Still Me (Me Before You #3) - Jojo Moyes Page 0,146

in front of him. ‘It was Margot’s.’

‘Seriously? That woman is full of surprises.’

‘Watch out for her, will you? She’s pretty wobbly today.’

‘Kept back a piece of mail just so I have an excuse to knock on her door at six o’clock.’

‘You’re a star.’

We jogged outside to the park and Dean Martin did what dogs do and I did what you do with a little bag and a certain amount of shuddering and various passers-by stared in the way you do if you see a girl in a lamé-trimmed jumpsuit running around with an excitable dog and a small bag of poo. It was as we sprinted back in, Dean Martin yapping delightedly at my heels, that we bumped into Josh in the lobby. ‘Oh, hey!’ I said, kissing him. ‘I’ll be two minutes, okay? Just have to wash my hands and grab my handbag.’

‘Grab your handbag?’

‘Yes!’ I gazed at him. ‘Oh. Purse. You call it a purse.’

‘I just meant – you’re not getting changed?’

I looked down at my jumpsuit. ‘I am changed.’

‘Sweetheart, if you wear that to our office day out they’re going to wonder if you’re the entertainment.’

It took me a moment to realize he wasn’t joking. ‘You don’t like it?’

‘Oh. No. You look great. It’s just it’s kind of a bit … drag queeny? We’re an office full of suits. Like, the other wives and girlfriends will be in shift dresses or white pants. It’s just … smart casual?’

‘Oh.’ I tried not to feel disappointed. ‘Sorry. I don’t really get US dress codes. Okay. Okay. Wait there. I’ll be right back.’

I took the stairs two at a time and burst into Margot’s apartment, throwing Dean Martin’s lead towards Margot, who had got up out of her chair for something and now followed me down the hallway, one thin arm braced against the wall.

‘Why are you in such a tearing hurry? You sound like a herd of elephants charging around the apartment.’

‘I have to change.’

‘Change? Why?’

‘I’m not suitable, apparently.’ I rattled my way through my wardrobe. Shift dresses? The only clean shift dress I had was the psychedelic one Sam had given me and it felt somehow disloyal to wear that.

‘I thought you looked very nice,’ said Margot, pointedly.

Josh appeared at the open front door, having made his way up behind me. ‘Oh, she does. She looks great. I just – I just want her to be talked about for the right reasons.’ He laughed. Margot didn’t laugh back.

I rifled through my wardrobe, throwing things onto my bed, until I found my navy Gucci-style blazer and a striped silk shirt dress. I threw that over my head and slid my feet into my green Mary Janes.

‘How’s that?’ I said, as I ran into the hallway, trying to straighten my hair.

‘Great!’ he said, unable to hide his relief. ‘Okay. Let’s go.’

‘I’ll leave the door unlocked, dear,’ I heard Margot mutter, as I ran after Josh, who was headed out. ‘Just in case you want to come back.’

The Loeb Boathouse was a beautiful venue, sheltered by its position from the noise and chaos outside Central Park, its vast windows offering a panoramic view of the lake glinting in the afternoon sun. It was packed with smartly dressed men in identikit chinos, women with professionally blow-dried hair and was, as Josh had predicted, a sea of pastels and white trousers.

I took a glass of champagne from a tray being proffered by a waiter and watched quietly while Josh worked the room, glad-handing various men, who all seemed to look the same, with their short neat haircuts and square jaws with even white teeth. I had a brief memory of events I had been to with Agnes: I had fallen into my other New York world again, a world away from the vintage clothes stores and mothballed jumpers and cheap coffee I had been immersed in more recently. I took a long sip of my champagne, deciding to embrace it.

Josh appeared beside me. ‘Quite something, isn’t it?’

‘It’s very beautiful.’

‘Better than sitting in some old woman’s apartment all afternoon, huh?’

‘Well, I don’t think I –’

‘My boss is coming. Okay. I’m going to introduce you. Stay with me. Mitchell!’

Josh lifted an arm and the older man walked over slowly, a statuesque brunette woman at his side, her smile oddly blank. Perhaps if you had to be nice to everyone all the time that was what eventually happened to your face.

‘Are you enjoying the afternoon?’

‘Very much so, sir,’ Josh said. ‘What a truly beautiful setting. May