The Piano Man Project Page 0,121

eyes towards Hal’s door.

Honey narrowed her eyes. Surely Imogen knew where he was? The combination of wine, sleepless nights and heartache made it hard to think sensibly.

Tash folded her arms across her chest. ‘Have you lost him already?’

Imogen looked from one to the other, irritated, and then stepped over their legs and banged on Hal’s door.

‘Hal,’ she called out, desperation clear in her voice. ‘Hal, it’s me, darling. Please, let me in.’

‘He isn’t in there,’ Honey said flatly, staring at Imogen’s spike-heeled boots. ‘He hasn’t been here for days.’

And then they all fell silent and turned in unison towards Hal’s door, because the latch clicked, and a moment later, excruciatingly slowly, it swung open.

All three women on the floor scrabbled to their feet.

‘Hal,’ Honey breathed. ‘You came back.’ She stared at him, scared to take her eyes off him in case she looked away and he disappeared again.

‘Jesus,’ Honey heard Tash mutter next to her. Honey understood. He’d had the same effect on her the first time she’d seen him in this very same spot, and he’d carried on taking her breath away ever since.

‘Why are you here, Imogen?’ he asked.

Honey had almost forgotten Imogen had even turned up, and felt dull hurt from Hal’s choice to address her first.

‘I came to see you,’ Imogen said, a little more confident in Hal’s presence. ‘Can we talk inside?’

Hal didn’t step aside. Instead, he turned and picked up a holdall from the floor and then stepped out and closed his door.

‘Go home, Immie,’ Hal said gently. ‘You shouldn’t have come here.’

Honey watched as Imogen reached out and laid a manicured hand on Hal’s arm.

‘I’ll only go if you’ll come with me.’

Hal sighed heavily and moved out of her reach. ‘I’m not coming back to London.’

Imogen’s eyes flicked to Honey. ‘Well, you can’t stay here,’ she said.

‘Last time I checked I could do whatever the fuck I wanted,’ Hal said. ‘But no. I’m not staying here either.’

Honey wondered how much a human heart could take before it stopped working. He was here. He wasn’t in London with Imogen. He was leaving again. All this, and he hadn’t even acknowledged she was even there yet.

‘You could,’ she said, finding her voice at last. ‘You could stay here. If you wanted.’

‘Honey,’ he said, turning towards her, and every inch, every fibre of her reacted to her name from his lips.

‘It’s so good to see you,’ she whispered, wishing everyone else would leave, terrified that he would.

‘I can’t stay,’ he said. ‘You know I can’t.’

Panic fluttered in her breast. ‘Yes. Yes, you can. Stay here with me.’

He breathed in deep, and then turned from Honey to Imogen.

‘Immie, I owe you better than to do this here, but it seems that this is how this thing is going to play out,’ he said, stepping closer to his fiancée.

‘I’ve changed, Imogen. I’ve had to. You’re right, we probably could go back to our old lives in London, try to pick up where we left off somehow. We could, but I don’t want to.’ He looked unbearably gaunt. ‘I can’t say this in a way that isn’t hurtful, so I’ll say it in the only way I know. The honest way. We had a wonderful life together, but I don’t want that life anymore. I don’t want London, or a celebrity lifestyle, and Imogen, I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be your husband either. Or your fiancé. Or your anything.’ He drew in a deep breath. ‘It’s over, Immie. It has been since the moment I lost my sight.’

Honey glanced down at the floor, feeling no victory from Imogen’s defeat. She felt Hal’s words as if they were directed at herself, and she recognised her own sense of loss in Imogen’s tearful face. They both loved him in their own way, and just because the first blow had been a knockout for Imogen it didn’t mean he didn’t have another killer blow up his sleeve.

‘I guess I’ll leave you to your party then,’ Imogen said, looking at Honey.

Honey looked back levelly, her chin high despite her spirits being on the floor. She watched the other woman leave, looking at the door as it closed behind her, knowing in her gut that she wouldn’t be the only person leaving tonight.

She turned to Tash and Nell, holding each of their hands.

‘Should we go?’ Nell asked, her worried eyes searching Honey’s face.

‘We can stay, if you like?’ Tash said.

Honey shook her head and kissed them both. ‘Thank you for coming tonight.