Page 81 of Just for December

‘Perfect,’ Magda says. ‘My first Christmas as a divorcée. Jesus. Who’d have thought it?’

‘You’ve not talked about it much these past ten days,’ Evie reflects. ‘I know you’re still feeling feelings about it …’

‘I am,’ Magda says. ‘But, you know … It was the right thing, and I’m more certain of that than ever now.’

‘And Markus?’ Evie asks. ‘All I know is that he had to go off for work, but I never got the full story on if you’re going to keep in touch, or if that was that …?’

‘We said we’d keep in touch,’ Magda says, scrunching up her face like she’s shy about it.

‘What?’ says Evie.

‘He’s coming out to visit in January,’ Magda replies, and Evie squeals so loudly the driver swerves the car.

‘Sorry!’ Evie cries to him. ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry!’ She looks at Magda. ‘He’s coming out. To. Visit,’ she says, clapping her hands to punctuate the words. ‘Why am I only just hearing about this now?!’

‘Stop!’ Magda laughs, using a hand to bat away Evie’s attention. ‘It’s not a big deal.’

‘Not a big deal?’ parrots Evie. ‘You flew halfway across the world and ended up meeting a beautiful man who is going to fly out to the States to see you because that’s how much he likes you? I thought it was just sex!’

Magda shrugs, and the scenery outside the car starts to change to lots of signposts for airport lanes and hubs. They’re almost there.

‘So did I,’ she says. ‘For the first ten minutes. But I knew pretty much that first night it had legs. I get that I only just signed the papers and everything, but life’s short, you know? I don’t want to be sensible. I want to be free.’

Evie feels like Magda has reached across the seats and snatched out her heart.

‘What?’ Magda asks. ‘You think I’m stupid?’

Evie shakes her head. Their car pulls up to the kerb. ‘No,’ Evie exclaims. ‘I think you’re the bravest person I’ve ever met. You just go for it, and know you’ll be okay. I worry I won’t be okay and so don’t do anything. And I think I just decided, right now this second, to try things differently.’

‘You don’t have to change who you are,’ Magda says, as they clamber out at departures. ‘Who knows what will happen with all this. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad or anything. You’re amazing too, Evie. Look what this trip has done for you! You’ve left some ghosts behind, you’ve smiled more than I’ve seen in years …’

Evie nods, excitedly.

‘All true,’ she agrees, and their driver finishes unloading their bags. Magda gives him a tip and they both say thank you, Evie pulling out her phone and scrolling through heremails. ‘But I am just going to get Duke’s email and write to him. Life’s too short to be sensible, right?’

‘I actually think writing to him is the epitome of sensible, but sure.’ Magda smiles, and she scrolls the internet as Evie searches through anyone cc-ed in all the emails about the movie and the contracts and the fauxmance to see who could be best placed to help her. In the end, she settles for her own agent, dropping her a line to explain that she left for the airport early and would love to get word to a few key people to say thanks.Could you hunt down contacts for Daphne Diamond and Duke Carlisle for me please?she asks, and then the pair head inside to check in.

‘No, this way,’ says Evie, pointing to the queue for economy check-in. Magda was heading for first class, the check-in desk with a literal red carpet out front and no line.

Magda furrows her brow.

‘No,’ she says. ‘We’re first class, right?’

Evie looks at her friend.

‘Duke got you afirst-classticket home too?’ she says, incredulously. ‘Jesus! Magda!’

Magda shrugs. ‘Only because of you,’ she says. ‘So really it’s likeyougot me a first-class ticket.’

Evie tuts. ‘Okay, well. Let’s see how much it is for me to upgrade.’

Magda nods. ‘Excellent idea,’ she says.

The check-in person announces that it is almost ten thousand dollars.

‘Sorry,’ Evie says. ‘One-way?’

‘Yes, to Salt Lake City it is nine thousand, four hundred and ninety-six dollars to upgrade your economy seat to first class.’

---