The image of you, p.42
The Image of You, page 42
But everything is different now.
Throughout the day, I keep checking my phone to see if she’s responded to my email at the same time as telling myself she absolutely won’t have. A shiver of excitement skitters through my body when I see her name once again in my inbox and I feel jubilant when I read her reply.
Mel, Angel!
I’d love to visit! Send me your address. I’ll be with you on 22 Feb.
All love, A
A. Just A. I remember that’s how she’d sign off her notes when we were at uni. Assumptive and intimate all at once. The twenty-second. Thursday. Just three days away.
Wow, I’m flattered and excited. She’s coming to see me more or less straight away. A pit stop in London and then up to see me. I can hardly believe it. Thursday isn’t an ideal evening to have guests—the girls have ballet. Oh well, I suppose they can skip a week.
My eyes dart around the hallway where I happened to be standing when I checked my phone for emails. There is a jumble of boots, shoes, sandals and wellingtons tumbling out of an overfull wicker basket in the corner; they look as though they’re making a bid for freedom. We have five coat hooks on the wall, one each. There are about five coats hung and slung on and over each hook.
The light grey carpet was a mistake. Who chooses light anything for a family hallway? Well, I did because I saw it in a lifestyle mag and it looked amazing. In all the time we’ve lived here, we’ve never had the carpets cleaned. That’s probably a mistake, too. The paintwork could also do with a freshen-up. We’ve got cats—they rub against the walls, which over time leaves grubby marks. In fact, because of grimy handprints or general wear and tear, most of our rooms look like they’ve been stippled, an effect that hasn’t been popular since the 1980s—and with good reason.
I’d better get to work.
I Invited Her In
by Adele Parks
On sale February 5, 2019, from MIRA Books
Copyright © 2018 by Adele Parks
ISBN-13: 9781488054181
The Image of You
Copyright © 2018 by Adele Parks
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Adele Parks, The Image of You
