The Garden of Magic by Sarah Painter

Author:Sarah Painter [Painter, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781474044882
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Bex was working on her CV when her phone buzzed. It was a text from Jon.

Film night?

She pressed the call button to speak to him. ‘Didn’t we do that on Tuesday?’

‘You think we’re in a rut?’ Bex could hear the smile in his voice. ‘I’m still taking your mind off your troubles.’

It was a bad idea, Bex knew, but her mouth overruled her brain. ‘What time?’

All the way to Jon’s house, Bex rationalised her bad decision. They were friends. More than that; Jon was her best friend. It wasn’t late, which meant his housemate, Ben, would be around and he could sit in-between them on the sofa. Make it seem less like a date.

Bex knew that spending the evening with Jon was flying in the face of operation ‘get over him and get a new life’, but she shoved that knowledge down and paused in front of a shop window to take her hair out of its ponytail and brush it over her shoulders. In defiance of the sensible voice which was telling her, quite insistently, that she ought to turn around and go home, Bex added a slick of tinted lip balm to her lips before knocking on Jon’s door.

‘I’ve been cooking,’ Jon said. He had a checked tea towel slung over one shoulder. ‘It’s supposed to be a nice surprise, but I’m not sure –’ He broke off, his mouth twisting. ‘Put it this way. I hope you’ve already eaten.’

‘I’ve eaten,’ Bex said. Four bowls of cereal and half a loaf of bread.

‘That’s a relief,’ Jon said. ‘I’ll just go and dispose of the evidence.’ He disappeared back into the kitchen and Bex heard the sound of a plate being scraped into the bin.

‘When’s Ben back?’ His mountain bike had been missing from the hall.

‘Oh, he’s staying out tonight,’ Jon called back.

Bex ignored the treacherous flair of excitement and joined Jon in the kitchen. ‘He’s missing film night, again? You did invite him, right?’

‘He’s busy,’ Jon said, opening the fridge and getting two beers. ‘You know Ben.’

Not really, Bex thought. Jon’s housemate was more elusive than the yeti. ‘Does he hate me, or something?’

Jon had a funny look on his face when he said ‘No, of course not’, which made Bex think the real answer was ‘Yes, he finds you deeply irritating. Soon, I will have to choose between you and you will come off worse; after all, I live with Ben.’ It was a lot to get from one funny look, but Bex was highly trained at deconstructing and decoding Jon’s every move, word, smile and gesture.

‘I’ve got the perfect thing to take your mind off things,’ Jon said, clinking his bottle against hers. ‘Cheers.’

‘Cheers,’ Bex said, trailing back to the living room.

‘I got this.’ He held up a DVD case and Bex let out an involuntary squeak of excitement. It was Walk the Line. They’d both been looking forward to seeing it after missing it in the cinema and Bex had watched Reese Witherspoon pick up her Oscar for her performance with great delight.

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