Cecelia Ahern - The Time of My Life

I was scanning the walls of Blake’s achievements when I saw her. Her. Jenna. The bitch. From Australia. She was sitting down at a little makeshift desk sorting through application forms and IDs and taking money and generally running the place.

I felt like the RoboCop, zoning in on her and running through her vital statistics; her strengths and weaknesses as a human being, even worse, as a woman. Hair: natural blonde and plaited in a bohemian casual way along her hairline. Body: toned, tanned, long limbs – but not as long as mine, she was more petite. Eyes: brown, big and honest, puppy dog-like, every man would want to take her home – but she had a small scar in the middle of her eyebrows. Clothes: a white vest that made her tan stand out and her teeth glow, a pair of jeans and trainers. I was wearing the same except I’d chosen a baby blue vest because I’d been wearing that colour when we’d met and he’d commented on how much it made my eyes pop – the colour, not the actual eye, that only happened when I ate shellfish.

‘Take a picture, why don’t you,’ Life said to me, standing beside me and noisily opening a packet of salt-and-vinegar crisps he’d got from the dispenser.

‘That’s her,’ I said.

‘The girl from Morocco?’

‘Yes,’ I whispered.

‘Really?’ He was surprised. ‘Maybe there’s something to your psychotic paranoid tendencies after all.’

‘It’s called instinct,’ I said, sure now that every time I was paranoid about something, including the guy in my building being part of US witness protection, was completely and utterly true.

‘Still, they might not be together,’ he said, popping a crisp into his mouth.

‘Look at her,’ I said bitterly, disgusted, ‘She’s exactly Blake’s type.’

‘And what type is that?’

I watched her interacting with the group, with a wide smile, dimpled cheeks, laughing and joking, showing concern and helping those who were worried.

‘The nice type,’ I said bitterly. ‘The bitch.’

Life almost choked on his crisp. ‘This is going to be fun.’

She glanced up then, as if her internal radar had warned her about an enemy nearby, and looked straight at me. Her smile didn’t fade but her eyes hardened, lost their shine momentarily, and I knew that she knew what I was here to do. I knew that she had feelings for Blake, I’d known since the beginning, ever since we’d met in a London bar when Blake had signed the TV deal and she’d asked him if he’d like ice in his drink. A girlfriend always knows, can pick up on the vibes, and now here I was, and she was possibly the girlfriend and she knew.

‘Lucy?’ She came towards me, her eyes flicking to Life beside me and seeming to relax a little. She needn’t relax.

‘Jenna, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’ She seemed surprised. ‘I can’t believe you remember me, we only met the one time.’

‘In London.’

‘Yeah. Wow.’

‘You remembered me.’

‘Yeah, well, that’s because I heard about you all the time,’ she smiled.

Heard. Past tense.

‘Well, welcome,’ she said, looking at Life shyly. She was sweet. I was going to destroy her.

‘This is my friend Cosmo.’

‘Cosmo, cool name. Nice to meet you.’ She held out her hand and he wiped his salt-and-vinegar-greasy fingers on his jeans before shaking it.

‘Is Blake around today?’ I asked, looking around.

‘Yeah. Doesn’t he know you’re coming?’

Translation: Is this arranged? Are you getting back together? Should I be worried?

I smiled sweetly. ‘I wanted to surprise him.’

‘Wow. Great. So, I’m sure he’ll be really stoked to see you but he’s very tied up at the moment. He’s getting ready to train the first group of divers. Are you guys part of this group?’

‘Yes. Yes, we are.’

Life looked at me as if there wasn’t a hope in the world of him diving with me but I appreciated that he didn’t say anything.

‘How long have you been working here for?’

‘The past month, ever since it opened. Blake was very kind to give me the job. We wrapped on the TV show and after that I just didn’t want to go home, you know? I love it here.’

‘It’s a long way from home.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ she said, rather sadly. ‘But we’ll see.’

‘We’ll see?’

‘Yeah. We’ll see what happens. Right, well, I’d better get this group ready and I’ve to bring a coffee to Blake, he always likes it first thing.’

I could tell her a thing or two about what else he liked first thing. I smiled tightly and watched her as she clapped her hands to get everybody’s attention, then issued polite orders, made a funny joke, and then, after she had herded everybody into the correct positions and they all knew what they were doing, she ran out of the cabin with a steaming hot coffee in a styrofoam cup.

‘You’re on your own, sweetheart,’ Life said, stuffing another crisp into his mouth.

‘You’re afraid of diving?’

‘Of course I am,’ he said. ‘Especially if she’s preparing your parachute.’ Then he chuckled and wandered off to turn his nose up at more of Blake’s photos.

I assured Life that he didn’t have to do the dive but in order to see Blake I had to go along with the day’s schedule. He had driven me here so that I could make a go of things, so he knew his role was to go with the flow. I didn’t want to hang around for hours waiting for Blake like a stalker, because clearly I wasn’t that.

I wasn’t.

Life and I followed the group outside onto a grassy area. It was only ten a.m. and already it was warm. Before us was two miles of runway and to the right was the airplane hangar. As basic as the set-up was I was proud of Blake for following his dream, for achieving it. It felt bittersweet that it was without me, that it wasn’t me about to take the training class, that it wasn’t me sitting in the cabin sorting through applications and greeting customers. He had taken my dreams – our dreams – and moved on without me. Here I was, a mere spectator standing among a gaggle of girls waiting to see him as if he was a pin-up star, which of course he was now. If you subscribed to Love to Travel magazine. Which I did. There were nine of us in total. The four from the B&B, three fans of Blake’s, and Life and me.

‘Where is he?’ one blonde asked her friend and they both looked at each other and giggled.

‘Are you going to ask him for his autograph?’

‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m going to ask if I can have his children.’ They both cackled again.

Life looked at me, his eyes dancing like he was laughing at me. Since we’d arrived at the ‘Portaloo’ he seemed to have got his spark back, but I wasn’t sure it was for all the right reasons. The door to the hangar made a large booming sound as it was unlatched and began to open. It slid back slowly, revealing the plane inside, then when the door was midway open it revealed Blake standing in front of the plane, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, the top unzipped and falling down around his waist, revealing a tight white vest that showed his protruding muscles beneath. He was too far away to see his face but the body, his shape, was recognisable from space. He looked pumped and ready for action, he looked amazing, then he slowly started to walk towards us, like a scene from Armageddon . His parachute was attached to his waist and he pulled it along behind him, the weight of it so great that it was like he was walking against a gale-force wind. Sometimes the parachute material would catch the wind and it would pick up behind him, ballooning slightly and then falling to the ground again.

‘Oh. My. God,’ Life said, finally pausing from eating his crisps.