He's the One Read Free Page A

going back.’
    ‘It doesn’t exactly sound as if your heart’s in it.’
    ‘Yep, well, we’ll see.’
    He clearly came from a very different background from hers, with his wealthy friends and a mummy and daddy who wanted him to study law. Liberty’s mum and dad had divorced when she was eight – her dad now lived in Manchester and had remarried and had two more children. Her mum had just started going to college because she wanted to be a counsellor, and meanwhile worked part-time as a hairdresser. Neither of them had ever held strong views about what Liberty should or shouldn’t do with her life; they just wanted her to be happy.
    ‘So where have you been travelling?’ she asked Cory.
    ‘India, Thailand, Australia, various parts of Europe. I’m in the UK for the summer and then I’m supposed to go back to college in the States. But we’ll see. At the moment I’m loving Brighton. I’ve got a flat just along the road from here.’ He grinned. ‘Who knows? I might stay here for ever. It’s got everythingI love … the sea, an artistic vibe, a beautiful girl.’
    She groaned, ‘Please, that was so cheesy.’
    ‘I’m sorry, there’s something about you that makes me come out with these things. You know, like when I stopped you in the restaurant? I never normally do stuff like that – I’m a shy and reclusive artist. I hardly dare to talk to women. But I think you could be my muse, the woman I’ve been waiting for.’
    ‘I really think you’re taking the piss now.’ But Liberty wasn’t annoyed – on the contrary she was enjoying, the banter, which had been very much missing from her life recently. She’d thought she’d had an easygoing, fun relationship with Eddie, but then he’d left …
    ‘Okay, sorry, I can’t help it. I’m fantastically happy that you came to the party. And now you’re here I just can’t stop looking at you, especially in that House of River Island dress. You’re so beautiful, Liberty, and I don’t think you realise it, which makes you even more special.’
    He was so open and direct about his feelings, it gave her an incredible buzz just to be with him. So far she felt as if she had been stumbling through her life, making the best of things, trying to be a good mum, but always aware that something was missing. Meeting Cory made her feel as if a light had been switched on inside her.
    She forgot all about how late it was as they talked, flirted and drank champagne; forgot about being in this wildly expensive house; forgot about how she had work the next day. She was oblivious to everything except Cory. Something drew her to him, she couldn’t keep her eyes off him. He made her feel so alive, fizzing with excitement and joy. She felt some of the weight of these last three years fall away from her: the worry, the loneliness, the feeling that she was never going to geta break as an actress, that she’d be a waitress for ever, that she would never be able to give her daughter the sort of life she wanted for her. They covered exes – well, Liberty did a bit of careful censoring – and Cory had apparently ended a two-year relationship with a girl just before he went travelling. Zara, the blonde girl from the restaurant, had been a three-month rebound. Then music – he was into Massive Attack and U2, she liked Robbie Williams and Madonna – and films. He was into movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , while she admitted she loved Titanic , that she and Em had been to see it twice at the cinema when it came out the year before and watched it on video at least three times since. They thought it was the most romantic film they had ever seen. He teased her about this. She felt as if they were cramming a month’s worth of dates into one night. She wanted to drink it all in. Relish every single second. If this night was going to be all they had, then she wanted to make it one to remember …
    That was until Zara wandered into the room and made a slightly unsteady