The Liberation of Alice Love - Abby McDonald [72]
“Alice?” Saskia’s voice suddenly sounded through the intercom, bored. “I can’t read any of these cover sheets, the ink’s all smudged. You need to come redo them.”
Alice gazed another moment at the idyllic foreign scene before placing the card aside. The rain drummed against her window, and her feet made an unpleasant squelch as she slipped them back into her damp shoes. Yes, she sighed with resignation. This was going to be one of those days—she could just feel it.
***
By lunchtime, she hadn’t revised her judgment. Or, at least, by what should have been her lunchtime: it was half past two, and Alice was so buried under paperwork and “urgent” letters that she had yet to leave her desk. She’d found half an uneaten cereal bar in the dark crevices of her bag, but that small sustenance aside, she was growing hungrier by the minute and decidedly irritable.
Her phone rang again, and she snatched it up. The credit companies had evidently outsourced to another, even more aggressive collection agency, which had been calling every twenty minutes since the start of the day. “I’ve told you already,” she began, angry. “The police are dealing with it, and my solicitor has been in touch!”
“Whoa, calm down, Aly.” Julian’s voice was taken aback.
“Oh, sorry.” She exhaled. “They’ve been badgering me all morning. I’ve had it up to here.”
“Can’t you take the phone off the hook?”
“No, I get real calls on this line too.” Alice gazed longingly at a banner advertisement for McDonald’s that had appeared on her screen. And she didn’t even like McDonald’s. She dragged her eyes away. “So, how are you?”
“I’m great.” Julian sounded relaxed enough, but then he’d probably eaten more than a handful of grapes in the past eighteen hours. “And I’ve got some good news. Yasmin’s managed to wrangle up those festival tickets, some sponsorship thing with her company.”
“Which tickets?” Alice was confused.
“For the literary festival, next weekend?” Julian reminded her. “Remember, we were saying how much fun it would be?”
Alice had no such memory, but the idea of spending a full weekend with Julian and Yasmin gave her plenty of pause. “She got tickets for me, too?” Alice managed to keep the surprise out of her voice. Well, most of it.
“Well,” Julian hesitated. “Actually, she could only swing the pair, but there were still some available online, so I got the extra.”
“Julian…”
“I know what you’re thinking, but we won’t be roughing it,” he reassured her quickly, as if tents and sleeping bags were her only concern. “She booked a hotel nearby and worked out the train schedule. You won’t have to lift a finger to organize anything. Won’t that be a change?”
Alice sighed. Somehow, the usually intuitive Julian was managing to remain utterly oblivious. “Have you told Yasmin about inviting me?” she tried.
“Of course.”
“And is it all right with her?”
There was the smallest pause. “Sure,” Julian insisted. “‘The more the merrier,’ she said.”
“Right.” Alice couldn’t imagine Yasmin ever saying those words, let alone meaning them. She sighed again, but this time with more impatience than bemusement. “Well, I’m sorry. You should have checked before booking everything. I don’t think I should come.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’ll pass on it this time.” Alice checked her cardigan, hung up to dry along the radiator. Still damp. “But you two should have a great time.”
“I don’t understand, I already booked the ticket.” To her surprise, Julian sounded annoyed. “Come on, Aly, it’ll be fun.”
“Thanks, but no.” She said it firmly, wondering where he got it in his head to think of the cozy trip at all. She, him, and Yasmin, playing cards together on the train down? It wasn’t the most attractive of invitations, surely he could see.
“What’s the problem?” Julian’s voice rose a notch. “I thought you’d like it, I planned everything as a surprise.”
“I thought you said Yasmin planned it all,” Alice pointed out.
“But it was my idea, as a special treat for you. Something fun, after all this stress you’ve been under.”
“That’s sweet.” Alice tried