She looks up as if she’s been waiting for me to get home, whereas she’s the last thing I expected to find here.
Her whole face lights up.
‘You must be Whitney!’ she says, like we’re old friends.
‘Hi,’ I manage to blurt, far more friendly than I would usually be with a perfect stranger, but here she is, in my home, seeming like she knows me, and I don’t know what else to do. ‘Hello. Yes. That’s… me. I’m Whitney.’
She laughs – presumably at my confused babbling.
‘You’re exactly as I imagined you,’ she tells me.
‘And you’re…’
‘Sorry, I should have introduced myself,’ she says, popping to her tiny little feet.
At five foot six I feel like a bit of a short-arse next to Andy who is six foot and JJ who is five foot nine, but the stranger must be five foot three tops.
‘I’m—’
‘Whit!’
Andy’s voice comes from his bedroom a second before he appears, barefoot, hair damp like he’s just showered, wearing joggers and one of his faded uni T-shirts. The sight of him twists up my stomach. I hadn’t realised how much I missed him but now that he’s here in front of me I never want him to leave again.
‘You’re home early,’ he says, smiling as he comes to hug me.
‘You’re back early,’ I reply. ‘I thought you would be at least another couple of hours.’
He comes over, moving around the coffee table, giving the woman who is now back on the sofa a little conspiratorial smile as he passes her. My heart is truly in my arse right now.
‘We caught an earlier flight,’ he says. ‘They wanted a bunch of us back for an early meeting, but I didn’t need to be there, so here we are.’
Here we are indeed.
I’m still just inside the doorway, with no idea what to do.
‘Okay,’ is all I can say.
‘I was going to message you,’ he says quickly, ‘but my phone died and then I couldn’t find my charger and?—’
He stops, takes a breath.
I look at him, then to the woman, then back at him.
‘Whit, this is Cordelia. From work,’ he explains.
Even her name is cute.
Cordelia gives me a genuinely warm smile.
‘Hi,’ she says again. ‘It’s so nice to finally meet you.’
She gets back up and walks towards us.
Up close, she’s even more beautiful. Clear skin. Big brown eyes. Not a hair out of place.
Meanwhile, I feel sweaty from carrying my bags, I’ve got biro on the back of my hand, and I’m pretty sure I could hear my hair frizzing in the lift.
At least I know who she is now. She’s Cordelia. She works with Andy. Although I’m still not sure what she’s doing here.