13

When Norah got home and switched on the light and the TV, she tripped over a small white cuddly rabbit. For a moment, she stood there, waiting for the ceiling to stop spinning. It was time she got round to unpacking the boxes and stopped chucking everything on the floor. She sighed. The bunny must be Alex’s. He was always buying presents for his niece; she’d probably packed it by mistake in her mad rush to leave. At this rate, she’d never get over him.

‘Hello,’ she said to the rabbit, ‘you all right?’

It didn’t reply.

‘How rude!’ Norah said, laughing when she realised how drunk she was. She had no hope of getting to sleep in the next hour. She put the bunny aside and wrote a text. Her phone had turned up at last, which was something; the stupid thing had been in the side pocket of her bag all along.

Are you awake?

The answer came straight back.

I’m always awake, sweetie.

Norah touched Coco’s name on her screen; her friend picked up immediately.

‘Can’t you sleep either?’ Coco asked.

‘No.’

‘What’s keeping you awake?’

Norah shrugged.

‘Nothing. Everything. The human condition. And you?’

‘The usual.’

Norah bit her lip.

‘I went out today,’ Coco said. ‘Some kids stared at me.’

‘Kids stare at everyone,’ Norah replied. ‘The other day I was on the underground and this little boy started staring at me—he was about three? So I stared back. And then suddenly he turns to his mum and says, all serious, Mum, is that a man or a lady?’

Coco laughed, as Norah had been hoping she would, but she was soon serious again.

‘I saw him today,’ she said, ‘in the paper. He’s got a new girlfriend.’

Norah froze. No matter what she said, Coco always came back to the same topic.

‘Poor woman,’ said Norah drily.

‘Yeah,’ said Coco, ‘I should warn her.’

‘No, sweetheart, you must keep away. Promise me?’

There was silence at the other end of the line.

‘Promise?’ Norah repeated.

‘Promise.’

Neither of them spoke. Then Norah heard a soft sniffing sound.

‘Coco, are you crying?’

‘No,’ said Coco with a sob.

Norah fought back a sigh. She never knew what to say when people cried on the phone.

‘I was so stupid,’ Coco said softly.

Yes, Norah thought, you were. But that doesn’t mean you deserved what he did to you.

‘What film did you watch today?’ she asked, to change the topic. She knew that Coco only ever left the house to go to the cinema—partly because she loved films; partly because it was dark in the cinema and no one could stare at her.

‘Beauty and the Beast,’ Coco said.

‘You’re not serious.’

‘No, really,’ Coco said, and Norah pictured her smiling through her tears. ‘Fitting, eh?’

‘I’m speechless.’

‘That,’ said Coco, ‘is an expression I’ve never understood. I’m never speechless.’

Norah smiled to herself. She loved Coco’s wry humour.

‘I googled him,’ Coco said suddenly, like a sinner in a confessional, keen to come clean before losing courage.