So do I blame you for the fact that I went all the way to Liverpool this morning because I was reading somewhere that they had a really good op shop? Or the fact that the other day I was on eBay and for some reason considered spending twenty dollars on a collection of unmarked postcards from Europe? I would have bought them, too, except it’s the end of the month and I’m so poor. (I’ll send you the link if you want.)

Speaking of … Matt asked me to move in with him. I don’t know if I want to, but it makes sense. All my stuff is at his place already. But it seems too soon. Is it too soon? Answers on a postcard lol.

L xxx

PS Did you know when Big Ben bongs it plays the note E? I did not!

Caitie,

I don’t know if I’ve just been watching too much Gossip Girl but I think we should stay in Williamsburg. It’s close to Manhattan but not as expensive, and it’s got lots of really cute bars and restaurants and things. You’re probably all over it.

Work is so boring today. Everyone’s at a conference except Dr P, who is here for emergencies. I’ve reorganised the magazines and sorted all the free toothbrushes by colour and now I’m looking up places to rent in W’burg. It’s not cheap. Remind me why NY again?

L xxx

PS Did you know Melbourne used to be the capital of Australia?

If you could go anywhere, I’d asked her once, before I sent the first postcard, where would you go?

I don’t know, she’d said. We were on a train and she was curled into the window seat, staring at the fences and the car parks and backyards. Anywhere.

I’d go to New York, I said, full of certainty. I’d only ever seen it on TV, but it shone like a beacon. A place where anything could happen, busy and noisy and big and wild. The perfect place to escape to. Never quiet, never still. The exact opposite of the suburbs we’d grown up in with their big too-empty houses and the miles of lawn—and the quiet.

She’d blinked, like she was waking up. Yeah, let’s do it. And she’d laughed, genuinely happy, for the first time in weeks. I’d never forgotten that laugh, the way it burst out of her without any effort at all, when everything else seemed to be an effort.

That was when it started, with that laugh.