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Back Fancy Meeting You Here Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. DEDICATION
  3. PART ONE
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. PART TWO
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. FORTY-FOUR
  49. FORTY-FIVE
  50. FORTY-SIX
  51. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  52. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

‘This! You can’t just keep calling me whenever you feel down or stressed about Hugo and expect me to drop everything and come to your rescue. It’s not fair on Sami, and it doesn’t feel great for me, either.’

‘I never asked you to drop everything. Or to come here,’ Evie said quickly. She was allowed to call her best friend when she was in trouble, wasn’t she?

‘I know how this works, Evie. You call me at any time of the day that suits you, shit, even at six in the morning! And then you tell me how sad you are, and I get roped into some elaborate plan to make it all better.’

Evie’s heart was in her throat. She wasn’t prepared for this. She couldn’t handle it. Not today. Not now. ‘That’s not how it is at all, Ben. I’m calling because you’re my best friend, and if you can’t be that—’

‘That’s just it, Evie. It was fine before. When we were just us. Before Hugo, before Sami. But you made your choice. I had no idea you were going to … I was blindsided.’

‘What do you mean, Ben? Why do Hugo or Sami have to change things?’

‘You know why, Evie,’ Ben said.

‘So what? You just don’t care about me anymore?’

‘Quite the opposite, actually.’

Breathing.

Breathing.

‘Look, I’ll call you later. At a normal hour. I’m not thinking straight right now. I care. You know I care,’ Ben said wearily.

‘Don’t worry about it, Ben. I’ll speak to you when I speak to you,’ she replied coolly.

‘Evie—’

‘Catch you later, Ben,’ Evie said and then hung up the phone. She threw it onto the bed and squeezed her eyes shut, and pretended not to wish, for the first time in a long time, that she was back in her Angel flat, in the future.

THIRTY-TWO

Thirty-two

In the weeks following Hugo’s stealthy departure and Ben’s rejection, Evie had been beside herself. Hugo was even more absent and preoccupied whenever they spoke, and still only came back every other weekend, tanned and glowing from the high of being an almost-famous movie star. The two of them had existed in a bubble of denial. Gentle touches. Soft smiles. And a refusal to make eye contact with the giant blonde elephant who followed them wherever they went. Ben was apparently equally disinterested in Evie as he’d barely sent her a text in three weeks, her parents were on the brink of divorce—again—and her skin was breaking out from all the chocolate popcorn she was consuming.