Page 82 of Just for December

‘But …’ asks Magda, stuttering with her words in shock. ‘Why?’

The assistant nods. ‘Well,’ she says. ‘It’s on-the-day, it’s Christmas, and it’s a full flight. This is the last first-class seat we have today.’

Evie looks at Magda. ‘Icouldpay that,’ she says. ‘But it would be stupid of me.’

Magda bites her lip. ‘Especially when you already have a ticket,’ she agrees.

‘I’m supposed to be getting savvy with my spending, right? I deserve nice things, but I also owe it to myself to be smart?’

‘That’s what we said …’ Magda agrees, and Evie is waiting for her friend to say,Screw it! Think of all that movie money!but she doesn’t, and Evie finds that she can’t actually do it. She can’t blow that kind of cash, even if she does, in theory, have it.

‘Can I check in my bags here please,’ Magda says to the assistant, and then to Evie she says: ‘And then I’ll come with you to check in over there, okay? I’ll even sacrifice the first-class lounge to buy you your lastWeisswurst. Come on.’

It takes Evie forty-nine minutes to get through economy check-in, and she stares longingly at the empty red carpet of first the whole way.

‘You’ll survive,’ jokes Magda. ‘And if we’re allowed, maybe we can switch halfway through the flight, both get a turn.’

Evie pouts dramatically. ‘Okay,’ she says, in a small voice. ‘Thank you.’

42

Duke

Duke stands by the cast and crew airport shuttle, waiting for Evie to come out of the hotel with her stuff, so he can finally corner her and … well. He isn’ttotallysure. Say words. Get reactions. Go after what he wants explicitly, because heknowsshe feels it too. He’s not sure where she went last night. By the time he got back to the party she was gone, and nobody seemed to have any idea where. He tried her room, but to no answer. He thinks maybe she was in Magda’s room? But he couldn’t find Magda to ask either, and so he’s been down here since 6 a.m. trying to catch her in the lobby, or at breakfast, and again now, as they all file out of the hotel and get their rides to the airport so everyone can catch whatever flight they’re booked onto.

‘You find her?’ Daphne asks, walking up to him from where she’s been hugging some of the lighting crew goodbye.

‘No,’ he says.

Daphne laughs. ‘I hope for your sake she comes soon. You look like you’re about to throw up.’ Duke shoots her a look, and then one of the producers’ assistants passes by with a clipboard, and Daphne has the good sense to say, ‘Hey, Trish? You don’t know where Evie is, do you? Evie Bird? The author?’

‘Yeah, I know who Evie is,’ Trish says, evidently more than a little stressed at being tasked with organising everyone and their check-out. She looks at her list, running a painted fingernail down the paper before announcing, ‘She left earlier. Got a taxi with her friend before dawn.’

‘What?’ says Duke, but Trish has already lost interest and moved on. He can feel Daphne looking at him.

‘That sucks,’ she says. ‘I know how badly you wanted to see her.’

‘Duke?’

They are interrupted by one of the concierges from the front desk.

‘Yes?’ Duke says.

‘I have this for you. I apologise – I didn’t see you come down.’

He hands Duke a folded piece of paper. Inside it says:No hard feelings. All the best, Evie x

Duke hadn’t fully understood what folks were telling him last night, all slurring their words and having their sentences run into each other or trail off. She dedicated a song to him? He can’t imagine Evie singing in front of a room of people, but six different people told him it had happened. He’s sorry he missed it. If anything, he’d like to see her to be able to take the piss, because it sounds brilliant. Alas. She’s gone.

Without saying goodbye.

All he has is this note.

It blows.

But … wait. Something doesn’t seem right.

‘I feel like …’ he says, slowly, a very fuzzy and faraway thought becoming a tiny bit clearer.

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