River Deep Read Free Page A

never speak to her and she lives two miles away. At least your parents are here for you. They
love
you, Mags, even if they are a bit flaky. And at least you’ve got a roof over your head and a way of earning some cash until you get back on your feet.’
    Sarah reached out and tucked her friend’s dark hair behind one ear.
    ‘What you need, apart from some coppertone lowlights and some
really
good concealer is a plan. You need to get some direction, move things on a bit.’ Sarah paused cautiously. ‘You need to see Christian, Mags. You’ve got money in that business and in the flat. You have to be practical, get what’s yours and move on. It’s the only way, mate, trust me.’
    Maggie rubbed her hands across her face and ran them anxiously through her hair. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know. He keeps leaving me messages on my mobile saying we’ve got to sort out the practicalities, but he sounds so normal, he sounds as if he’s ordering vegetables. Like
this
hasn’t touched him at all. I want to see him, but not like this …’ She stopped. ‘But I know, I know I have to.’
    Sarah nodded and checked her watch.
    ‘Mate, I’ve got to go, I’ve got a full head of colour in twenty minutes. Listen, I’ll come with you when you see him, if you like. I could thump him for you, kick him in the bollocks? Or make derogatory remarks about his sexual prowess?’
    Maggie half laughed before suffering a split-second but entirely vivid memory of Christian making love to her. She forced the image out of her mind with a small shake of her head.
    ‘No, don’t worry, I’ll do it on my own.’ She didn’t want to tell Sarah that the last thing she wanted was someone there to keep her together. She didn’t want to be together, she wanted him to see what he’d done, to realise how wrong he was. She wanted a chance to change his mind.
    Sarah scrutinised her briefly and then nodded.
    ‘All right then, but if I remember rightly, the appropriate time-capsule way of dealing with a broken heart is two extralarge slabs of Dairy Milk and two bottles of Blue Nun before a night on the town. My nan’s got the kids on Friday, so you and me are going out, and we’ll go shopping in my lunch hour and I’ll do your hair first, no arguments. Agreed?’ Sarah ignored Maggie’s terrified look. ‘No arguments.’ She grinned at Maggie as she left. ‘You just have to think of this as a beginning, not an end, OK?’
    ‘OK,’ Maggie agreed weakly, but what little resolve she mustered had vanished by the time Sarah had shut the bedroom door.

Chapter Two
    Every time Pete thought of that evening, of that whole day really, it was always the same. He felt a sharp pang somewhere in the location of his heart, followed by a knotted feeling in his stomach. They were always brutally physical, his reactions to Stella, as if the emotions she engendered in him had seeped into each molecule of his body; as if it was only loving her that had made him three-dimensional at all.
    Looking up, he glanced out of the window of the intercity train. Birmingham had been and gone about twenty minutes ago, next it would be Milton Keynes and then he’d be properly in the south. There’d be no getting away from it then. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his long legs crammed against his backpack. He’d wanted this more or less most of his life, to break out of two-bit TV work and get into film, but now that it was happening he wasn’t so sure. Now he was actually doing it he longed for his old small life, his telescope and Stella. The thought of her – just her name – constricted the flow of blood to his heart for a moment, and his fingers tightened on the seat.
    Pete smiled to himself as he remembered the panic of that morning when he’d realised that Stella was leaving again, the day he’d decided, for once in his life, to stop her going. After Stella had agreed to meet him at Hugo’s she had dressed quietly, sweeping her long hair off her face and