Page 79 of The Breakup Bookshop

‘Your flat.’

Bingo! I want to cheer out loud as I finally find the keys. I push one into the front door, but it’s stiff. I give it a shuffle but end up shaking them out of the door again. I close one eye, staring at the lock.

‘Have you been getting this pissed here every night? That text. You sent me that when you were pissed, didn’t you? At half one in the morning.’

‘The one you didn’t bother replying to?’ I say indignantly, as he moves in front of me and turns the key in the lock.

‘There you go.’ He stands back to let me walk in front of him. Into my own house. The twat.

‘Fine, bring me my stuff, dump it in the bookshop and go. Please.’

‘It’s after midnight,’ he points out.

‘Great to hear you can still tell the time. Well done.’

‘Where am I going to go?’

‘Seb!’ I turn around to face him. He stands in the doorway, giving me his best puppy dog eyes. ‘I don’t care where you go. I didn’t invite you here.’

‘Just give me a second,’ he says, rushing back outside to the car.

I flick my shoes off and they tumble into the corner, stopping with a thump.

Fuck this. Fuck Seb.

I don’t need his shit.

He returns to the front door clutching a book. I recognize it straight away – my granny’s cookbook. The one I thought I’d lost in the move. My heart swells at the sight of it.

‘I saw the news interview,’ he says. ‘There was a closeup of your granny’s recipes displayed in your bookshop. Then I remembered you’d left this in the cupboard. I’m pretty sure it was your granny’s too?’

I take the book from his outstretched hand. ‘You turn up here at midnight to give me a book?’

He shrugs. ‘Thought you’d like it.’

I hug the book close to my chest and inhale the scent of the pages.

He speaks again, more softly this time. ‘I wanted to see you. I want to apologize.’

I fold my arms across my chest. ‘Why now? It’s been months. I was living in your flat for days after the little show you put on with Macy and you didn’t come once to apologize. You had a key. You could have come whenever you wanted. Wait, did Macy dump you?’

He blinks twice, as if astounded at the suggestion. ‘No. If you must know, I broke things off with her. It’s you I want, Ava.’

I pull myself up to sit on the till area. The memory of the time I was hoisted up here by Rory flickers through my mind. It’s past midnight at the wedding too. I wonder what Rory’s doing. Is he toasting his friend’s marriage with a few drams at the bar? Is he spinning Elle around on the dance floor?

I shake my head.

‘So you and Macy aren’t together?’ I demand, crossing my leg over the other.

‘No, that was all just a stupid mistake.’ He releases a dismissive sigh, as though we’ve already talked about it a million times. ‘It was never going to be a real thing.’

My heart thumps in my chest as tears suddenly spring to my eyes as I think of my friend. My best friend. ‘I don’t want to hear that, Seb.’

‘Seriously?’ He frowns. ‘I thought that’s exactly what you’d want to hear.’

‘What, that you and Macy threw away everything we had for nothing? I’d rather you lived happily ever after. At least then there would have been a point to the whole thing.’

‘I’m sorry to disappoint,’ he says. ‘Look, I drove all the way up here to the fuck-all of nowhere to speak to you, in my BMW, which I never drive long-distance, as you know. I want us to try again.’