21 DAYS LATER
Holly had been to the WH Smiths in the airport and was stuffing another few Mars Bars into Nadia’s hand luggage. She knew they were Nadia’s favourite, and Nadia hadn’t had the heart to tell her that she could still get them in Russia. Instead she just kept talking about their plans for Christmas – Holly was going to take two weeks off work and, politics permitting, was going to travel over. So it wouldn’t be too long. It would never be every day, not again, but there was WhatsApp and there was Skype, and there would be sometimes, and they’d love each other just the same.
And then, in the New Year, Caro would have to be next, but judging from the way that she kept dramatically clutching Rory’s hand, hiding her tearful face against his chest, they might be more of a package deal by then. Nadia smiled. That was fine by her; in fact, it was rather convenient. Funny how things work out. When life gets it right, it's its own kind of magic.
As if he’d sensed she was thinking of him, Alex turned away from his conversation with Ledge and smiled at her. It had been a bit of a rush, but in the end someone high up at his office had pulled some strings and the red tape had magically fallen away. And so for now there was a two-year work visa and a job at the British Embassy in Moscow dispensing practical advice and assistance, a job that conveniently came with a tiny little city-centre flat. So, they were exchanging Trafalgar Square for Red Square, and Alex had admitted he was already swotting up on interesting trivia to impress her with. Nadia wondered if anyone ever did any mudlarking on the banks of the Moskva River; she was excited to find out. A whole new city of adventures spread before them, and she intended to make the most of every single one.
Alex shared a secret smile with his girlfriend across the heads of their friends and felt it again, that feeling he’d had since the day he’d read through Miss Nadezhda Osipova’s application form, that he was – for once – exactly where he was supposed to be.
Nadia had cried and cried and asked him over and over again if he was mad, if he was sure, if he loved her enough, and his answers were the most effortless yeses anyone could ever give.
He knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but nothing that worth it ever was. And if life was a path with a hundred directions, then every one of them had led right here.
It would be scary, and it would be hard, sure, the two of them forging one brand-new life, together, but at least Alex could be sure that it was going to be an extraordinary one.