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The spate of dizziness ended, fading almost immediately.

Old Giles probably would’ve done. The Giles that tried to sabotage her business. But then, that old Giles would never have bought a house and done such a good deed and stayed quiet about it. Old Giles didn’t know the meaning of the word altruistic. He’d have wanted to tell the world and get all the accolades possible.

The knowledge that Giles was unlikely to kick her out offered Holly the slightest quiver of relief. She might not be homeless immediately, but she didn’t know what she should do.

What she did know was that there was only one person she wanted to talk to about it.

They picked up on the second ring.

‘Hey, you, I was about to call. Is everything okay? Have you taken your Vespa out again yet?’

Just seeing Evan’s face on the screen was enough to cause a wash of calm to flood over her.

‘Giles is my landlord,’ she said.

She probably should have answered one of his questions before she delved into the depth of her despair. She should have maybe mentioned Jamie’s cancelled wedding too, given how Evan was Fin’s best friend. But right now, she needed him.

‘Giles is my mystery landlord,’ she repeated, just in case he hadn’t heard her the first time.

‘You mean Giles, the Giles who is not actually your ex, the one who confessed his love and dove into the water from his giant yacht with me to try to supposedly save you?’ Evan’s description was hardly succinct, but at least he confirmed he knew who Holly was talking about.

‘Yes, that Giles. He’s my landlord.’

‘And you didn’t know?’

‘Does it sound like I knew?’ Holly shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. This is just freaking me out. My mum knew. My mum is the one that arranged the whole thing. The viewing, the keys. Dealt with him for the bathroom renovation. The landlord. That’s all she’s ever referred to him as. It was Giles all along. Why would she do that? Why wouldn’t she tell me?’

A slight pause followed her question before Evan spoke.

‘Well, the fact that he didn’t tell you leads me to believe that he didn’t want you to know. And your mum obviously thought that was a good idea.’

‘But why not? Why wouldn’t he tell me?’

Even on a pixelated screen, the frown line that appeared between Evan’s brows was clearly visible. ‘Is this one of those rhetorical situations where you’re asking me a question but you don’t really want to know the answer, you just want to rant and me to listen? In which case, I’m totally okay with that. Or is this one of those situations where you actually want real-life solutions? Even though you probably already know the answer.’

Holly paused. Did she really give rhetorical questions that she just didn’t want answers to? Quite possibly. And did she already know the answer to this situation? Again, probably. But she needed to hear someone else say it, too.

‘Why wouldn’t he tell me?’ she asked quietly.

Evan let out a short breath before he began. ‘Well, would you have moved into the house if you had known?’

It didn’t take Holly long to consider the answer.

‘Like, I… Probably not. No. I wouldn’t.’

‘And did you need a place to live?’

Again, the question didn’t take long to reply to. ‘Maybe. I mean, Fin and Jamie are lovely, but they needed me out of their hair.’

‘Then you have your answer. He did it because he knew you needed it. But he didn’t want to tell you, because he knew you’d probably freak out like this, reject the help you needed, and then basically self-sabotage your and Hope’s best chance of being happy.’

When Evan finished speaking, Holly groaned internally. Perhaps it was best to ask rhetorical questions after all.

‘Okay, so I can get why he did that. It makes sense he didn’t want me to know because he thought I’d overreact. But I do know now, so what do I do? I haven’t messaged him since France. Do I message him and pretend that I don’t know just like it’s a casual “how are you doing, we said we were gonna meet up. By the way, I’ve got this really mysterious situation with mylandlord that I don’t know who he is?” Then I make out that I don’t know who he is when Giles and I meet up, or is that too obvious?’

‘Wow, this is serious babbling territory we’re going into now.’

She shot Evan a glare through the phone screen. ‘This is serious. I don’t know what I’m meant to do.’