Page 100 of Plot Twist

I hated uttering her name, but I couldn’t leave it hanging there between us. The reason why Riley and I couldn’t be together. He was taken, after all. He wanted the happily ever after with his family, not with me.

He sat up a little straighter. ‘Becca, Jackie and I aren’t back together. She wanted us to be, but I drew a line under our relationship when she left. I have agreed to let her be part of our life now, as Ivy’s mum. Nothing more.’

My heart jumped in my chest and I blinked again, looking up into his green, earnest eyes.

‘Does she know all this?’ I asked. ‘She seemed pretty adamant that you guys were going to work it all out and live happily ever after. She pretty much packed my bags and told me to leave.’

Riley sighed.

‘Yeah, I had a feeling she might have done something like that. I’m sorry. She’s sorry, too. She asked me to tell you that, by the way. She’s still working through a lot of things,’ he sighed. ‘I came to explain everything the night of the opening party. Then I saw you with that Drew fella and thought there was no point. It looked like you had worked things out with him in the meantime, so. . .’

‘Drew wanted to give things another try, too,’ I admitted. ‘He asked me to think about it. We had a long talk that night, but I knew I wasn’t going back there. I couldn’t.’

‘So,’ he said, raising an eyebrow. ‘We’re back at square one.’

‘Not quite square one,’ I replied. ‘Pretty sure we raced past first, second and third base at the cottage. All of the bases, in fact.’

‘True.’ He smirked, taking hold of my hand. ‘It was just a shame it was cut short.’

I nodded and gently nudged Riley’s hand. He looked up into my eyes and I leaned towards him, my hand caressing his knee, and our lips met in a slow kiss. The passion that we’d had at the cottage was still there, but this time it felt like there was more. It wasn’t just lust, this kiss was offering the promise of more. A foundation for love and a future together, even. It lasted for a long time, like we were teenagers again and all we had was time to kiss and stare into each other’s eyes.

I pulled back at one point and looked at my hands.

‘We can’t. . . you know,’ I said. ‘After the procedure.’

‘Oh, no, I wasn’t expecting that, Becca,’ he said. ‘I just. . . it felt good to kiss. Just kiss.’

‘Well, don’t get any big ideas, Mr Romance Writer,’ I replied, snuggling into his blue jumper. He kissed me gently on the side of my head.

‘When do you get the results back?’ he asked, his voice sounding tense as though he was holding his breath.

‘A couple of weeks,’ I replied with a yawn, trying to shrug it off. I didn’t want to think about this, not now. Riley and I were in a bubble of bliss. The last thing I wanted was to think about the colposcopy. It was over and done with.

‘Why don’t you try and go to sleep?’ he whispered.

With Riley at the end of my sofa, a pile of thoughtful gifts, and zero expectations or anywhere to be, I closed my eyes and murmured that I would try.

There was a dull pain in my abdomen as I tentatively opened one eye and glanced around. Shadows bounced around the living room as a car splashed past in the puddles outside. I realised the dark blue curtains in my bay window remained fixed firmly against the wall. I felt around, expecting Riley to be curled up at the bottom of the sofa, but he wasn’t. I stood up and wandered around my flat, but couldn’t find him in any of the rooms. I lifted my phone to check the time and there it was, a message from him.

R:I don’t think I can do this. I want to be with you but you were right, it’s all too hard. I need to get back to Ivy. I’m sorry, Becca.

I threw my phone down on the couch in disbelief, staring as it lay there in front of me on the couch. Tears stung in my eyes as the realisation began to sink in.

Riley was gone.

47

‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead!’

Joanna’s voice was triumphant as she sang down the phone. I’d finally got round to calling her back, after many, many missed calls and messages.

I had dozed in and out of life in the days following the colposcopy. I tried not to think about Riley, but it wasn’t easy. The whole day felt like a fuzzy dream that I kept playing over and over again in my mind, from his sudden appearance at the hospital, to the kiss and then his sudden, heart-wrenching exit, with nothing more than a text to explain. I hadn’t written back to him.

I felt lost. No messages, no memes, no encouraging comments on my manuscript. Nothing. I shouldn’t have let myself grow so close to someone again so quickly. I’d jumped too quickly into our writers’ retreat, friendship and possible romance because I was still reeling from Rae’s death. I ached for closeness with someone and Riley had been there though it all. But then he’d left.

I almost wished he hadn’t come at all.

‘What happened?’