by Lynsey James
‘Me too honey, me too. Oh my, I can’t believe I’m going to see Leo Browning again!’
Her breath caught in her throat and she had to sit down on the bed for a moment.
‘Mom, are you OK?’ Carolyn asked, putting an arm round her shoulders.
‘Yeah darling, I’m just fine.’
‘I’ll go and grab some water for the car ride; Ava, do you want anything?’
A million things, I thought, but none of them come from a hospital canteen.
‘I wanna show you something, honey.’
Ivy picked up her hospital bag and pulled out a wad of envelopes held together with a rubber band. The ones I could see bore a distinctive British postmark in the top corner.
‘What are those?’
‘These are the love letters that Leo wrote me after he went back to England. My momma hid ‘em all, didn’t want me getting attached to him again. Just before she died, she gave ‘em to me and told me she was sorry. Here, take a look at ‘em.’
I pulled out the first one and unfurled it.
31st August 1964
Dear Ivy,
I am writing this letter because I will soon be far away from here and I cannot leave without letting you know what’s in my heart.
My dear Ivy, you must know that you’re my soulmate. The very thought of you makes my world spin out of control. Were circumstances different, we would be together forever, never spending a single moment apart. We would have the beautiful English cottage you wanted with roses round the door and a garden for our children to play in. We would have the life we always dreamt of. However, it seems this is not to be. I must leave in order to take over my father’s business. Please be assured Ivy, that I will not rest until we are reunited. I will picture your beautiful skin, your ruby red lips and your raven black hair. I will count each second until I am able to stare into your beautiful brown eyes, where I see my entire future. Until then, please think of me and hold a place for me in your heart.
Love always,
Leo
‘Wow,’ I breathed. ‘He really loved you.’
She nodded a little wistfully then shot me her signature smile.
‘I’m showing you these because I want you to have faith, Ava. Sometimes there can be love after the letters.’
Ivy got up again, adjusted the silver wig she’d bought especially for that day and walked out into the corridor. She looked absolutely beautiful, if a little frailer than when I’d first met her. For meeting Leo, she’d chosen a lovely purple maxi skirt, a white blouse and a purple shawl. Although she wasn’t too steady on her feet, she looked simply majestic as she walked to my car. Every fibre of me hoped today went well for her. It would be a welcome boost for her after everything she’d been through.
***
We got there in plenty of time. Ivy, Carolyn and I stood on the pavement outside Leo’s house for ten minutes while she prepared herself.
‘Now are you sure my hair’s OK? You’d tell me if it wasn’t, right?’
Carolyn rolled her eyes and smiled then put an arm round her mum’s shoulders.
‘You look great Mom; just relax OK? He’ll be delighted to see you again, right Ava?’
I nodded and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. ‘Carolyn’s right; you look lovely and Leo will think so too. Are you ready to go in?’
Ivy was obviously playing for time and started fiddling with her shawl and fixing her skirt.
‘Damn things never sit right,’ she muttered.
‘You’ve got nothing to worry about,’ I assured her. ‘Honestly, you look incredible and Leo will be so happy to see you.’
‘What if he isn’t? What if he takes one look at me and sees a silly old fool who’s just trying to dredge up the past?’ She pursed her lips and looked from us to Leo’s front door and back again.
I put my arm around her shoulder and we started walking to the door, Carolyn following close behind.
‘Why would he think that? He agreed to see you, didn’t he? Stop worrying, everything will be great.’
Ivy stopped and stared at me, cocking her head to one side.
‘You’re missing someone, aren’t you honey?’
I frowned. ‘Nah don’t be silly! I made up with Max last week; we’re friends again so everything’s fine.’
‘So why don’t I believe you?’ she asked after knocking on the door.
Before I could answer, Dr Browning came to the door. His face broke out into a smile when he saw us.
‘Ava, lovely to see you again!’ He stood aside to let us in and hugged me as I walked into the hall.
‘You must be the famous Ivy St Clair,’ he said with a warm grin. ‘I’ve heard so much about you.’
