Page 19 of The Truth About You and Me
A face I recognise.
Realisation hits me hard. My breath is hot and dry at the back of my throat.
It’s my fault.
I’m the reason Jack’s life fell apart.
He takes the paper, smiles at me all enigmatic and relaxed, despite everything I’ve experienced through his mind.
‘See you soon, Maggie Wright.’
And with that, he tucks the paper in his pocket and walks across the road.
11
FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER
Maggie
‘Not the yellow. No offense, mate, but yellow isn’t your colour; it makes you look jaundiced. Try the turquoise.’ Tess throws over a jumper. Once I’d told her about Jack and our second ‘date’ she had insisted on getting the train down.
I gesture to my walls. ‘I like yellow. It’s ahappycolour.’
I pull the jumper on and sit down on my bed. Tess pulls her blonde hair up into a topknot, pushes her glasses up her nose and joins me, sitting cross-legged.
For the past week I have tried and failed to find another cleaning job. My bank account is dangerously low, but I have another interview tomorrow for a night shift in a department store one town over. I’ll have to walk as I don’t have enough to fill up my petrol tank. And all the time, as I scoured online for cleaning jobs in my area, I’ve tried to process what I heard and saw from Jack. I could be wrong; the face I saw might not be the same as the one Jack had pictured, but my gut tells me it is.
‘You look gorgeous, Mags.’
I let out a long breath.
‘How do I even begin to tell him?—’
‘Like I keep saying, you don’t need to tell him anything yet. It’s not like you’ve not been wrong before.’
‘Not very often.’
She crosses her arms and challenges me. ‘You once thought I was pregnant because you knew I was worried and saw a flash of a positive pregnancy test.’
I laugh at the memory. I hadn’t paid attention to the fact she was watchingGrey’s Anatomywhen I passed her a cup of tea. ‘I worried for a week before I asked you.’
‘Pillock.’
‘I was twelve! I didn’t know quite how my thing worked back then. But this… it was so vivid, Tess. It washim. I’m sure of it.’
She reaches over for the book on my wonky bedside table and frowns. It’sThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue; Jack recommended it to me. I’d gotten it from the library – the first time I’ve set foot in one for years. I’d suggested he watchThe English Patientand dared him to tell me the film isn’t better than the book.
Tess puts the book back down next to the green wine bottle I’d filled with fairy lights.
‘Look. You said it yourself: he felt happier than he had for a long time just spending time with you.’
‘I know but maybe I should cancel? It’s Friday the thirteenth. Is that not screaming out loud that I should cancel? I mean, it’s not like it can go anywhere, even before I realised that I might have wrecked the guy’s life.’
‘You didn’t wreck his life and why can’t it go anywhere?’
I give her a look that says,you know exactly why.
‘Look, he knows you’re a bit…’ She scrunches up her nose.
