If I Never Met You(101)

Not because she loved Dan, or wanted him back. She’d thought this was her ultimate goal, but there wasn’t a shred of gloating or will to hurt him left in her. Only intense sadness that two decades of their life had ended the way it did, that a chapter of her life, a chapter she’d thought would be the full story, had closed.

She hoped Dan made Megan happy, and she hoped he was a good father. She meant that from the bottom of her bruised and battered heart.

This epiphany took her by such force she had to pick up her mobile and make a call, still sat on freezing cold floor tiles.

‘Emily? I’ve realised something. Ever since Dan and I split up, there was something I couldn’t make sense of. You said Dan and I were hit by lightning, in Bar CaVa, that it was fate, that it was a once in a lifetime chance and it changed everything forever. I knew it was true, I could feel in my water that it was true, so I couldn’t reconcile it with Dan having gone. Well, I’ve figured it out. I did meet the love of my life that day. Only it wasn’t Dan. You are the love of my life. Are you still there?’

‘Yes, I’m crying, you soft shite.’

Laurie’s mum had once said to her, keep a close eye on the worst things that happened to you, they could turn out to be a doorway, a route to someplace else entirely, a map you couldn’t yet read. Laurie, as a cynical youth, had rolled her eyes at this. Uncle Ray’s broken bones again. Hippy talk.

‘Look at the disaster with your father – I got you,’ Peggy had said, and Laurie had responded with sulky, ungrateful disbelief.

Well, her mother was right. Daniel Price deciding he was done? It was the best thing that could’ve happened to her.





42


As the days between the party and the Christmas break ticked down, Jamie remained as popular in the criminal department as a drugs dog in a college dorm, but now his relationship with Laurie was realer than real, they began to spend more time together in the office, and he was gladly welcomed into the inner circle with Bharat and Diana.

‘Bharat’s hilarious, isn’t he?’ he said, over an afterwork dinner with Amaretto Sours at Rudy’s Pizza on the Thursday before Christmas. ‘Really witty. Wasted in med neg, he should be doing Graham Norton’s job. Though to be fair he’s stunningly good at the lawyering.’

‘It’s his incisive arguments, absolutely nothing gets past him,’ Laurie agreed, wiping the dough dust from her hands. ‘He sharpens his teeth daily on Di. He should be fictionalised in a series starring Aziz Ansari.’

‘I was wondering,’ Jamie said, ‘Would you declare it the naffest thing in the world if I changed my profile on Facebook to the one of us in The Ivy? I know it was a construct and all that at the time, but it’s still a lovely one of you.’

Laurie laughed. ‘We spent forty-eight hours with each other last weekend during which time I think the only thing we wore was a smile, and you’re politely inquiring if I’ll find a picture too much?’

‘Look, grandma, where I come from, a joint profile photo is a big step, OK. I might even caption it with a heart emoticon. That makes us legally married on social media.’

‘Do it,’ Laurie said. ‘I am happy to be social media married to you.’ Jamie tinkered with his phone and held it up.

‘I don’t want you to think it’s anything to do with my promotion meeting tomorrow!’ he said.

‘Hah! I’d forgotten about it.’

‘Would you believe it that I’m not that bothered if I get it anymore?’ Jamie said.

‘Not really,’ Laurie said, making a mischievous, tongue-lol face.

‘Hey, it’d still be amazing. But it turned out this wasn’t about finding the treasure; it was about the friends I made along the way.’

The following morning, Laurie returned from a decent sized win at court, checking her watch. Jamie would be in with them now.

This was the final shitstorm they’d have to weather, if he got it – Michael, for one, would be apoplectic. She’d do it, for Jamie. She was proud to know him, too.

Bharat met her in the doorway of their office, and looked so upset that Laurie feared there’d been bad family news. Di looked no less concerned.

‘What is it? Who died?’

‘Here, look.’

Bharat swung his mouse from side to side to wake the screen.

The email, cc all staff, was titled: ‘FYI: It Was All Bullshit, From The Start.’

To: all

From: [email protected]

Hi!

As discussed here’s how I thought the arrangement might work. Obviously feel very free to say either, no, these are the ravings of a lunatic, or suggest any guidelines of your own.

As said, we’d start next weekend (how you fixed to take a photo in a bar, early doors Saturday?) and then run it up until Christmas …

‘Right,’ Laurie said, taking a deep breath, in shock and a light sweat. ‘So what happened was …’

Who sent this? And today?

Kerry put her head round the door.

‘Laurie, Mr Salter wants to see you. This minute, please.’

Laurie hard-gulped and followed her across the landing, past the lifts to his office. After she knocked and was told ENTER, she saw that Jamie was already standing there. He gave her the merest glance and looked away again.