Read Over You for Free Online Page A

put her arms around Josie’s neck. ‘Who would have thought it, eh, Jose? Me and you back in Camden together. We just need our poet and painter and it’ll be as if those ten years never happened.’
    Josie felt faint with relief. ‘You’re not . . . bored, or anything, are you?’ she asked. Three beers ago she wouldn’t have said the words, but they just fell out of her now.
    ‘Bored?’ Nell echoed. ‘Of course I’m not bored! What are you on about?’ She elbowed Josie. ‘Are you trying to tell me something? Have I been rambling on too much about India?’
    Josie shook her head, smiling. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Just . . .’ She shrugged, feeling daft. ‘Ignore me,’ she said. ‘I can’t take my beer any more.’
    Nell went into one of the loos. ‘I think I’ve had enough for the time being too,’ she called through the door. ‘Afternoon drinking wipes me right out these days.’
    ‘Me too,’ Josie said, thankful at the admission.
    Nell came out and washed her hands. ‘It’s a bit of a time-warp this, isn’t it?’ she asked, applying some fresh lipstick. ‘Like, it’s all the same, yet not. And we’re all different too, yet kind of the same.’ She blotted her lips and threw the tissue in the bin. ‘Think I should definitely stop drinking. I’m talking rubbish, aren’t I?’
    Josie shook her head. ‘No, I know what you mean,’ she said. She leaned against the cool tiled wall, trying to string the right words together. ‘Being here in Camden, I keep expecting to bump into Nick, or your ex David, or someone else we used to know. Almost as if I’ve forgotten that I don’t live here any more. And then I see you and Lisa, and you’ve both changed so much, to look at, and . . .’
    ‘Haven’t we just,’ Nell said. She peered into the mirror and pulled a face. ‘Honestly – do you really like my hair? Or were you just being kind when you said so earlier?’
    Josie turned to her in surprise. ‘Of course I like it,’ she said. ‘I mean, I loved your old curls but I think it looks really cool cropped like that. Honest.’
    Nell fiddled around with the strands at the front. ‘I did it after me and Gareth split,’ she confessed. ‘Because he always adored my curly hair, so it was kind of two fingers up at him.’ She snorted, her expression hardening. ‘Which is totally ridiculous because he hasn’t even seen me since, so it was all for nothing. But . . .’ She shrugged. ‘I feel different for it. Like I’m a new person, not the same person that he . . .’ She broke off and looked away. ‘Anyway, thanks for being nice about it,’ she said after a moment, and went past Josie to the door. ‘Shall we get the bill and go shopping?’
    ‘Yes,’ Josie said, following her. She couldn’t help wondering what Nell had been about to say. Like I’m a new person, not that same person that he . . .
    The same person that he what ? Josie mused. What had he done to her? Or was it that she couldn’t bring herself to say ‘dumped’? Nell had never been dumped by anyone, it was always she who called things off. The terminal finisher, Nell was.
    That had to be it, Josie decided, sliding back into her seat and getting her purse out. Gareth had instigated the split, and Nell was in denial over it. Or something.
    Camden Market was loud, hectic and bustling after the dingy calm of the bistro. The three of them made their way over the bridge that spanned the canal, past the middle-aged punks who were charging people to take their photographs. ‘Sad bastards,’ Lisa commented loudly, and Josie couldn’t help agreeing.
    ‘Not tempted to get a snap of yourself and that one with the green mohican, Lise?’ Nell giggled. ‘I always thought you suited green.’
    ‘Not snot-green like that I don’t,’ Lisa said firmly, steering them through the crowds. ‘And besides, he’s forty if he’s a day. I like my men to be a bit more professional than that.’
    ‘You never know,’ Josie teased, ‘he