‘All good, I hope!’
‘The best.’
He embraced her then Carolyn and led us through to a large living room. Light flooded in from the bay window at the front of the room and it was tastefully decorated with cream paint and wooden floors.
‘Dad’s in the conservatory, do you want to come on through?’ asked Ian.
‘Ivy, do you want me and Carolyn to come with you?’
She nodded and we agreed to stand in the doorway while she went to see Leo. We walked past the exposed brick walls of the kitchen and through to a light, bright conservatory that looked onto the huge expanse of garden.
I saw him sitting in a chair, cross-legged and reading what looked like a James Patterson book. His spray of white hair stuck up in all directions and his thick-framed glasses made him look a little bit like Albert Einstein.
‘Dad, this is Ivy St Clair. She’s an old friend of yours, remember?’
Leo’s eyes rose from the pages of his book and immediately lit up when they saw Ivy. He slowly rose out of his chair and adjusted his glasses, just in case his eyes had made a terrible mistake.
‘It’s… it’s really you, isn’t it? After all these years.’ His voice cracked and broke with emotion as he took tentative steps towards her. ‘I’ve never forgotten you, you know.’
‘Leo, I’ve never, ever forgotten you either.’
They reached each other and hugged like they never wanted to let go. Fifty years might have passed, I thought, but the love between them was still as strong as ever.
‘I didn’t think you’d recognise me, it’s been such a long time!’ she said when they parted.
His mouth creased into a grin. ‘Are you joking? I’d know that beautiful smile anywhere!’
They spent the rest of the morning catching up and swapping stories. To look at them, it was as though they’d never been apart.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dad this happy,’ Ian admitted as we watched them from the kitchen.
Ivy suddenly erupted into a fit of laughter at something Leo had said. Tears streamed down her face and she looked truly happy.
‘Love’s got a habit of creeping up on you when you’re not looking,’ I replied. As I watched them thrive in each other’s company, I felt unadulterated joy. Today marked the start of something beautiful for them both.
I dropped Ivy and Carolyn off at the hospital around lunchtime. She and Leo had promised to keep in touch and had even made plans to go to a Christmas dance at the senior citizens’ centre next week. In between their catching up, I’d managed to do a quick interview with Leo. He was a clever, funny man who was obviously head-over-heels in love with Ivy.
‘Ava, I don’t know how I can possibly thank you for today. Seeing him again, it just… it made me feel alive for the first time in a while. You’ll never know how much this means to me.’ A little tear formed at the corner of Ivy’s eye but she elegantly wiped it away.
Carolyn put a hand on my shoulder. ‘You’ve made my mom so happy, thank you so much!’
I felt more than a little choked up to know I’d made such a difference to Ivy and Carolyn’s lives. They’d been through a rough time recently and reuniting Ivy with Leo had proved to be an excellent boost for them both.
‘It was nothing
, really,’ I replied, trying not to well up myself. ‘You hold onto him, OK?’
She nodded and, as I drove away, I knew she would. Nothing would part her and Leo now.
I got to the Sleek offices a short while later, ready to write my story on Ivy and Leo. The reunion provided a great pay-off for the end of the article and I’d got some great snaps of them on my phone. This was hopefully going to knock spots off of Maddie’s “modern Cinderella story”, which was essentially all about her bagging a footballer and marrying him.
‘Ah Ava, still working on that little thing about the two old people being reunited?’ That sneer could only have come from one person. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw Miranda towering over my desk, a plastic red-lipped smile stuck to her face.
‘Yeah, it’s nearly finished now. I’ve just got to…’
‘Yeah, about that; Paddy’s had a think and he’s going to pick Maddie’s Cinderella story for the front cover. There won’t be a competition any more.’
‘What do you mean? How can he decide hers is the best when he hasn’t even looked at mine yet?’
‘He just felt hers was a better fit for the magazine, that’s all. It happens love, just get over it.’
‘But I’ve done all this work! It’s taken me ages to do interviews with them both, get them to meet and find out about their backgrounds! Can’t he just let me write it and…?’
