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Chapters (86)
  1. Title Page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Love
  4. Before
  5. One
  6. ONE
  7. Two
  8. TWO
  9. Three
  10. THREE
  11. Four
  12. FOUR
  13. Five
  14. FIVE
  15. Six
  16. SIX
  17. Seven
  18. SEVEN
  19. Eight
  20. EIGHT
  21. Nine
  22. NINE
  23. Ten
  24. TEN
  25. Eleven
  26. ELEVEN
  27. After
  28. One
  29. ONE
  30. Two
  31. TWO
  32. Three
  33. THREE
  34. Four
  35. FOUR
  36. Five
  37. FIVE
  38. Six
  39. SIX
  40. Seven
  41. SEVEN
  42. Eight
  43. EIGHT
  44. Nine
  45. NINE
  46. Ten
  47. TEN
  48. Eleven
  49. ELEVEN
  50. Twelve
  51. TWELVE
  52. Thirteen
  53. THIRTEEN
  54. Fourteen
  55. FOURTEEN
  56. Fifteen
  57. FIFTEEN
  58. Sixteen
  59. SIXTEEN
  60. Seventeen
  61. SEVENTEEN
  62. Eighteen
  63. EIGHTEEN
  64. Nineteen
  65. NINETEEN
  66. Twenty
  67. TWENTY
  68. Twenty-One
  69. TWENTY-ONE
  70. Twenty-Two
  71. TWENTY-TWO
  72. Twenty-Three
  73. TWENTY-THREE
  74. Twenty-Four
  75. TWENTY-FOUR
  76. Twenty-Five
  77. TWENTY-FIVE
  78. Twenty-Six
  79. TWENTY-SIX
  80. Twenty-Seven
  81. TWENTY-SEVEN
  82. Twenty-Eight
  83. TWENTY-EIGHT
  84. Eleven Months Later
  85. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  86. Copyright

I didn’t tell her that’s what we were doing – for obvious reasons – and hold a finger up to her, lowering my voice to a sharp whisper. ‘I would just like to remind you that Poppy might die at any moment so if she wants to play mini golf with us, then we are going to play mini golf.’

‘Absolutely not,’ Esen says out of the corner of her mouth.

‘Come on, Ess!’ Dev says, clapping as well. ‘I haven’t played mini golf for years.’

‘Four, please!’ Poppy practically sings at the man behind the counter of the café.

He looks at her like he hasn’t heard her properly. ‘It’s January.’

‘I know.’

‘Why do you want to play mini golf in January? It’s freezing.’

Esen looks at me then raises her hand to him as if to say, See? Listen to the man.

Poppy is unfazed, though. ‘We’ll warm up when we start playing.’

‘But it’s so windy.’

‘It’s Brighton. It’s always windy. Plus, it will test my finely honed golfing skills.’

He doesn’t look any less convinced that she isn’t utterly insane, but obviously can’t be arsed to persuade her that it’s a bad idea, disappearing and returning with four putters and a couple of golf balls.

‘Two teams, I assume?’ he says, handing them to her.

Poppy takes them with a huge smile. ‘Yes, two teams. One winning team and one losing one.’

She turns to Esen and Dev, sticking her tongue out.

‘You owe me,’ Esen mutters as Poppy raises her arm, directing us to the course. ‘You owe me big.’

I nod, slightly concerned what the penance for making her play mini golf will be.

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I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but Poppy is fiercely competitive. When she suggested this, I thought it would be lots of giggling and flirting and Poppy standing behind me, showing me how to hit the ball. But she’s too focused for flirting, separating us into two teams and explaining the rules. I didn’t even know there were rules, but apparently there are. Lots of them. Rules that I’m almost certain Esen is ignoring as she looks at me like she’s going to clobber me with the putter that she’s swinging back and forth in her hand.

‘Let’s do this,’ Poppy grins, tossing one of the golf balls to Dev.

‘I just want to make it clear, before we start. So there’s no confusion,’ Esen says and I tense, unsure what she’s about to say. ‘I know this is like a plot from an arthouse film; the girl who’s about to die challenging three grim reapers to a game of chess for her soul. Or mini golf, in this case. But if you win this game, Poppy Morgan’ – she points the putter at her and shakes her head – ‘that doesn’t change anything, OK?’