New York Girl (formerly known as Maple Street)

Chapter Twenty Four

It was an unusually sunny January morning, when I was woken up by the sound of the letterbox slamming shut.

I felt like a child on Christmas morning as I searched through the pile of letters hoping to find one with my name on it. And finally there it was - a brown A4 sized envelope staring up at me. I picked it up from the floor, holding it close to my chest. Coffee first – I thought – no! Maybe not coffee that’ll make the palpitations worse – Tea, a nice cup of tea was what I needed. And then I’ll open it.

I walked into the kitchen, flicking the switch on the kettle, I sat down at the table, and placed the envelope in front of me rubbing my palms up and down my legs – it wasn’t long before Mom came in, dressed in a bright pink housecoat, and an eye mask resting on top of her head. ‘You’re up early!’ She said, coming up a little closer, she peered down at me like I was some kind of feral animal. ‘Oh, it’s arrived.’

‘It certainly has.’

‘Open it - I’m dying to know what it says!’

‘I will in a minute.’

‘Come on Dear, I’m sure it’ll be fine.’

Tearing at the corners, my heart thumped like mad as I pulled out the letter. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me as I read the black bold writing, three times to be certain. ‘They signed me.’ I gasped.

Mom grabbed the paper out of my hand. ‘Oh Lucy, it’s a three part too!’

Don’t ask me how I got to standing up, but it was only a matter of seconds before we were both screaming and jumping up and down waking up dad and probably the whole neighbourhood.

But I didn’t care - I was officially a signed author.

That evening I met up with some old school friends for dinner in Pimlico, we decided to meet in Mango’s – a sushi place that Alex and I used to frequent when we first started dating.

The food was of Michelin quality and the service was impeccable.

'Lucy Dahling, we’re over here!’ yelled Tessa, waving at me like a maniac from the far corner of the restaurant.

Embarrassed at the unwanted attention from other diners, I ducked over to her and the gang. ‘Hi Guys!’ I said, plonking myself down next to Camilla – the more reserved of the bunch.

‘Lucy, what the hell happened to you? You’ve lost like a hundred stone!’

‘Gee Tessa, How big was I?’ I whispered.

‘You were never big but jeez Louise, you look like a cricket now!’

‘Come on Tessa, you’re embarrassing the girl.’

‘Oh be quiet and drink your mojito Camilla, I haven’t seen this girl in donkeys!’

Pulling my seat in further, I smiled at Camilla and we both gave each other a knowing look. It was public knowledge within London’s most elite social circle that Tessa was a loud mouth, play – mate wannabe, but her heart was in the right place.

 Twiddling her blonde curly locks in between her thumbs, she glared at me with her dark green eyes. ‘So tell us all about America! Were the guys that hot? Is it really the place dreams are made of? Spill!’

'It was great. I met a lot of people and learned a lot.'

'Oh cut the crap. Get to the juicy parts!’

‘There are no juicy parts – it was quite boring actually, I became home sick after a while.’

Her arms crashed out in front of her. ‘Are you serious?’ she sucked on her straw and the sound drew more attention from the table opposite. ‘I don’t know why you bothered going and please spare the barf fest by kindly not telling me you went to find yourself, okay Luce, I will literally upchuck everywhere.’

‘But that was the reason.’

'Barf alert, barf alert!’

A red headed guy from the other table appeared in front of us. ‘Hi girls, I couldn’t help notice how much fun you were having. Do you mind if I join you?’

‘No! We’re not interested, sorry.’ Tessa snapped.

‘I didn’t mean you, I meant her.’ He said, pointed in my direction.

‘She’s not interested either!’

‘Hold on Tessa, I think I can speak for myself.’

‘What are you saying? You wanna be with some toff when you had a bevy of American beauties for the last few months?’

Leaning over the table, I hid my face with the menu. ‘Stop being so, mean.’

‘Mean? Mean? Lucy, you are a beautiful, successful and might I add published author, you could have your pick of em. It’s all I’m saying.’

‘Fine, I get your point, but still.’ I said, sitting back in my chair. ‘I’m sorry Mister, I’d love to talk with you, but my boyfriend would be far from pleased if he found out.’

‘Sure, I understand.’ His face was tomato red as he walked back to the crowd of jeering friends.

‘That was uncalled for.’

‘Come on, Luce. Let’s not pretend I didn’t just do you a favour.’

We all smiled at one another, each of us knowing it was no use arguing with Tessa, but not before toasting to girl power and all things pink and sparkly.