‘No.’ Miranda turned on her heel and scuttled towards the back of the room.
My blood boiled. I was writing about true love that had lasted over fifty years with a separation of over three thousand miles and Maddie was writing her typical self-indulgent crap, yet she was going to be chosen? It wasn’t fair.
After allowing my feelings to stew over a cup of tea, I went to Paddy’s office and banged on the door. It attracted some funny looks from the horoscopes people but I wasn’t bothered about them.
‘C-come in!’
Huh, that was strange. I’d never heard Paddy sound flustered before; his voice was a lot higher than usual.
I went in and almost had a heart attack when an unidentified voice yelled ‘OWWW!’
‘Have I come at a bad time?’
‘No, no, what can I do for you, M… Ava?’
I tried to ignore the fact that Paddy was still struggling with my name. Maybe I just wasn’t the type of employee he noticed.
‘I wanted to talk to you about the competition thing…’
Before I could elaborate any further, there came a loud bang from under the desk and another loud ‘OWWW!’
This time, I recognised the voice. ‘Hi Miranda.’
She sheepishly crawled out from underneath Paddy’s desk; some strawberry blonde corkscrew curls were stuck to her face and her cheeks were very flushed.
‘Hello Ava.’
‘Thought you pair would’ve learned your lesson after last time!’ I couldn’t help but laugh; they looked completely ridiculous. ‘You’re like a couple of horny teenagers!’
Miranda’s mouth disappeared into a stern line as she fixed herself. A corner of her skirt was caught in her tights and her lipstick was smudged all across her face.
‘When you’re done making fun of us, perhaps you could tell us what you want?!’ she said tartly.
‘Oh yeah… Paddy, about the competition thing; Miranda told me you’ve already chosen Maddie’s and I just came to ask you to hold off choosing until you read mine. It’ll be done today and I promise you you’ll love it. It’s a really nice story…’
‘Yes, it’s a “nice story” that doesn’t belong in our magazine. Our readership won’t care about two people being reunited after fifty years,’ Paddy replied.
‘So everything you said about it being an “original idea that would work well”, that was just bullshit? Some crappy platitude to make me keep my mouth shut about you and her?’
I felt tears well up at the back of my eyes. I’d completely failed Ivy and Leo; I’d promised them their story would be told and now it wouldn’t be. Totally disgusted with both of them, I headed for the door.
‘Ava… you will still keep quiet about us, won’t you? I’d hate it to get round the office. W-we want to keep it a secret because things are new between us…’ For the first time ever, I saw Miranda blush.
‘So it’s nothing to do with the fact you could both lose your jobs? Relationships between senior members of staff don’t go down well with the publishing group.’
Miranda looked at the floor, like she was about to cry. With just one silly mistake, all her power had been taken away from her. She no longer had any hold over me.
‘You don’t understand,’ she said. ‘It might’ve started out as a…casual arrangement, but we love each other. It’s turned into something we never expected, surely you can understand that?’
One look at Paddy confirmed she was telling the truth. I almost felt bad for them.
‘What are you going to do?’ Miranda asked.
I shrugged and put my hand on the door handle.
‘Y-you can still enter the contest if you come up with a new idea!’ Paddy sounded really desperate, almost on the verge of tears.
I ignored them both and walked out onto the office floor. They’d tricked me into thinking my quirky Valentine’s story had a chance, so no way was I about to show them any loyalty.
Chapter 26
Christmas came early for the Sleek staff as Paddy decided to shut the office a few days earlier than usual. Since I’d burst in on him and Miranda for the second time, he’d been eerily generous and kind to everyone. He bought everyone coffees on a particularly cold morning, sent out to a sandwich place for lunch and let us play Christmas music even though he hated it.
‘Wonder what’s come over him?’ Fran asked on our final day before breaking off on holiday. ‘God knows he’s got no festive spirit!’
‘Tell me about it; maybe he’s just had some Christmas magic sprinkled over him recently.’
