To the Moon and Back

To the Moon and Back - By Jill Mansell





To Cino, my other half.

We really didn’t expect to last six months together, did we?

And now here we are twenty-five years later. One day we should probably think about getting married…





Chapter 1




‘What would you do without me?’

Fresh from the shower, Ellie took in the alluring view from the bedroom doorway. Seriously, could anything beat the sight of a drop-dead gorgeous twenty-eight-year-old male wearing nothing but white boxers whilst clutching a steam iron in one hand and a black skirt in the other?

And to think he’s mine, all mine. She had the marriage certificate to prove it.

‘OK, don’t answer that. I know what you’d do.’ Jamie bent down and unplugged the iron at the wall. ‘Go out wearing a crumpled skirt.’

‘Possibly.’ She fastened the lime-green bath towel securely around her chest. ‘But I don’t have to, do I? Because I have you.’ Reaching across the ironing board, she planted a kiss on the mouth she never tired of kissing.

‘So you’re grateful, then?’ He gave the edge of the towel a playful tug.

‘I am. Very grateful. Thank you, thank you to the moon and back.’

‘Because if you feel like repaying the favor, I can probably think of a way you could do that.’

Regretfully Ellie tapped her watch. ‘But we don’t have time. Look at my hair. I need to get dressed and do my face… wah, no, stop it, get away from me!’ She snatched the skirt and danced out of reach before Jamie could ravish her. Tonight they were going out separately. Along with a crowd of friends from work, she was heading off to a performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where dressing up was mandatory. Hence the black skirt, bought in a charity shop last year and cannibalized with garden shears to give it a zig-zaggy hemline for a Halloween party. It had been lying at the back of the wardrobe ever since but would be just the thing for a Rocky Horror outing, teamed with mad hair, over-the-top eyeliner, and fishnets.

‘Right then, which shirt should I wear?’ Jamie indicated the ones he’d ironed while she’d been in the shower. ‘Blue? Or white?’ He was off to a school reunion in Guildford.

Ellie said, ‘How about the pink one?’ and saw his mouth do that turning-down-at-the-corners thing it did when he felt awkward.

‘I don’t know. Not tonight.’

‘Why not?’

‘Just… because. I’d rather wear the blue tonight.’

She took the fuchsia-pink shirt out of the wardrobe and gave it an enticing waggle. ‘But this is beautiful! Look at that color. Why wouldn’t you want to wear it?’

‘Because I don’t want to turn up and have everyone saying they didn’t know I was gay.’

‘Oh, come on! Just because it’s pink?’

Jamie pulled a don’t-make-me-say-it face. ‘It’s a very gay pink.’

OK, maybe it was, but he could carry it off. ‘I bought it for you for Christmas! You could have taken it back to the shop and exchanged it.’ Ellie shook her head in disbelief. ‘But you said you loved it!’

‘I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. Besides,’ Jamie ventured,‘I kind of like it to look at. Just not to, you know, wear.’

‘The color would really suit you.’

‘I’ll wear it soon, I promise.’ He slid the blue shirt off the hanger and shrugged it on.

Men, honestly, what was with them? ‘Right, that’s it, wait until next Christmas. No presents, that’ll teach you to turn your nose up at my choice of shirt. Next year you’ll get nothing at all.’

Jamie broke into a grin. ‘Does that mean I don’t have to buy you anything either?’

‘You just wait. You’ll be sorry. No, get off me!’ Shrieking with laughter, Ellie found herself backed into a corner of the living room. ‘I told you, we don’t have time!’

Jamie snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. ‘Sometimes,’ he murmured persuasively in her ear, ‘you just have to get your priorities right and make time.’

DDDDDRRRINNNGGGGGGGG went the doorbell and Jamie clutched his heart, staggering backward as if he’d been shot. ‘No, no, not fair…’

‘Oh, what a shame. Just as I was about to change my mind too.’ Skipping past him, Ellie went to the window and peered down to the pavement below.

Todd waved up at her. She waved back.

‘And to think he used to be my friend.’ Jamie flung open the window and yelled, ‘You’re early.’

‘I know.’ Todd spread his arms wide, evidently pleased with himself. ‘That’s because you told me not to be late.’

Jamie rolled his eyes. ‘The first time in twenty years he’s been early for anything.’ Raising his voice he called down, ‘Look, we’re kind of busy just now. How about doing us a big favor and just going for a ten-minute jog around the block?’

‘Get lost!’

‘Or that’s something else you could do.’

