The Charmed Life of Alex Moore by Molly Flatt

Author:Molly Flatt [Flatt, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781509854554
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
Published: 2018-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

14

‘Alex Moore. You are a terrible person.’

‘I . . .’

‘I’m joking!’ Mae laughed. ‘I just meant you never called.’

Oh God. She had to tell her. She couldn’t hide from Mae.

‘Al?’

Weaving between the early-evening revellers on Dean Street, Alex tried to imagine what Mae would say. But Mae was firmly on the non-fiction-and-documentary end of the imagination scale. She would insist on getting health services involved, in seeking out ‘practical help’ that would be anything but. And knowing, even if she didn’t believe it, might put her in danger – whatever Taran had said. Alex wouldn’t put anything past Iain’s ‘scrupulous security’, especially with MacBrian calling the shots. Perhaps literally. She glanced around her, but there were too many black-haired people, too many pale complexions, too many watchful pairs of eyes.

‘Alex? I was joking. Are you there? Are you okay?’

More pretending, then. Ignore the ache in your head and the shake in your hands and the terrible weight in your heart. As Chloe would say, act like the person you want to be. Act like someone for whom consciousness is nothing but a fuzzy psychological concept. Breathe deep. Smile.

‘Sorry, sorry, yes. My signal cut out.’

‘Good. I thought you’d hung up on me for a moment there.’ A pause. ‘Well, I’ve just got my impossible son to bed and poured myself an enormous glass of wine. How are you?’

Alex imagined Bo in his cot, fat cheek squashed against the mattress, and Mae, curled on her toy-strewn sofa, downing Merlot. No. Stop. Breathe deep. Smile. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I had to go away, to collaborate on a research project. Last-minute thing.’

‘Yes, Harry told me. Guernsey, was it?’

‘Harry? Why were you talking to Harry?’

‘Oh, he – he wanted to know if I’d heard from you. To be honest, I think he was on one of his, um, jealousy crusades. He said you weren’t answering any of his calls.’ A pause. ‘So . . .’

‘So what?’

‘So did you?’

‘Did I what?’ She clipped shoulders with a woman talking on a mobile.

‘Hook up with someone out there?’

Alex ground to a halt. The plea in Finn MacEgan’s voice when he’d told her not to trust MacBrian. The desperation on his face as Iain had wrestled him back through the door. Had he really wanted to hurt her, or simply to scare her into telling him why she had done what she had done? Wouldn’t she shoot someone without a second thought, if she found out they had hurt her dad?

A young couple split around her. Alex started moving again. ‘Of course not. My phone broke, that’s all. To tell you the truth, most of them were pretty hostile.’

‘Ah, well. Dickheads. Their loss.’ Another pause. ‘You haven’t seen him yet, then?’

‘Who?

‘Harry.’

‘No. I’m seeing him tomorrow for dinner. Why?’

‘Oh, nothing. No reason. I’m just – I’m glad to hear from you.’ Another pause. ‘I was a bit worried about you, after our last conversation, Al. You seemed . . . not quite yourself.’

‘I wasn’t,’ Alex said quietly. ‘I mean, I’m not.

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