BooksBarbecue
Back Fancy Meeting You Here
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

Everyone nodded approvingly, while Evie’s face grew red. How could he, in good conscience, fail to acknowledge the tremendous role she had played? She had literally written half the damn script!

And then it hit her. Hugo was lying to everyone, sometimes by omission, sometimes through outright denial, sometimes in plain sight. He was probably lying about Chloe’s contribution, and now he was going to lie about hers.

Tonight was too much. She was livid. At herself. At Hugo.

This was the real Hugo Hearst. Not some figment of her imagination, some actor on the screen, some author of a book she loved. She wanted to stand up, throw her stupid champagne glass into his face, and scream. But instead, she forced herself to take deep breaths and think things through.

Using every ounce of energy to contain her fury, Evie leaned across to Hugo and whispered, ‘Just going to the bathroom. Be back in a tick.’ She grabbed her bag and shoved her chair out from behind her. Gaining pace, she walked straight past the bathroom to the front door, collecting her coat and letting herself out silently. As the door closed behind her, she felt the cool London evening close in around her and let out a giant exhale.

‘Fuck!’

THIRTY-NINE

Thirty-nine

Evie sat on the snowy pavement outside Nancy’s, clutching her stupid Louis Vuitton bag, and shivering violently—this time not only from the cold. She’d just left behind the man she had thought she would love forever. Had tonight changed everything irrevocably?

Evie was furious. How could Hugo exclude her like that? All this time, she had thought they were partners, equals, but clearly Hugo had other ideas. She didn’t know whether his actions were calculated or not, but in the end it didn’t really matter: as he’d soaked up all the praise at the dinner party, Evie had felt the walls around her crumble and her hold on reality shatter.

As she crouched in the light dusting of snow nursing her wounded heart, she tried to calculate whether it would be worthwhile making the journey to Ben’s party. Maybe she could regain some sense of control over her life, and start mending the gap that had widened between them. Evie missed Ben so much. Realising she had no other palatable option, she went to hail a cab. As she waited with one arm waving in the air, the other curled around her coat trying and failing to keep herself warm, her phone started buzzing in her pocket. Shit! It was Hugo. He was probably wondering where she was. She quickly switched off her phone; she didn’t want to deal with the avalanche she had just unleashed.