Page 73 of Midnight Wishes

‘When do you need to give them an answer?’ Zoe asked.

‘Monday.’ Although excitement at the potential adventure still hadn’t hit, watching Abby and Erik closely orbit each other as they spent all weekend celebrating their love might be the push she needed to embrace a fresh start.

‘Okay.’ Zoe sighed. ‘Just promise me you’ll really think about it. Don’t… Don’t rush into it because you think what you want can’t be found here.’

Zoe led her back to the tube station on a different route than Sarah had walked earlier. It felt more meandering—she didn’t remember venturing past quite so many finance companies—but since Zoe knew the area better from her frequent lunchtime explorations, Sarah went along with her friend’s directions. Until Zoe pulled up short, yanking her phone out the pocket of her tweed skirt to angrily type a text. Seconds later, the unfortunate recipient was revealed as Zoe grumbled, ‘Sorry. I can’t believe this dickhead can’t wait ten minutes for me to get back to the office before he continues to ruin my day.’

Sarah only smirked, remembering her prediction that Zoe and her office nemesis would have slept together before the year was out. When she’d told Zoe over a coffee date a month before, her friend had yanked the plate of cheesecake they were sharing towards her, and refused to let Sarah have any more.

While she let herself be amused by her friend’s frustration, she inspected the buildings around her, a strange sense of familiarity tugging at her. Though she didn’t care for the pampered egos they housed, she enjoyed taking in the details on their facades. But when she finally turned back to look at Zoe, recognising the building directly in front of her, Sarah’s stomach plummeted with the realisation of why the buildings across thestreet looked so familiar, if slightly off. The last time she’d seen them, it had been from the tenth floor of the building in facing her.

Sarah counted eleven rows of windows. Counted five large panes of glass from the left. Wondered if he was at his desk, raking his fingers through his hair in frustration over something one of his idiot co-workers had said, but leaving the blonde strands somehow perfectly in place. Imagined that if he stood at the window and looked down, she would feel their gazes locking, even with the distance and one-way glass between them.

‘Zo?’

Her friend looked up in response to her strained voice, something like guilt pulling at the sides of her mouth. That explained the odd route back to the station, then.

‘I don’t want the job, do I?’

‘I like Alex.’

Abby’s eyes lifted slowly from her laptop screen.

It wasn’t how Sarah had intended to broach the subject. She’d planned to pour Abby a glass of wine, lay out the selection of meats and cheeses she’d grabbed on her way home, and carefully explain to her best friend how she felt about her brother-in-law over a charcuterie board.

She certainly hadn’t expected to blurt it out as she walked through the door to find Abby hunched on the sofa, working on her thesis.

‘Okay… I like Alex too.’ Abby seemed more confused by the state of her outburst than the words themselves. ‘I’ve been trying to tell you he’s a good guy.’

‘No.’ Sarah straightened, squaring her shoulders. ‘IlikeAlex. We’ve been seeing each other. Sleeping together, really. Sorry if that’s too much information. And I’ve kind of fucked things up—I don’t even know if he’llhaveme, honestly, but if he will… I appreciate that if we were to date and break up, it would make things awkward for both of us and difficult for me, but I’m prepared to take that chance. Because he means a lot to me.’

Her friend’s puzzled expression had cleared while she was babbling, her eyes suddenly bright and alert. ‘Oh, thank god I don’t have to pretend anymore. Tell meeverything.’

Five minutes later, Sarah was spreading cheese, prosciutto, and the good crackers from Waitrose between them while Abby poured obscenely large glasses of chardonnay.

‘You first hooked up inMarch? Wait.Was Alex Bathroom Guy?’ Abby was excitable by nature, but Sarah had never heard her voice quite so shrill.

Sarah winced. ‘Um. Yeah. Sorry for the very graphic detail about your future brother-in-law.’

Abby considered for a moment, then shrugged. ‘We’re not-related enough. Is that why you haven’t told me anything, even anonymously? You tell meeverything. Case in point, I know all the details of your tryst in the club. It’s been so weird knowing you’re seeing someone and you not telling me anything about it.’ A frustrated groan slipped through her red lips. ‘I can’t believe you two justsat thereat dinner acting like strangers.’

‘I thought he didn’t recognise me!’ Sarah wailed. ‘Then after he made it clear that he very much did remember me, we discussed that you would never find out. Which I doubled down on after you asked him not to fuck any of your friends.’

‘Mmm. You two really respected that, didn’t you?’

‘For about two weeks.’ Sarah had the grace to twist her face into sheepishness. ‘Although I possibly would have kissed him before your engagement party, if you hadn’t arrived at his house when you did. But the pub after the invites…’

‘You fucked in a bathroomagain? Babe, I’m not judging, but you should maybe, like, be tested for something?’

‘It was just kissing that time. Which I put a stop to because, well, you, and also I was pretty sure I hated him. Then we went to book the flowers, and he insisted you get your daisies, and he was kind of rude to this gross co-worker of his, which I found weirdly hot? So when he drove me home…’

Abby squealed, and Sarah wondered why she’d been so scared to tell her in the first place. Could she really conceive of a world where her best friend wouldn’t support her following her heart?

‘And we insisted—Iinsisted—it was a one-time thing. Or two-time, I guess.’

A scoff was tossed her way. ‘When, in the history of romance, has that ever worked?’

‘Anyway, that was supposed to be the end of it, but then he showed up at Zoe’s party, and he looked so good, and he was jealous of me dancing with that girl, and…when he invited me to go home with him, I did. And we’ve sort of been taking every opportunity to see each other since.’ Sarah paused for a moment, her mind snagging on something Abby had said after her initialoutburst. ‘Wait, what do you mean you’re glad you don’t have to pretend anymore?’ Had Alex told her? If he had, when? And what did that mean for how he felt about her now?

---