There’s the briefest pause, then he says, “OK.”
“Look on the desktop,” I instruct him. “Is there a file called
There’s silence for a little while—then Sam’s voice comes down the phone.
“Affirmative.”
“OK!” My breath comes out in a whoosh. I hadn’t realized I’d been holding it. “You need to look after that file carefully. And now you need to speak to Violet.”
“I’m with her now. Listen to her, Sam. Please.” I pass the phone over.
“Hey, Sam,” says Violet easily. “Sorry about leaving you in the lurch and all that. But you’ve had Poppy to help you out, yeah?”
As she’s talking, I head up to the counter and buy myself another coffee, even though I’m so wired I probably shouldn’t. Hearing Sam’s voice has thrown me. I immediately wanted to talk to him about everything. I wanted to nestle up and hear what he had to say.
But that’s impossible. Number one, because he’s mired in massive problems of his own. Number two, because who is he? Not a friend. Not a colleague. Just some random guy who has no place in my life. It’s over. The only place for us to go from here is goodbye.
Maybe we’ll exchange the odd text. Maybe we’ll meet up awkwardly in a year’s time. Both of us will look different and we’ll say hello stiltedly, already regretting the decision to come. We’ll laugh about how bizarre that whole phone business was. We’ll never mention what happened in the woods.
“You OK, Poppy?” Violet is standing in front of me, waving the phone in front of my face. “Here.”
“Oh!” I come to and take it. “Thanks. Did you speak to Sam?”
“He opened the file as I was talking to him. He’s pretty stoked. He said to say he’d call you later.”
“Oh. Well … he doesn’t have to.” I pick up my coffee. “Whatever.”
“Hey, nice rock.” Violet grabs my hand.93 “Is that an emerald?”
“Yes.”
“Cool! So, who’s the lucky guy?” She gets out an iPhone. “Can I take a picture of it? I’m just getting ideas for when Aran becomes a gazillionaire. Did you choose it yourself?”
“No, he had it already when he proposed. It’s a family ring.”
“Romantic.” Violet nods. “Wow. So you didn’t expect it?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Were you like, ‘Fuck!’ ”
“Kind of.” I nod.
It seems a million years ago now, that evening when Magnus proposed. I was so giddy. I felt as if I’d entered a magic bubble where everything was shiny and perfect and nothing could ever go wrong again.
A tear splashes onto my cheek before I can stop it.
“Hey.” Violet looks at me with concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” I smile, wiping at my eyes. “It’s … Things aren’t exactly brilliant. My fiance might be cheating on me, and I don’t know what to do.”
Just letting the words out makes me feel better. I take a deep breath and smile at Violet. “Sorry. Ignore that. You don’t want to know.”
“No. It’s fine.” She draws her feet up onto her chair and regards me intently. “Why aren’t you sure if he is or not? What makes you think he is?”
“Someone sent me an anonymous text. That’s it.”
“So ignore it.” Violet gives me a close look. “Or do you have a gut feeling? Does it seem like something he might do?”
I’m silent for a moment. I
The thing is, girls like Magnus. And he likes them.
“I don’t know,” I say, staring into my coffee. “Maybe.”
“And do you have any idea who he’s doing it with?”
“Maybe.”
“So!” Violet seems galvanized. “Confront the situation. Have you spoken to him? Have you spoken to her?”
“He’s in Bruges, on his stag do. I can’t talk to him. And she’s—” I break off. “No. I can’t. I mean, it’s a possibility. She’s probably totally innocent.”
“Are you
