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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

It’s beginning to get dark and before I can ask her what she wants to do now, Poppy is distracted by the jewellery stall outside the shop. With that, the photos are forgotten as she tries on rings and holds up a pair of hoops so big I’m sure I could get my whole fist through and asks me what I think. I smile and she puts them down, reaching for a necklace with a round pendant engraved with a tree. I’m distracted by a ring centred with a piece of amber so big it looks like the entire universe is trapped inside it and when I look up, I see Poppy handing the man behind the stall a £20 note. I ask her what she’s doing and she takes my hand, pulling me in front of a shop window.

‘Give me your necklace,’ she says and I frown at her.

‘My necklace?’

‘Your scythe.’

I’d forgotten about that.

I reach up to unclasp it and when I hand it to her, she threads something on to it and tells me to turn round. She stands behind me, refastening it then taking me by the shoulders and turning me so that I’m facing her again.

‘There,’ she says with a slow smile.

I look down, lifting the pendant with my fingers to find a silver bumblebee.

‘Pop.’ I look up at her again and she’s grinning so much I can see her teeth.

‘Bumblebees are the best.’ She presses her finger to it. ‘Not only do they symbolise good luck, but they protect you. It’s said that if you follow a bumblebee, it will lead you to a new destination.’

She leans across, pressing a kiss to my mouth, then looks at me again with another huge smile, obviously waiting for me to say something, to thank her, to tell her that I love it, promise that I’ll never take it off. But I can’t speak as I cup her face in my hands and kiss her this time, hoping it’s enough because all I can think about is what a shame it is that wherever she’s going and wherever I’m going, isn’t the same place.

Twenty-Five

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TWENTY-FIVE

We finally make it to the café. Our table is free – the one in the corner by the window – and I think about the last time we were here together. We talked about what we were doing for Christmas, the pair of us trying to work out when we’d next see each other. She’d said that the only thing she was looking forward to was hanging out with her grandmother on Christmas Day. They have this tradition where they go for a walk along the beach after lunch, but her grandmother is in a wheelchair now so she wasn’t sure if they’d able to do it this year.