I eyed him knowingly as he gave out packets of gingerbread Christmas trees to everyone. When his eyes met mine, he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
‘Well whatever it is, I hope it bloody lasts!’
Fran was about to take a sip of her coffee when her phone rang. She went out to the lobby to answer it.
Paddy stopped by my desk and gave me four packets of biscuits.
‘One’s enough, thanks.’ I kept one back for Fran and gave him the extra two.
‘Come on now Ava, I’m just trying to be nice!’
‘Well don’t. It’s a bit creepy to be honest.’
Paddy forced himself to smile. ‘Have you, er, come up with a new idea for the contest yet?’
‘Nope.’ That was a lie; I’d thought more and more about using my own experiences with Mr Writer but I was too stubborn to admit it. ‘I want to tell Ivy and Leo’s story; if you don’t want it then another magazine will.’
Paddy sighed heavily and muttered something about me “twisting the knife” as he walked away.
I didn’t have much time to dwell on that, however, as Fran ran into the office in tears.
‘What is it?’ I asked, leaping out of my chair.
‘I-it’s Ryan…!’ Her long, lithe frame crumpled into a heap on the floor as she loudly wept.
‘Oh God, has he been in an accident or something?’ I crouched down beside her and proffered some Christmassy gingerbread biscuits. This didn’t seem to help and made her cry louder.
‘I bloody wish! He’s cleared out the savings account we had for the wedding and fucked off to Vegas with a hairdresser called Colleen!’
My mouth dropped open and I tried to quickly formulate some appropriate response about him being a swine who didn’t deserve her. Unfortunately, my brain had gone blank.
‘Oh no, Fran… I-I can’t believe it, when did this happen?’
‘Today apparently! He’s been having it off with Colleen for the last six months, which is why he wouldn’t set a date. Then they broke it off for a bit, so h
e did set a date but now everything’s back on and they’re off to Vegas with my money!’
She took her engagement ring off and threw it out of the open window.
‘Fuck men, I’m done with them!’ She folded her arms and sat like a petulant child who’d dropped their ice cream.
‘Listen to me, Fran Robertson. You’re a beautiful, funny and strong woman and you can do a hundred – make that a million – times better than Ryan.’
‘Yeah right!’ She wiped her eyes and I could see a hint of a smile on her lips.
‘I’m telling the truth! It might not feel like it now but you’ll meet someone who’ll completely sweep you off your feet and it’ll be like “Ryan who?” I promise.’
‘Easy for you to say, Miss I’ve-Got-a-Secret-Admirer! You haven’t had your heart ripped out and stepped on, you’ve just had loads of amazing letters.’
Ouch, that hurt. I hadn’t told Fran about everything with Max and Mr Writer; I felt like the fewer people who knew, the better. I still hadn’t worked out my feelings about it all so I wasn’t in a sharing mood.
‘Yeah, well… There’s downsides to having a secret admirer, Fran.’
She scoffed. ‘Oh yeah, like what?’
‘Like you always wonder why he doesn’t just come forward and tell you who he is, you worry he’s someone’s idea of a joke and as lovely as the letters are, I’d still prefer to have his arms around me of an evening.’
‘Better than having someone you love break your heart though, right? That’s what’s happened to me.’
‘I know what that’s like too. Remember Dave?’ My voice had gone all small and meek because I’d mentioned his name. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was still hurting over what he’d done.
‘Oh yeah, sorry babe. OK, so I guess there are some downsides to having a totally amazing secret admirer!’ Fran giggled and took a bite of a gingerbread Christmas tree.
Yeah but there’s one I didn’t mention. The admirer might turn out to be your best friend and you might possibly find yourself falling in love with him.
Oh shit, I thought, I’m in love with Max.
***
Christmas Day was quite a nice affair, all in all. Gwen, Max and I went back to our respective homes for the big day (namely because even the chef of the group struggled to cook a good roast turkey). Unfortunately, we’d spent Christmas Eve playing drinking games with a bottle of sambuca so I couldn’t really enjoy my mum’s amazing Christmas dinner. Boring Brian did though; he had four helpings!