Page 27 of Plot Twist

‘Anyway, it’s great to finally meet you, Becca. I hear you thought my brother was a yoga-loving, romance-writing woman?’ Bridget teased.

I blushed. I had a feeling I was going to be the talk of the town already.

‘Don’t listen to her, Becca. She’s always on the wind-up,’ Ellie soothed, folding her arms while throwing Bridget an affectionate smile.

‘Oh my God, I’m so embarrassed about it,’ I said.

Their eyes shone brightly, delighted at the whole turn in conversation as we walked towards the living room.

‘Do you want to tell us?’ Ellie pressed, taking a seat on the couch. ‘Don’t worry if you don’t.’

‘Oh you NEED to tell us. Wait, wait, wait!’ Bridget shouted, turning back towards the kitchen. ‘Do NOT start without me. Literally, not a word. I’m going in to pour the wine.’

‘Where is Riley by the way?’ Ellie asked, looking around.

‘I said WAIT!’ Bridget called.

I laughed and sat back in the chair. Ellie had her finger over her lips as though that was going to prevent her from firing more questions over at me.

Bridget came back out balancing three wine glasses between her hands. ‘Un-pause. Where are they?’

‘Riley took Ivy to the park after nursery. He’ll be back shortly,’ I said.

‘So, start from the very beginning,’ Bridget urged. ‘You met online, you thought he was a woman and—’

I laughed and started to tell the story of Riley and me connecting over critiquing our novels as they sipped their wine.

I skipped to the part where Riley invited me over for an unofficial writers’ retreat, bypassing his whole writer’s dysfunction dilemma. He was obviously keeping his cards close to his chest on that one and I was totally cool with that. I had more than a few secrets tucked up my own sleeve. Instead, I focused on what they wanted to hear: my reaction to realising Riley was actually a man.

Bridget’s expressions were priceless. Her eyes lit up as she exclaimed and gasped the whole way through the story, lapping up all the drama as she threw her head back and barked with loud laughter. Ellie smiled along politely, her own eyes lighting up at Bridget’s laugh.

‘I can’t even imagine our Riley’s face when you started talking to him about your smear test,’ Bridget laughed. ‘He’s totally squeamish, he would have hated that. I’m pretty sure he fainted when Jackie was giving birth.’

‘Jackie. I take it that’s Ivy’s mum? He hasn’t really said much about her.’

Bridget’s face clouded over.

‘The less said about her the better,’ she muttered as the front door flew open and Ivy bounced into the room. ‘She’s been off the scene for a long time now.’

‘They’ve started on the wine already,’ Riley laughed as Bridget and Ellie stood to cuddle Ivy.

‘How’s my favourite niece?’

‘Good,’ Ivy replied. ‘I managed to do the high monkey bars. The ones Daddy said I wouldn’t be able to do ’til I was seventeen.’

‘Woohoo!’ Ellie said, giving her a high five. ‘That’s our girl.’

‘Auntie Bridget, Auntie Ellie, are you drinking that grown-up juice again?’ Ivy enquired.

‘Now, now, Ivy. Remember what we said, we don’t keep track of every sweetie you have so go easy on the grown-up juice chat,’ Bridget said, kissing Ivy on the nose.

‘But last time you had too much and fell into the—’

‘Anyway, Becca,’ Bridget interrupted, clearing her throat. ‘Tell us a bit about Glasgow. I’ve never been before.’

Riley let out a loud chuckle as he went back into the kitchen to fetch the food we’d prepared earlier.

Bridget and Ellie listened intently as I explained a bit about where I lived in the south side and explained that Glasgow was often thought of as the ‘people’s capital’.