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

Evie looked at Hugo, who, in these last few moments had seemed to shrink before her eyes. He looked small, terrified, pathetic. ‘You might be able to live with this, Hugo, but I can’t.’ Evie got up off the floor, but Hugo grabbed her wrist, trying to pull her back down towards him.

‘Please, Evie, I’m begging you, you can’t tell anybody about this. I’d rather die than have this get out.’

Evie tried to shake him off, taking a step towards the stairs. ‘You have to make this better! Hugo, you have to.’

Evie kept going, and when she was almost at the stairs, she heard him cry out, ‘Please, Evie, don’t leave me! I can’t lose you.’

She spun around. Hugo was still on the floor, curled up against the wall. Tears spilled down his face. He was a mess.

‘Hugo, you and me, we haven’t been right for a while. I know you must feel the same. And this, it changes everything. I can’t do this anymore.’ Evie’s voice quavered; she still couldn’t believe that it had come to this.

She considered Hugo, taking in his rough features and his forlorn expression. The dark bags which seemed to pull at his whole face. His eyes, which once upon a time seemed to glow with possibility, were now consumed with such hot indignation that it made Evie want to cave in on herself. A small thread of connection tugged at her, willing her to envelop him in her arms, to whisper reassuringly that she would rescue him from himself. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Because, finally, Evie could see right through his bullshit. Because finally, she knew better.

Evie raced up the stairs to their bedroom. She found her old duffle bag stuffed at the back of the closet and started randomly shoving clothes and toiletries into it. When it was full to bursting, she surveyed the room from the door. She allowed herself, just once more, to think of the happy times she and Hugo had shared in here. She knew she wasn’t coming back, and the thought of leaving her home and the memories it housed shattered her. Even after everything that had happened, what she’d had with Hugo had been life-changing.

As she grabbed her copy of The Catcher in the Rye from her bedside table, Evie spotted Hugo’s laptop on his corner desk. Listening for the sound of footsteps, she dropped her book and bag and opened the computer, feeling her heart rate climb.