Page 32 of You Belong With Me

‘Mmm,’ Edie said uneasily. ‘Isn’t it. Which … don’t exist.’

‘Do I, with my highly sensitive antennae, detect some pessimism?’ Hannah said, hacking a piece of Cathedral City.

Edie adjusted herself in her seat. ‘Thing is, it’s so …ambitious and unlikely, isn’t it? I worry everyone thinks I can’t see that, but I do. He’s who he is –fuckin’ wow– and I’m who I am –lol– and we somehow make the mismatch work? I know they’re together by the end ofNotting Hill, but Hugh Grant was at least posh and lived in London.’

‘And it was a film,’ Nick said.

‘And it was a film. I think …’ Edie was aware of the two glasses of wine powering her on to dare voice this: ‘I might be a phase he has to work through. Theearthy girl from homephase. To accept that this is the type of life he’s left behind. I’m not a destination; I’m a stop on the way. I’m not Manchester; I’m Stalybridge.’

She paused. ‘If that’s the case, then he’ll emerge from the experiment still this amazing prospect, and I might be a forty-something who’s fit for no one else after being spun around and set down by Hurricane Elliot.’

A short silence ensued while everyone absorbed the plausibility of what she’d said.

‘The trouble is I’m not sure there are any safe prospects when you fall in love,’ Hannah said. ‘Look at me and Pete – solid as concrete until we weren’t, and my leaving, and now being with a woman after lifelong straightness, properly did a number on him. We’ve had long conversations about whether I was “pretending” when I was with him. Which I wasn’t, but he can’t get his head round it. From his perspective, my next choice of partner invalidated our entire relationship.’ Hannah broke a Ritz cracker contemplatively. ‘But no one would’ve told him not to ask the quiet, serious med student out, would they?’ Hannah concluded.

‘Yeah. Mine and Alice’s first encounter was so romantic you’d have wept. Like thatBefore Sunrisefilm, we spent a whole night walking around Prague. In the end, I did think about it and cry. If my flight hadn’t been overbooked, I’d never have met her. I’d not have had Max if I hadn’t though, so. Your beginnings are not the defining thing.’

‘Good point,’ Edie said.

‘For what it’s worth, Edie, at Christmas I thought how incredibly well suited you are,’ Hannah said. ‘There’s no mismatch when you’re in a room together, more like eerie similarity – right down to the way you joke. You are so at ease with each other.’

Edie glowed.

‘This is true,’ Nick said. ‘You’re very same vibey. No one who knows both of you thinks it’s unlikely at all, Thompson.’

Edie leaned across the table and gripped Nick’s hand, because this was kind of both of them, soold friends, and much needed.

‘Elliot’s chosen a big life.’ Hannah gestured at the dark garden beyond the casement window. ‘He couldn’t un-choose it for you now, even if he wanted to. He was famous before you met him. You’re a private person who never shouts about herself. He’s the story, and you’re the ghost-writer. The tug of war between these two things is inevitable. If you want it to work, you’ll need to build a life together that’s the right size for both of you and defend it above all else. I have confidence you will, because there is a total sincerity of intention with you two.’

Edie knew Hannah was astute. Yet here she was casually offering some absolutely shining wisdom, while carving a Dairylea triangle onto a cracker like a plasterer with a palette knife.

16

They were examining the Airbnb stack of tattered Monopoly and Connect 4 boxes after dinner when Edie’s phone rattled in her pocket and she pulled it out to see:

Elliot

Edie, can I call you? It’s quite time sensitive so now, if you’ve got a minute? X

She excused herself, found her big-knit cardigan and stepped out into the frigid night-time air, for privacy and better reception. Elliot rang within seconds of her pulling the door closed behind her.

‘There’s a stupid story about me I need to warn you about. I don’t know if it’s up yet, but it will be soon, I think.’

Edie went cold-hot. ‘OK …’

‘They asked Lillian for a quote, and she told them it was all bollocks, so naturally they’re running it anyway with the denial.’

‘What is it?’ Edie said, not really appreciating Elliot burying the lede.

‘We went out for dinner in New York the other night as a castget to know each otherthing. We didn’t realise we could be seen through the window. Lillian thinks they’ve cropped the photos so it looks as if it’s only me and Ines there. There were about nine of us.’

‘Right,’ Edie said dully. She wondered if it was worth this agitated and detailed primer; it might be worse than Elliot was advertising, thoughgroup dinnerdidn’t sound too dire.

‘I’m so sorry. I hate that people close to me have to pay this shitty tax for my choice of career.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Edie said stoically. ‘I remember they did this with your co-star Greta back duringGun City.Par for the course.’

It was far from Edie’s first rodeo when it came to witnessing that things in print didn’t correspond with Elliot Owen’s lived reality.

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