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Back Afterlove
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

As if on cue, I feel my phone buzz in the pocket of my leather jacket and my heart clenches like a fist as I wonder if this is it. If this is the Sorry, babe. Can we reschedule? xx message. My hand is shaking so much I almost drop my phone, avoiding eye contact with Adara as I look down at the screen.

24 minutes xx

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Sure enough, Poppy is exactly where she said she would be, by the café at the Old Steine, her red hair alight in the afternoon sun. I have to stop myself running to her, forcing myself to take a deep breath – then another – as I try to walk towards her at a normal pace. Before I get to her, though, she turns and when she sees me, she smiles so wide, I can see each of her teeth.

Then she’s there, right in front of me, pulling me into a hug so tight I swallow a gasp before she steps back.

‘Hey,’ she says, her smile smaller now – just for me – and when she waits for me to meet her gaze, everything around us falls away. The seagulls flee, the traffic disappears and the buildings encircling us dissolve into dust, carried away with the breeze so it’s just us and she is all I can see for miles.

Miles and miles.

This is worth it, I think, as my heart flutters and my bones ache at the thought of counting each of her eyelashes with the tip of my finger. And with that, everything else falls away as well. All those ghost girls with the careless smiles and thirsty hearts. All those hours spent waiting, waiting outside cinemas and waiting for a call that isn’t coming. Just waiting to be seen. Poppy sees me – really sees me – I can feel it and when she reaches for my hand, I would do it all again for the promise of this. For the promise of whatever is going to happen next because I don’t care, I just want to know. And maybe she isn’t the one. Maybe we’ll burn bright for a few weeks then collapse in on ourselves, but Mr Moreno says that’s how galaxies are made anyway.

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Poppy suggests that we grab a coffee from the café across the road, which isn’t so much a café as a hole in the wall that I must have walked past dozens of times and didn’t even notice was there.

‘This place does the best latte,’ she says, as though she’s introducing me to an old friend.

‘Is this a good time to mention that I don’t actually drink coffee?’ I admit with a nervous smile.

‘Wait. What? You don’t drink coffee? How do you even, you know, do stuff ?’ She looks horrified. ‘I can’t string a sentence together in the morning until I’ve had at least two.’