The Last Little Blue Envelope Read Online Free Page A

in the tips of her hair, which she was rubbing in disgust.
    “Remind me to never . . . oh! Sorry! I’ll go wait downstairs until you’re done.”
    “It’s all right,” Keith said. “It’s not an audition. This is Ginny. The famous Ginny Virginia.”
    “No!” the girl exclaimed. “Was that you, with the letters? Your aunt is an artist?”
    “That’s me,” Ginny said, oddly flattered that David’s girlfriend had heard of her.
    “Oh! Keith’s always talking about you!” The girl came in and sat next to Ginny. “I’m Ellis. So nice to meet you! Did you just . . .”
    “Kind of a surprise visit,” Keith said with a proud smile. “As is her way.”
    “This is so exciting! What are you doing here? Just visiting for Christmas? Sorry I’m such a mess. Just had my last day of work. I took a Christmas job at H&M and now I am finished !”
    She threw her arms into the air in triumph before collapsing on the sofa in the place Keith had just vacated, pulling off her boots. Ginny forced a polite smile. David’s new girlfriend was nice, but she was also settling in. She had no I-have-just-interrupted-a-personal-moment radar at all.
    “People are so horrible when they shop for Christmas,” Ellis continued. “They do things you would not believe. David wanted me to pick up a shirt for his sister. I got the last one and a woman tried to rip it out of my hands, and when I didn’t let go, she pulled her hand back, like this. . . .”
    She demonstrated.
    “That looks more like a punch,” Keith said. “Are you sure this was H&M you’ve been working at, and not some ultimate fighting league?”
    “It’s hard to tell some days. But I got the shirt. He had better appreciate that.”
    Keith began pairing his socks, putting them into little tucked bundles. Ginny had never seen Keith do his laundry before, but he certainly never struck her as a sock bundler. He placed each pair onto the mantel, making a little pyramid out of them.
    “What’s this?”
    Ellis picked up the copy of Romeo and Juliet and started paging through it. This was too much—the book was private. Keith glanced over, but he didn’t ask Ellis to stop. His pyramid of socks was getting out of control. It was going to fall apart at any second. Yet he just kept folding and piling.
    “A Christmas present from Gin,” he said finally. “It’s brilliant, isn’t it?”
    “It’s so lovely,” Ellis said, replacing it. “You have to tell us all about your plans for while you’re here. We’ll have to go out and show you around. There’s loads to do in London at Christmas.”
    “Holly-eating contests and Christmas tree fights . . .” Keith’s voice was a low mumble. Ellis picked up a spare sock and threw it across the room at Keith. He half-smiled and pulled it off his shoulder. Suddenly, all in a second, Ginny understood everything. . . . Why Keith was off-line so often, why the door was really open, and what “kind of something” actually meant.
    Ellis wasn’t David’s girlfriend. She was Keith’s.
    The room was unbearably hot. The rain at the windows far too loud. She needed to get out of here, to get some air, to sleep . . . to do anything. She just had to get out.
    “You know what?” she said. “I’m . . . I didn’t sleep on the plane. I think I . . .”
    “Would you like a cup of tea?” Ellis said quickly. “Or a coffee?”
    “No.” Ginny stood. She was unsteady on her feet.
    “Oh, look at you!” Ellis said. “God, you’re exhausted. You should just take a nap right here.”
    Keith finally reentered the conversation, a bright expression pasted on his face. “The lengths you’ll go to for a ride in my magnificent automobile! I can hardly blame you. Come on, then. I’ll take you back.”
    “It’s really nice meeting you,” Ellis said, hugging Ginny. “Feel better. Some sleep will help. And we’ll see you again, right? We’ll make plans!”
    One of the small mercies in all of this was that the ride from Keith’s to