The Girl Next Door Read Free Page A

comical doing jazz hands. The moment was surreal.
    ‘What?’
    ‘New York. The job’s in the New York office. Manhattan. Two years, maybe more if we want. New frigging York, Evie! Can you believe it?’
    Eve felt like all the air in her lungs had been sucked out. Her cold, garden cheeks were suddenly hot.
    Ed stood in front of her, jazz hands frozen. ‘So talk to me. You look like a fish.’ He blew out his cheeks, and made ‘ohs’ with his mouth. ‘Say something…’
    ‘Wow.’
    He shook her gently by the shoulders. ‘Say something else.’
    ‘New York.’
    ‘A whole sentence would be good…’
    ‘You took this job?’
    Ed’s face fell just a little. ‘Well… I told them I’d need to talk to you first, obviously, but…’
    ‘But?’
    ‘But I said I was sure you’d jump at it. You will, won’t you? Jump at it? I mean, it’s not like we haven’t talked about something like this…’
    ‘We talked about it once, years ago.’
    ‘But you were up for it then, weren’t you?’
    ‘Well, yes…’
    ‘And nothing’s changed, has it?’
    ‘There’s the house…’
    Was that a flicker of irritation crossing his face? ‘And we can keep the house, Evie. Of course we can.’
    ‘I love the house.’ She sounded wistful, even to herself.
    ‘I know you do. I love the house, too. We’ll keep the house, Evie. They’ll rent us a place, sort all of that out. It’s a really sweet deal. We’ll be much better off. We’ll rent it out, of course. Tenants will pay the mortgage. And we’ll come back.’
    ‘Will we?’
    Ed knelt down by her chair, and put both arms around her hips. ‘You don’t sound happy like I thought you would, Evie.’
    She laid her head on top of his, in her lap. ‘I’m just… it’s a bit sudden… it’s a bit of a shock, that’s all.’
    ‘Not a shock. A surprise. A wonderful, fortuitous, bloody marvellous surprise.’ He rubbed her hair. ‘Hey, Evie. We can talk about this as much as you like. We can say no.’
    She looked at his face, trying to figure out whether or not he meant that. His lovely face. She knew she wouldn’t make him say no.
    Eve wasn’t quite sure when it was decided that Ed had the career and she had the job. Or who decided. But she knew that that’s how it was. And so she knew that they would go to New York.
    And now she just needed to figure out how to be happy about it.
    And so, four months later, here she was, (almost) completely happy about it. She was even (almost) a little ashamed of her initial reaction. It wasn’t very intrepid of her. This was a huge adventure, wasn’t it? A fantastic opportunity. The most exciting city in the world. She wanted to be the sort of woman who grabbed life. Who’d ride a bike downhill without the brakes on, and who’d sit in the front seat on the roller coaster, and who’d stand at the karaoke mike. She’d always wanted to be that sort of woman. And now she could be. This was the perfect place to be that woman. And today was a good day to start…
    Perhaps she’d start by calling her sister. Cath had always been that woman. In some ways it made no sense that she was here and Cath was there, married to Geoff. Slightly wet Geoff. Who ever knew what alchemy was at work when two people fell in love? It made no sense, sometimes.
    Cath answered on the third ring. She sounded out of breath.
    ‘It’s me. Eve.’
    ‘Eve! How are you? How’s it all going?’
    ‘Oh, you know, it’s hell at the Four Seasons. What to eat? What treatment to get at the spa. Just ordering from the pillow menu is exhausting…’
    ‘Shut up. I just cleaned poo out from under my fingernails.’
    ‘That’s disgusting. How are the poo machines?’
    ‘Smelly. Noisy. Adorable.’
    ‘I can hear one now.’
    ‘That’s George. He wants Cheerios in the car. I’ve only got a minute, actually, sis. School run, you know.’
    ‘I forgot.’
    ‘No worries. Sometimes I forget, and that’s much more serious. I’ve got a sec. How is it,