‘You got married in Vegas?’ My voice had risen to an incredulous squawk.
‘We did. It was all a bit of a wild impulse thing. But neither of us wanted to wait. But we’ll be doing the big two-white-suits thing later this year. You’ll be invited to that... unless you’re planning on ghosting us all again, of course.’
‘Never,’ I said with unshakeable certainty.
‘It might be a midweek do, so heads up, you’ll have to take time off work.’
‘That’s fine.’
‘It might even be in Scotland,’ he continued, ‘so you’d be away from the business for several days.’
‘That’s not a problem.’
Jackson leant back in his chair and gave me a long appraising look.
‘Who are you and what have you done with the real Ellie Harker?’
‘Just doing a little makeover and some long overdue renovations.’
I smiled and there was a wistfulness that I couldn’t keep out of my voice. ‘But I am really sorry that I wasn’t around to see you fall in love. I wish I hadn’t missed that.’
‘You didn’t,’ Jackson said. ‘You were there in the bar last October on the night we met. That’s when it happened. Love at first sight.’
‘Is that really a thing?’ I asked and there was an intensity to my question that I think surprised me even more than it did him.
‘The evidence is right here on my left hand,’ Jackson said with a smile.
Two more coffees and half an hour later and I still hadn’t found a way to swing the conversation around to my recent near-death experience. It didn’t seem to be an appropriate topic for a good-news day, and the relief I felt on deciding to shelve it for another time felt like a boulder rolling off my shoulders.
It was only when Jackson glanced at his watch and declared he really should be getting back to Lars that the question I’d wanted to ask since he first sat down was set free.
‘Is Mel very angry with me?’
Jackson paused for a long moment. ‘You’d have to ask her that.’
‘But you must have spoken to her recently,’ I said, surprised at the sudden stab of jealousy that pierced me.
‘I have, but to be perfectly blunt, Ellie, we didn’t speak about you.’
That stung. A lot. But I let it go.
‘It’s just that I’ve rung her, left a voicemail and a WhatsApp, and she hasn’t answered any of them.’
‘Why the sudden urgency to make contact after all these months? Has something happened?’ he asked astutely, leaning forward as though the answer was right there on my face, if he just stared closely enough. Thankfully, unlike Rhys, I bore no visible signs of what I’d experienced.
‘Nothing has happened,’ I lied. ‘I just wanted to make amends, that’s all. Do you think she’ll let me?’
Jackson gave me a you-should-know-better look. ‘She’s Mel. Of course she’s going to forgive you... eventually.’
That made me instantly feel worse rather than better.
Jackson was picking absently at the corner of the menu with his thumbnail, pulling the plastic away from the backing. ‘But she’s been going through some stuff of her own recently, so maybe give her a bit of time before you launch into another bombardment, eh?’
‘Stuff? What stuff? Is she alright? She’s not sick or anything, is she?’
I have no idea why illness was my knee-jerk reaction, but the thought of it collided with my heart like a punch that I couldn’t dodge.
‘No. It’s nothing like that. But she and Steve just needed some time away together. They’ve gone to New York for a bit to get their heads straight.’