When India hobbled into the hotel ten minutes later, Eden and Heidi were doing a terrific job of smoothing over the day with Eunice and Joan, making them comfortable in the room and getting their photos done before India interviewed them. Eden relayed this to India outside the function room, and India almost fell into her arms with gratitude. Eden had always been brilliant, but this was going above and beyond her job description.
“How are they?” India peered over Eden’s shoulder through the slight crack in the door where it wasn’t quite closed. When she caught sight of the couple, she pressed her back against the outer wall of the corridor. “I don’t want them to see me, I need to go to the loo and sort myself out. I probably look a right state.”
Eden shook her head. “You actually look fine, which is more than you feel, I imagine.” She furrowed her brow. “I take it, from the way you took off after Gina, that you weren’t expecting Andi to turn up today and propose?”
India spluttered. No, that was just about the last thing she’d imagined. “It’s a very long story, mainly composed in Andi’s head, but no, I was not expecting that. At all. Andi and I split up months ago. She decided to make a grand gesture. Not brilliant timing when I’ve just started seeing Gina. Suffice to say, Gina did not take it well.”
Eden winced. “I can imagine.” She paused. “Did you catch up with her?”
India nodded. “But she didn’t want to hear what I had to say, and who could blame her?” She glanced down at her feet. They were still bleeding and smarting. “Let me go sort out my feet and my face, then I’ll be with you.” India had some flats in her bag. Hopefully the hotel had some plasters.
Her bag. Oh fuck.
Doom rattled through India like a freight train. “Did you pick up my bag?” Sweat broke out all over her body. If someone had her laptop, phone and wallet, so much damage could be done.
This was all Andi’s fault. She was going to strangle her with her bare hands next time she saw her.
Eden put a hand on her arm. “I have it. When you took off, I gathered up all your stuff and put it in the room.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” This time, India did hug Eden, professional protocols be damned. Eden had saved her bacon.
Eden hugged her back, as if she could sense that India needed support.
It was only when they broke apart that a blush worked its way onto India’s cheeks. “Sorry, that was spontaneous. But after the day I’ve had so far, losing my bag would have been the last straw.”
Eden shook her head. “Go and sort yourself out. We’ll carry on with some set-up shots and fade-outs for the filming, so take your time. Have a coffee if you need to.” She checked her watch. “You’ve got half an hour.”
Relief flooded India. “Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.”
India decided to walk home after the interview, her spirits still slumped. Gina wasn’t picking up her calls and she hadn’t replied to any of her messages, even though some of them had the tell-tale two blue ticks. She ground her teeth together and fought the urge to throw herself on the floor and wail. She’d already received enough unwanted attention today thanks to Andi. She didn’t need any more to get out into the world.
She crossed Waterloo Bridge, concentrating hard on not replaying the scene with Gina from earlier, then dragged herself down the main road towards her Southwark flat. She wouldn’t be there much longer, thanks to Gina and her flat-finding skills. Gina had so many skills India wanted to hold on to.
Her phone buzzed when she was five minutes from home. She stopped walking and stared at the screen, willing it to be Gina. But also terrified it was going to be Andi.
It was neither.
It was her brother, Luca.
India blew out a breath and steadied her nerve. “Hey.” She wasn’t able to muster up much enthusiasm in her voice.
“You sound exactly as I expected you to sound,” Luca replied. “What the fuck is this shit I’m seeing on social media? Why is Andi down on one knee proposing to you?”
India’s heart dropped so low, it almost touched the floor. “Because Andi is a sociopath who wants what she wants.”
Luca clicked his tongue. “I don’t get it, though. What happened? You’re not still seeing her, are you? I know she was in the cafe that day we got our baby news, but last time we spoke, you were giddy about your estate agent.”
India shook her head. What hope was there for anybody else when the person who knew her best, her brother, wasn’t quite sure what to believe? India kicked the pavement in frustration.
“Of course I haven’t. I’ve been busy starting something with Gina, as you know. Although seeing as she walked into the bar today just as Andi was on one knee, who knows where that’s at right now. She’s not answering my calls and she didn’t believe me when I told her there was nothing going on. Not that I can blame her. Why would she?”
Luca paused. “Fuck.”
“You can say that again,” India said. “Nothing’s been going on with Andi. We’re through. She got engaged to someone else. But now they’ve broken up, Andi decided she wants me back. What better way to tell me than to propose in public?”
“She always was a little out there.”
India punched in the code for her building on the keypad, then shouldered the door as she snorted into the phone. “Yeah well, now we’re both a lot out there and everybody will think we’re back on. Including Gina. It’s a fucking mess, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
“What did you do at the time? And why did you let Andi hug you afterwards? It looks like you said yes.”
India took the stairs to her flat two at a time. “It all seemed to happen so quickly. One minute Andi appeared and the next she was down on one knee, proposing. I was gobsmacked. I tried to tell her no, but I was frozen to the spot. I couldn’t get any words out. I was too busy trying to think of a way to explain this to Gina. Andi took my silence as a yes – because nobody ever tells her no. She hugged me. As soon as I could shake her off, I did. Then I ran after Gina and tried to tell her what had happened. You can guess how that went.”
“Not well.”
India unlocked her flat and dumped her bag in the hallway, then walked through to the lounge and slumped on the sofa, putting her palm to her forehead. “No.”
“What are you going to do now?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. Gina doesn’t want to speak to me. I guess my Sunday night might involve a pity pizza, a bottle of wine and a film that will make me cry. If I’m miserable, I might as well go the whole hog.”
Luca snorted down the phone. “You will not. You like Gina. Last time we spoke, you were lit up about her. You’re not walking away from this, India.”
“I’m not! But I can’t walk away from something that doesn’t exist anymore.”
“You’re being ridiculous. Gina needs time to calm down. However, she also needs to know that you care.”
“She doesn’t want to know, though.” India pouted as she spoke.
“So you make her. Do you think she’s thinking about anything else tonight?”
India shook her head. “If she’s anything like me, she’s not.”
“What’s the point of both of you spending the evening miserable, when you could take action. Go over to hers and tell her that you love her.”
India’s body went rigid at his words. “Love? She just watched someone else propose to me. You think that might be too much for one day?”
Luca snorted. “On the contrary, it’s because someone else proposed to you today that you need to make a grand gesture to her. Otherwise, she’ll just be replaying the proposal over and over. You need to change up her mental images, and one way to do that is to give her something else to think about. Go over there and tell her how you feel. It’s called communicating. You’re good at it.”
India sat forward, then clutched her chin with her free hand. Was Luca right? Should she press the issue tonight and let Gina know how she felt? The more she thought about it, the more she realised it was a bold move, but it could work.
“You do love her, right?”
India hesitated for a second before replying. “I do.” There. She’d said it. She loved Gina.
Suddenly, a light turned on inside her. Luca was right. She had to talk to Gina.
“What if she won’t talk to me, though?”
“What if she does? You won’t know until you try. Wouldn’t it be better to know where you stand and not leave things to fester? Take it from me, as one who knows, it’s better to face issues head on than ignore them.”
India pursed her lips. “Does Ricardo know you give out such wise relationship advice over the phone?”
Her brother laughed again. “I learnt it all from him,” he replied. “Ricardo has made me a better human. I think Gina might do the same for you. You don’t want to pass up that opportunity, do you?”
India smiled. “When you put it like that.”