Thank God Jules was leaving tomorrow. The sooner the better. London wasn’t so great.

Glad of her warm coat, scarf, and hat, Jules kept walking. She remembered how Vivian had needed to go for a walk after discovering Robert’s infidelity. She must have been feeling a lot worse than Jules felt right now.

Jules walked and walked while thinking unhappy thoughts, occasionally stopping to look at things and people. When she looked at her watch, it was eleven forty. She’d wandered too far from the townhouse to get there by noon. Shit.

Well—it didn’t have to be a disaster. There was no way Vivian would want to venture out of doors after a humiliation like this. Jules just needed formal permission to cancel their lunch reservation.

She texted Vivian:

Heading back now, calling an Uber, sorry

Then she swiped open the Uber app, not expecting a response. To her surprise, though, Vivian texted only moments later:

If you’re not here at noon, we’ll be late for lunch.

She blinked. Vivian still wanted to go? She texted back:

Sorry, I thought you’d want me to cancel, be right there

Before she could go back to the Uber app, her phone rang. Vivian.

“Uh, hi,” Jules said, bracing herself. “I’m just about to—”

“Why would I want to cancel?”

“I, uh—never mind. I guess it’d be faster for me just to meet you at the restaurant. I’m sorry.”

“Where are you?”

Jules hadn’t been paying attention at all to where she was going. She looked around for a street sign. “I’m not actually sure.”

“Why are you not here?”

“You said noon—never mind.” Jules wrapped her free arm around herself, shivering. “Time got away from me.”

“Got away from you. Well.”

“I was upset,” Jules said before she could think better of it. “I just kept walking. I didn’t mean to. But I can get to the restaurant before you and make sure the table’s all ready.”

“You were upset?”

Dammit. There was no use pretending. Either Vivian knew about the pictures or she’d find out soon, and she’d be pissed that Jules had danced around the subject.

“There are some photos of New Year’s on Twitter,” Jules mumbled. “Of you and m—of you leaving the ball.”

“Oh. How upsetting.”

“No, but—” Jules bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. Just say it. “There are also pictures of Robert in New York. With a woman.”

Silence. Jules closed her eyes. This would be ugly.

Then Vivian said, “Core Restaurant. It’s in Notting Hill.”

Wait. That was it? That couldn’t be it. “Um, yeah. I already told Jimmy, so he should—”

“Be there by twelve fifteen.” She ended the call.