Vince and Joy (53 page)

But here she was again. The third time she’d come back into his life since Hunstanton. Maybe it was too much of a coincidence to be purely a coincidence. Maybe Cass had been right all those years ago. Maybe the girls had been right at dinner a few weeks earlier. Maybe he did deserve to end up alone and unloved if he didn’t ‘do the right thing’.

‘Here, look.’ Bella started ferreting around in her handbag and brought out a notepad with a pony-skin cover and a ballpoint pen. ‘I’ll give you her address. Eight o’clock, but don’t worry if you’re late.’ She tore a page from the pad and handed it to Vince. ‘Ooh, look, finally,’ she said as she glanced up at the monitors, ‘my bags have arrived. Anyway. You go home and think about it. But for what it’s worth, I really really think you should come. Seriously.’ She squeezed his fist with her hand and adjusted her shoulder bag. ‘See you later!’ She waved and trotted off towards the baggage reclaim hall.

Vince stood and watched her go.

He still didn’t know what to do.

He folded the piece of paper into a square and slid it into his jacket pocket.

He’d wait until he got home. And then he’d decide.

‘Red or white?’ Joy shouted into the living room.

‘White, please,’ Bella called back.

‘Jules?’

‘Whatever’s easiest for you.’

‘Mick?’

‘I’m easy’

Joy poured Pinot Grigio generously into three wine glasses and brought them through to her guests.

‘Look at the bloody colour of you,’ she said, pointing at Bella. ‘Sickening.’

Bella smiled. ‘And I
am
this colour
all over
– in case you were wondering. Every inch of me.’

‘So, did you meet anyone?’

‘No. Not really. Not in that way. But, I did meet
someone.
A man. At the airport…’

‘Oh, yes…’

‘No. Not a
man
man. A friend of yours,’ she glanced at Joy. ‘A blast from your past.’

‘Oh, my God – who?’

‘Someone tall and handsome. Someone who’s just getting divorced from his wife. Someone who I gave your address to.’

‘You gave my address to someone you met at the airport? Bella – that’s terrible.’

‘No. It’s not. I invited him for dinner – and if he turns
up I can assure you you won’t think it’s terrible at all.’

‘Oh, God, Bella – who is it? You have to tell me.’

‘No. It’s a surprise.’

‘But what if he doesn’t come?’

‘Then we’ll never mention it again.’

‘Nooo!’Joy howled in protest, ‘Bella. You can’t do this to me!’

‘Yes, I can,’ she said, crossing her legs primly. ‘But I wouldn’t worry about it. Because he’ll definitely turn up. I know he will.’

‘Give me a clue.’

‘No.’

‘Oh, please.’

‘No.’

‘Oh. God. Do I look all right?’ Joy bounced to her feet to examine herself in the mirror.

‘You look stunning. Now sit down and relax.’

‘Relax? How the hell do you expect me to relax after what you’ve just told me?’

Joy sat down, then jumped to her feet again as a terrible thought struck her. ‘It’s not George, is it?’ Even now, three years after leaving George, Joy still had regular nightmares in which she found herself in a church or chapel, about to marry George again in the full, dreadful knowledge of the fate that awaited her.

‘No, of course it’s not
George.
Now just stop talking about it and get on with cooking our dinner.’

Joy scuttled obediently back into the kitchen and took a deep breath.

She pulled a packet of fresh sage from the fridge and tore it into pieces absent-mindedly.

She knew who was coming for dinner.

It was Vince.

It couldn’t be anyone else.

She’d had an intense and vivid dream about him last week. She dreamed that they had a little girl and were living somewhere warm in a big, white house. She dreamed that they had long, intense conversations together across a big oak table and ate chocolate cake with marshmallows in it. She dreamed that she’d never felt happier in her life.

She’d felt an intense sadness when she woke up the next morning and realized that it was just a dream. It had felt so real and joyful. It had felt exactly how she wanted her real life to feel and ever since then she’d done nothing but think about Vince.

And the minute Bella had said that just now, about the blast from the past, the tall handsome man at the airport, she’d known it was him. And she also knew that he would come. Because he had to. Because everything else in her life had finally fallen into place. Because the time was right. Because she was ready. Because it was the only thing that made any sense.

She dropped the sage into the risotto and waited for the doorbell to ring.

Vince paid the cab driver and stood in front of Joy’s house for a moment. The front window was framed with white fairy lights and hung with muslin curtains. He could see candlelight flickering within. It was the most welcoming house on the street. If he’d happened to be walking past, it would have caught his eye. He’d have wondered who lived there, what they were doing.

He wondered the same thing of himself.

Chris had persuaded him to come. Told him he’d be as stupid as he looked if he didn’t. And once a man as pragmatic as Chris started rattling on about destiny and fate, Vince decided that maybe it was time for him to start believing, too.

And actually, as he’d ordered himself a minicab from Jess’s mum’s and said good night to Lara, Vince found that each of his actions started to take on a kind of significance, a resonance, like steps in dance. And as the minutes had ticked by in the cab and his destination had neared, Vince had started to get an overwhelming feeling in the pit of his belly that maybe this was right, that maybe this was exactly what he should be doing and exactly the time he should be doing it.

A man walked past him as he stood outside Joy’s house. He was walking a small white dog with brown patches. A dog like the one that he and Joy had stooped to pet
outside the Seavue Holiday Home Park all those years ago. He heard her voice, echoing in his mind. ‘I like people who like dogs,’ she’d said. ‘Never trust a man who doesn’t like dogs. That’s my motto.’

Vince remembered looking down at Joy’s hand where it had touched the dog’s fur, and then he remembered the feeling that had completely taken him by surprise. The sudden, miraculous, magical realization that had totally overwhelmed him.

Do you believe in love at first sight?

He held that feeling tightly to his chest and rang the doorbell.

THE BEGINNING