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Back The Lucky Escape Save as PDF
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. PRAISE FOR LAURA JANE WILLIAMS
  3. Dedication
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. 36
  40. 37
  41. 38
  42. 39
  43. 40
  44. 41
  45. 42
  46. 43
  47. 44
  48. 45
  49. 46
  50. Epilogue
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Publishing Credits
  53. Keep Reading …
  54. About the Author
  55. Fiction by the same author
  56. About the Publisher

Thinking about it now, I’d tried to hint that it would be nice if we could spend some more time together. Sometimes I was on the list after work, and rugby, and his time in the gym, and then his alone time, his ‘chilling out’ time. Only then did I get his full attention. Anyway. I still posted the photo of us, telling the world we’d been out for dinner and ordered extra burrata, even though I barely remembered the food. There was no mention of our fight in the caption, or me thinking I was never enough no matter how many shapes I contorted myself into. In fact, the more shapes I contorted myself into the more he withheld what I needed. No. Instead, I’d typed exactly what everyone did: Dinner with this one #datenight #extracheese.

Sighing, I was about to exit the app, but found myself typing ‘Patrick Hummingbird’ into the search bar before I realized I was doing so. Nothing came up. I tried Paddy Hummingbird. Nothing came up then, either. It was senseless that I’d even tried. Why had Patrick even crossed my mind?

I idly pushed at buttons, logging in and out of apps without thinking. The news, Pinterest, the health app. When I did that, an alert popped up.

You haven’t logged a period this month. Do you want to do that now? it asked.

Oh God. I hadn’t had a period? I looked at the chart on screen and realized that was true. I should have come on last week. It was probably the stress. Even lying in bed my jaw was so tight it was practically up at my eyebrows.

I tapped through to email and put Alexander’s work address in the ‘to’ box. I left the subject line blank. In the body of the note I typed, deleted, and retyped: Where are you? I lingered over the send button and held my breath as I pressed it. I needed to know.

I got his Out of Office immediately:

Hi there. I am currently working from the Singapore office, so you may experience a delay in my response due to the time difference.

I knew it. Singapore. That can’t have been a last-minute decision, surely. Urgh! He threw a hand grenade into my life and then got on a plane. I was beyond outraged, but strangely, being able to pinpoint down geographically where he was made me breathe deeper. I hated him and everything he’d done, but at least I now had a direction to send my hate in.

9

It was as if Patrick and I had pre-arranged to meet by the smoothie bar after class, because there we both were, and it seemed to be even less of a surprise to him than it was to me.