‘Not a chance. Stop buggering about and open the door.’ Energetically stamping his feet and rubbing his hands together, Todd called up, ‘It’s arctic out here. I’m freezing my nuts off.’

***

‘Look at you,’ Todd marveled, greeting Ellie with a kiss when she finally teetered out of the bedroom, dressed and ready to go. ‘Understated. I like it. Off to church?’

‘Ha ha.’ She loved Todd, which was just as well, seeing as he was Jamie’s best friend. For almost twenty years the two boys had been inseparable. Their personalities complemented each other and their shared sense of humor enabled them to bounce jokes off each other so effortlessly that they never tired of it. Jamie and Todd were known as the double act and Ellie lived in fear of Todd meeting and settling down with a girl she didn’t like, because what could be worse than that? How would they cope? It had the potential to spoil everything and she couldn’t bear the thought of that happening. All they could do was cross their fingers and pray he’d choose someone great.

‘Right, are we ready?’ Jamie was driving tonight; rattling his keys, he ushered them toward the door. ‘Let’s go. Where are we dropping you?’

Ellie gave her back-combed hair one last wild blast of glitter spray for luck. ‘Just at the tube station. Everyone’s meeting at the Frog and Bucket.’

‘You’re not going on the tube on your own dressed like that.’ He pinched her bottom as she headed past him down the stairs. ‘We’ll give you a lift to the pub.’

‘Pleurgh.’ Todd smacked his lips together in dismay. ‘I’ve got hair spray in my mouth.’

‘Open wide.’ Peering in, Ellie said, ‘Whoops, there’s glitter in there too.’

Jamie grinned. ‘That’s so when he meets up with the girls he used to fancy at school, he’ll be able to make sparkling conversation.’

Ellie brushed a speck of glitter from Todd’s cheek. ‘God help those poor girls.’

***

By the time Ellie arrived back at their Hammersmith flat it was almost one o’clock. You knew you’d had a good old Rocky Horror night when your throat was sore from singing and the soles of your feet were on fire. Throughout the show they’d jumped up and joined in with the dancing, bellowing out the words to the songs everyone knew by heart. Then afterwards, on their way back to the Frog and Bucket for last orders, they’d carried on doing the Time Warp all the way down the road.

‘That’s ten pounds fifty, love.’

She paid the taxi driver, clambered out of the cab, and looked around to see if Jamie was home yet. No sign of the car, but he might have had to park around the corner. And the windows were in darkness, but that could mean he was crashed out in bed.

Letting herself into the flat, Ellie felt the stillness and knew she was the first one home. OK, that was fine, she was still buzzing with adrenaline. If Jamie came back soon she might seduce him, make up for what they’d missed out on earlier thanks to Todd’s untimely arrival. Toddus Interruptus, ha. Their very own living, breathing contraceptive. She smiled to herself and switched on the light in the living room. She’d make a toasted sandwich and put on a DVD. Oh, the light was flashing on the phone. Reaching over, she pressed the button and listened to the message from someone whose voice she didn’t recognize but whose name she’d heard before.

‘Hey, Jamie, what’s going onnnn? It’s Rodders here, man. What happened to you and Todd, eh? You said you’d be here. Give us a bell, mate. You missed a cracking night.’

The call ended. That was it. Rodders was Rod Johnson, who had taken it upon himself to organize tonight’s school reunion in Guildford. And he had made the call an hour ago, which made no sense at all unless Jamie and Todd had arrived at the event early, peered through a window, decided it looked like rubbish, and beaten a stealthy retreat before they were spotted.

Because what other explanation could there possibly be for their not turning up?

The only sound in the room, the ticking of the clock Jamie’s grandmother had given them on their wedding day, seemed louder now. Ellie fumbled in her bag for her phone, switched off since they’d entered the theatre five hours ago.

Seven missed calls. One message. Her heart juddering against her ribs, Ellie experienced split-screen consciousness. One half of her brain was telling her that this couldn’t be happening, there’d been some mistake, everything was going to be fine and any minute now Jamie would be home.

Yet somehow, simultaneously, the other half of her brain was listening to a calm female voice relaying the message that Jamie Kendall had been involved in a traffic accident and could she please call this number as soon as possible…

And now the ground was tipping and another voice, a male one this time, was advising her to make her way to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. Jamie was currently in a critical condition, the voice on the phone explained—No, no, no, he can’t be, screamed the other voice in her head—and he was in the process of being transferred from casualty to the intensive care unit.