Page 8 of Love at First Sight

My eyes flutter open, gaze unfocused. We’re alone, just me, Cal and the violinist. As my eyes readjust to our surroundings, I spot something up ahead. In the distance, there’s a woman leaning over the wall separating the path from the Lea. It’s not very high this side – it comes up to her mid-thigh – but it’s a steep drop down to the water on the other side. I watch her, unsure of what I’m seeing until it’s painfully obvious. She climbs up, her energy frantic, and stands on the wall, looking down.

I stiffen. Surely she isn’t going to jump. Surely not.

The woman is very still, staring into the distance. Dread creeps up the back of my neck, my body telling me to pay attention.

‘Cal,’ I say, and he murmurs a response. ‘No,’ I say, lifting my head off him. ‘Cal. Look at that woman.’

He stares where I’m pointing. His mouth parts as he understands what he’s seeing.

‘Shit,’ he says, walking towards her. I follow for the ten paces or so it takes to stride over.

‘Beautiful night, isn’t it?’ Cal says to the woman once we’re close enough to her to talk. He doesn’t shout and there is no sense of panic in his voice. Meanwhile I’m physically shaking and couldn’t sound normal if you paid me. This is bad. This woman looks beside herself. She’s young, and she has her black hair slicked back in a low bun, hooped earrings, a nice manicure. She looksnormal. But hanging over the edge of the wall that way is anything but.

Cal says, ‘I’m going to step forward towards you, if that’s okay. I’d like to see the water too.’

The woman looks to her side – not all the way back, but enough for me to see she’s younger than me, maybe late twenties, and totally gorgeous. Beautiful. She’s got tears in her eyes and her nose is running. She’s crazed. Panicked.

‘Fuck off,’ she says, loudly, and for a split second I think we’ve got this all wrong. We’re not wanted. She’s fine, she just wants to be alone.

‘No,’ says Cal, firmly. ‘I’m going to stay here. I’m going to stay here, with you, all right?’

‘Fuck. Off!’ the woman says. ‘Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off!’

And then she starts crying, a big-gulp-of-air sob and then lots of little ones and she whispers, ‘I hate this.’

Cal takes a breath. I don’t know how he’s so calm, how he knows how to handle all this. I’m shitting myself, frankly. I wonder if I should call the police. But the sirens might spook her. What if she jumps and we’re the only ones around …

‘I’m coming to the wall,’ Cal says. ‘I’m Cal, by the way. What’s your name? You look like somebody I used to know, actually. She was called Clarissa.’

‘That’s an awful name,’ the woman says, as Cal reaches the wall and hovers about six feet from her.

‘Yeah,’ he agrees. ‘We called her Riss, for short. It suited her, somehow.’

The woman nods.

‘So … what’s your name?’ Cal presses.

A beat. But then, ‘Naomi,’ the woman replies.

‘Naomi,’ Cal repeats. ‘It’s nice to meet you. Are you having a bad day, Naomi?’

She gives a hollow laugh.

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Cal says.

‘I’m having a badlife,’ Naomi tells him.

‘Do you want to tell me some more about that?’

Naomi looks at him, and he gives her an encouraging nod.

‘I’m listening,’ he says, kindly.

She considers this, looking back out to the water andclosing her eyes to inhale deeply. When she opens them again, she whispers, ‘It feels hard. Everything just feels so hard.’

‘In what way?’ Cal asks, and he’s doing an incredible job of keeping her talking. I barely move a muscle – I’m transfixed. I don’t know if Naomi knows I’m here, and I’m scared that if I even breathe too loudly, I’ll break whatever influence he’s having.

‘Work. Family. My life,’ she says. ‘I’m in some shitty copyright job earning sod all. I have, like, two friends, and they always seem to be busy. None of my dates work out. My landlord is putting the rent up, and I don’t know how I’ll ever afford it. I’m probably going to have to leave London. But to do what? To go where? I hate all thisthinking.’ Naomi covers her eyes with her hands. ‘I just want somebody to sort it all out for me, you know? Or to fast-forward ten years to when everything is better and it doesn’t all hurt so much …’

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