TOYL

that.’
    ‘It just gets worse. Shit, what time is it?’ He scrambled for his watch.
    ‘Seven o’clock,’ Emma said. ‘You want me to book a taxi?’
    Will rose from the sofa. ‘Already done it, yesterday. It’s due to pick me up in half an hour.’

    ***

    Twenty-five minutes later he stood in the centre of the lounge, holding a travel bag in each hand. It didn’t look enough for a trans-Atlantic trip.
    ‘Well,’ he said, ‘here starts my big adventure.’
    ‘Are you sure about this?’ asked Emma. Will didn’t cut a convincing figure, and she was certain it wasn’t just the hangover that made him look so washed out.
    ‘Sure as I’ll ever be.’ He gave an unconvincing smile.
    ‘Maybe you should stay here,’ she suggested. ‘Get some help, with us to support you.’
    ‘No,’ he said simply, the smile vanishing. ‘I have to do this, Em. I need to get away.’
    ‘But aren’t you just running away from your problems?’
    ‘Maybe I am,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s something I want to do. I think it will help.’
    ‘What will you do over there?’
    ‘I’ve always wanted to see the major sights – you know, Niagara Falls, go up the CN Tower, maybe go to the Canadian Rockies and see some bears.’
    Emma watched as he enthused about Canada and for a moment he actually looked happy and excited. Maybe it was just what he needed.
    ‘And will your friend Stefan be around?’ she asked.
    ‘He said he could take a week off. But he’s got some other friends I can hang around with, too. Don’t worry about me, Em. I’ll be fine.’
    ‘Good,’ Emma said. ‘I’m glad. I just want you to be happy, Will.’

    ***

    ‘I’ll call you when I get to Canada,’ said Will, his head sticking out of the taxi window.
    ‘Make sure you do.’
    ‘I hope everything is okay next week. I know it wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.’
    ‘I’m sure it’ll be okay,’ Emma replied. ‘I’ve just got to get over it.’
    ‘We’ll both come through this, Em. When I get back, we can go out to celebrate our new start.’

    ***

    Emma watched as the taxi drove off. She hoped that Will was right, and that he could somehow cure his demons so far from home. She hoped, too, that they would both be able to make a new start.
    She checked her watch, before heading towards the tube. Hopefully she would catch Lizzy before she left for her rehearsals, and hopefully Lizzy would be fresh and reasonably awake, ready to give advice and support – because if she was going to meet Guy Roberts she would need all the advice and support she could get.

    ***

    Will sat back in the cab’s seat and closed his eyes. His head was spinning ever so slightly, and he prayed that he would keep his breakfast down on the way to the airport. He opened his eyes and watched as London passed by. He didn’t think he would miss it: at least, not at first anyway.
    As the taxi neared Heathrow he gazed skywards as dozens of aeroplanes flew past: just some of the millions who left and arrived every year, each with their own mixture of hopes and dreams, disappointments and fears.
    He wondered whether this really was the start of something new, something better.
    Then his phone rang. The realisation of who was calling crushed his optimism dead.
    ‘What the hell do you want?’ he said, grasping the phone tightly. ‘You said it would be the last time… look, I told you, that’s it, no more… I don’t care what you do. Do whatever you like. Just leave me alone.’
    He cut off the conversation and glanced at the driver. His head was fixed straight ahead, focussing on the road, apparently oblivious to what had just happened. Will considered apologising for the tone of the call, but the cabbie had probably heard much worse than that in his career. Instead he simply turned off his phone and stuffed it into his bag, hoping that what he had just said, and the way he had said it, wouldn’t prove to be his undoing.

31

    Emma’s new start began that afternoon, in a particularly exclusive part of Notting Hill. She’d rarely been to this part of London before, and had certainly never gone there to visit anyone. You had to be seriously wealthy to live in such a place – seriously wealthy, like Guy Roberts.
    She reached his door and rang the bell, thinking back to the advice Lizzy had given her about keeping calm and maintaining control. But as she waited for someone to answer, with the sound of birdsong ringing around her, she felt anything but