sorry, just ignore me. Stupid, isn’t it? And I’m lucky really, because hundreds of years ago people didn’t have photos or camcorders so if someone died they didn’t have any way of remembering them, except in their heads.’
Zack so badly wanted to make her feel better. ‘When it’s someone like that, someone important, you never forget them.’
‘Probably not.’ Ellie shrugged. ‘But I worry that I will.’
‘Have you argued with anyone since Jamie died?’
She thought about it. Slowly her expression changed. ‘I hadn’t realized until now. But I really haven’t. Everyone’s always too busy being nice to me… I haven’t had one single argument. God, isn’t that weird? It’s abnormal.’
‘Not even with Todd?’
Ellie shook her head in wonder. ‘Not even Todd. I got cross with him after the accident, but we never argued.’
Zack hated himself for getting his hopes up. ‘Why did you get cross with him?’
‘Oh, I blamed him for everything.’
‘Was it his fault?’
‘No, of course it wasn’t. I blamed myself too.’
‘OK. Well, you need someone to argue with. Have you thought of phoning your local tax office? Or a car towing firm? Maybe heading over to the council offices for a