Free Uptown Girl by Holly Kinsella Page A

black to a magical turquoise. Not only had Emma taken her father’s advice and gone after William, but she was glad that she had listened to him and changed into her running shoes. She was grateful also that she wasn’t dressed in “The Heartbreaker”. Should she have had to run in that outfit now she would have probably been left heartbroken herself.
    Her feet pounded across the grass. Her work in the gym was finally paying off. She was breathless with hope, desperation, fatigue and love. Streetlights and traffic skirted around the park, ringing the green in a kaleidoscope of colour. Emma prayed that even if William had been able to flag down a black cab, they would not want to go south of the river this time of the night. But the mechanic had yet to reach the main road even – such had been his wounded heart and slow gait. His silhouette appeared from out of the darkness. As she closed on him William heard someone running and turned around.
    Emma stopped around ten feet away from a slightly worried and slightly confused William, although given the lack of light at the centre of the park she could not quite make out his expression. Emma held up her hand in a bid to ask him to stop – and also communicate that she needed to catch her breath. He asked if she was okay but Emma still just held up her hand in reply. The occasional hum of a car sounded in the background else all was silent until Emma spoke.
    “I know we have just met. And I know that you will probably consider me conceited – or crazy even. But I’ve recently realised that I’ve spend half of my life waiting for someone like you. And I don’t want to spend the remaining half apart from you. I’m not sure if you feel anything back but all that I ask is that you give me, us, a chance. I’m just a girl, standing before a boy, asking him to love her – to borrow a phrase. I cannot and do not want to replace your wife. I’m just me. But take it from someone who has been living in an unfulfilled past and present, give the future a try. I’m sorry, but I had to come after you – to say something. And as you said the other day it’s about fighting for lost causes against overwhelming odds. Even if it’s a losing battle you still have to fight on if the cause is right. You and me seem right. I like who I am when I’m with you. I know I’m nearly crying now, but you make me laugh. You make me want to be a better person. In helping to fix the mechanic I will be helping to fix myself. You understand why I had to come after you? I’m worried that if I lose you tonight then I might lose you forever.”
    Emma was left more breathless from pouring her heart out than from the run. Could she see him as she spoke? She had been endearing, hopeful, beautiful – sometimes smiling at her own wry humour and confessions. At least she had told him how she felt. Had she frightened or shocked him to make things worse though? William hadn’t uttered a word whilst she spoke, although Emma had occasionally held up her hand to indicate that she wanted to finish what she was saying. But he now walked towards her. Her teary eyes glistened in the moonlight. William smiled, but she could not work out the nature of the smile. Was it just one of consolation? Would he still not be able to give himself to her? Was he just trying to let her down gently again?
    The melancholy widower first gallantly took off his jacket and placed it around Emma’s shivering shoulders. He then cupped her face in his hand and wiped away wayward strands of her hair – and a tear – from her cheek with his thumb.
    “Do you see that bench over there?”
    Emma nodded. Oh God he was going to let her down again, she thought. And she didn’t know how she would be able to pick herself up afterwards.
    “We’re going to sit down and I’m going to tell you about how much I liked you even before we first met, from how your father described you. I’m going to tell you about how I experienced the longest