‘Damn, his phone must be dead,’ she said, placing a glass of fresh orange juice in front of me.
‘Thanks.’ I smiled. A pang of empathy crossed my chest as Jamie paced the kitchen floor. I’d been met with Sam’s answerphone a thousand times before when he was lost in the depths of Nottingham’s A&E. ‘I’m sure nothing’s the matter.’
‘It’s not that, J.’ Jamie had adopted Sam’s nickname for me by proxy. Each time she said it, it made me feel just a little bit worse. ‘He’s surfing but we’re supposed to be meeting our sommelier for the wedding later. He was going to go straight there and I’ve just got called into work. He never checks his phone.’
I nodded in sympathy. She was right. He didn’t. I’d had no end of evenings waiting with two place settings and a cold dinner while Sam worked. But what could either of us say? I know I didn’t want a doctor boyfriend who left someone dying because he was dying to see me. I would have thought Jamie of all people would understand. Sam used to say I would too if I had his job. Jamie placed her left hand to her forehead, blinding me with her rock. I could see why she didn’t wear it all the time; she’d have one arm muscle bigger than the other.
‘J?’ She paused, as if weighing up whether this was a good idea or not. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. Maybe I wasn’t the only one keeping secrets? I looked down at my drink, preparing myself for whatever she was going to say next.
‘You don’t think you could… go instead, do you?’
I looked up from my orange juice. Huh? Go where, with who?
‘You wouldn’t have to go for long, I just don’t want him to wait and worry when I don’t turn up.’ She began to pace again. ‘God, if only he’d charged his phone for once. They’re called mobiles for a reason!’
I looked at Jamie, worry lines etched around her eyes. Had they always been there? I forced my blurry eyes to look a little closer, trying to work out whether I was the cause of them or whether my jealousy of her had clouded any imperfections that had already been there when we’d first met. Right now I didn’t want to think about it. All I wanted was to bask in that sunrise, to prolong the moment of knowing I was exactly where I needed to be.
‘You want me to go meet Sam and this sommelier?’ I had heard the term before but couldn’t conjure a picture in my mind. Jamie stopped pacing to look down at her phone.
‘Yeah but only for a bit. You don’t have to try all the wines, if you don’t wan—’
‘Wine?’ I interrupted; I couldn’t hack pancakes, but hair of the dog was the oldest hangover cure in the book – that much I’d learnt from Devon. And a post-surf Sam had always been refreshing. And for some bizarre reason I felt like I was doing Jamie a favour. I had no idea how long this high was going to last but after all the lows of the last few years, I was sure as hell going to ride it.
‘I’ve got the day off today, it’s no bother,’ I said, wondering for the umpteenth time why being around her made me say things like ‘no bother’ and ‘quite the day’. Jamie didn’t seem to notice, too occupied with staring down at her blank screen. ‘I’ll go and meet him, tell him you’ve been called into work and maybe try a few wines for you. I’ve had… some experience in that department.’ It was true; of all of the things I was good at, wine was up there. ‘It would be my pleasure.’ I hoped she didn’t know how true that was. The truth was, she had had me at ‘Sam’. I had to find out what last night meant, what all of this meant, what would happen next.
‘Thanks.’ Jamie smiled, her stance softening as she moved across the room to embrace me before half running towards the doorway to get her scrubs on. Before she disappeared, she turned. ‘You’re a real saviour, Jess.’
Walking into The Argyle to meet Sam felt like a dream, perhaps because of all the residual champagne in my system, but most probably because of its iconic building: an 1820s style warehouse, all exposed brick and cobbled floors, nestled into the heart of The Rocks. Donning my shades, I navigated my way across the sandstone courtyard, through the impressive high archways and across the timber floor, all in last night’s designer heels. With little time to get ready, I had thrown on the same sky-blue dress as yesterday morning, managing to look a lot better than I felt, which, right now, wasn’t saying a lot.
After last night, the thought of adding more alcohol to the mix between Sam and I felt dangerous and desirable all at the same time – but this week was about taking risks. A handful of hipsters looked up from their drinks as I tottered by, finally feeling the part. Others sauntered up one of two wooden staircases that disappeared out of sight. Jamie had told me to stay on the ground floor. Coming to stand by one of the restaurant’s many bars, I pulled up a high stool and looked up to the beamed ceiling and smiled; it was so romantic. All I had to do was wait. It was something I’d got pretty used to doing, but somehow it felt like the end was now in sight.
‘Can I get you a drink?’ An impeccably well-dressed woman behind the bar asked, as I peered back through my sunglasses.
‘No, that’s okay, I’m waiting for my boy—’ I paused. ‘Friend.’
‘No worries.’ She smiled. And there weren’t any. Sam thought he was coming to meet a stressed-out Jamie and instead he had me. Just like how last night’s admin had made way to Sam joining me at the gallery. This was another perfect opportunity to show him how carefree, fun-loving and undeniably perfect for him I could be, and the universe was now doling them out for free. My long overdue payback. Even though I was still struggling to remember scraps of last night, I knew I’d finally become the kind of ambitious professional he’d always hoped I’d be. Someone with their shit together, someone like…
‘Filling in for Jamie?’
Not again. Sure enough, I turned to see the bearded face of Joshua beam out from behind his own set of Wayfarers. I’m not sure how I was still surprised by these run-ins.
‘Filling in for Sam?’ I asked, not wanting to know the answer.
‘Yeah, his phone died but he needed to go and meet someone from church. He asked me to come and tell Jamie.’
He wasn’t coming. Again. I wondered if he had known it was me who was waiting for him, whether the result would have been any different.
‘Oh well, no harm done,’ I said. ‘Should we get back then?’ I felt silly and overdressed and ready to just go home. My headache was really starting to kick in, stale wine now swirling in my stomach. Maybe I could continue to ride my exhibition high after a really, really long sleep? Joshua looked my sundress up and down, the same way he had over the breakfast table yesterday, and smiled.
‘Looking like that?’ He pulled out a stool beside mine and sat down. ‘Hell, no.’
‘But I…’ I began, looking around the room for a reason to excuse myself.
‘Excuse me?’ Joshua took off his Ray-Bans and gestured to the barmaid. ‘Myself and my fiancée are here for our wine-tasting.’ He looked over to me and smiled. ‘Sam.’ He extended a hand, which the woman behind the bar simply ignored. ‘And this is my fiancée, Jamie.’