“We’ll let him know where you are, don’t worry,” Anya reassures me. “Listen to me, Rosie. This is just a crisis and we love a crisis, don’t we?”
“Yeah,” I mumble, “I usually like your crises though, it’s never been me.”
Anya laughs down the line. “There, so this was a long time coming. And babe you know how to make a splash.”
I laugh weakly, sniffing loudly.
“Hang on,” I say into the phone, “Uhm excuse me, can you take me to Richmond.” I rattle off Anya’s address.
“Sure thing love, I’ll get you there.”
“Thanks,” I say before wiping my eyes and curling back to my phone. “I wanted to tell you Annie.”
Anya laughs, “Hold that thought, we will be talking about this in detail as soon as I know you’re not just driving around South London crying your eyes out.”
I laugh again. “Okay.”
“Can I say that I fucking hate your sister?” she bursts out.
“Annie,” I say weakly.
“I hated her since the day she commented that you looked frumpy in your nineteenth birthday dress. Do you remember that? I do. I’ll never forget it. I thought that girlwas either blind, dumb or jealous because you looked like a smokeshow in that dress and then you never wore it again.”
“I still have it.”
“It would be a crime to get rid of it. Leave me alone in a room with her, and I tell you she won’t have that smug grin for one more minute.”
I take a breath. “I can’t talk about her, Anya, I can’t think about her right now.”
“Okay, okay fine, this is a discussion for another time. But I just want it acknowledged that I hate that bitch.”
“Acknowledged,” I say weakly.
“Babe, I have to go but text me as soon as you’re inside the house. The guest room is all set up so text me and leave your phone in the living room. Don’t look at it, don’t think about it, just go to bed okay?”
“Okay,” I say nodding. “I will.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Is this the place?” the driver asks, pulling up in front of Anya’s house.
“Yes, thank you.” I fumble for my purse.
“Don’t worry about it love, you just get inside safely, okay?”
If I hadn’t spent the last thirty minutes of my life sobbing, I would probably burst into tears again. “Thank you,” I say shakily, shoving cash under the glass separator. “Have a nice night.”
I stumble out of the cab and up the path, fumbling with Anya’s key in the lock and disabling the alarm.
I don’t even take in my surroundings as I send her a thank you text and toe out of my shoes, crawling into the guest bed and crawling under the covers before the tearsstart again. I barely have the energy to take my contacts out before I fall asleep cradling my belly and pray that I’ll wake up from my nightmare.
24
JACKSON
I love my job,I tell myself as I nod seriously at what the director is telling me. Standing in a semi-circle, I listen carefully as he, Marky, and a pile of other professionals give me instructions for the most exciting stunt I’ve done yet. My side barely twinges anymore after I spent days being fussed over by Rosie.
