Page 111 of Little Miss Fortune

Maahni’s bottom lip overhangs in a painful-looking pout, arms wrapped around herself for self-soothing. I wait to see her react or to say something, but she does neither. We just awkwardly stand by the sinks.

‘I should have been more careful. Mars did enter my third house.’ Not a complete lie. She made me download an astrology app that sends me daily horoscopes. Today’s was ‘conflict on the horizon’.

‘Oh.’ She perks up. ‘That makes sense, then. Mercury entered my third house, and because we are so similar, it must have caused a spat.’

That worked? Well. Good. I am glad I found a way.

‘I’m sorry for saying you don’t look Japanese. You are taller than the Japanese women I’ve seen.’

‘That was your reasoning?’

She nods, and I laugh in her face. ‘You know what? Fair.’

‘And... I am sorry I’ve said that you are silly. I’m not very good at making friends, and... I think you are one of the smartest people here. I guess I just talk to you the way I do with my cousins.’

‘It’s okay, and again I’m sorry about making you cry. I promise to do better next time.’

‘Me too.’

I stretch out my hand for a handshake, and she accepts, walking out with me back to Fawzia’s table.

‘I think I know what to do,’ I announce to her, sending a message to Malik that I never thought I’d send.

If the only way to get through to Maahni was by playing the game she had set up on her board, maybe there is a way for me to convince Toby.

But I’ll need all the luck I can get for this to work.

CHAPTER 38

Godzilla is... inside the pool of a charity swim

I do not want to do this.

The charity swim that I signed up to do with Toby is not at a swimming pool. It’s at a lido. Unheated outside pool. On a day with the strongest arctic winds of the last thirty years for this time of year.

Toby isn’t here. I knew he wouldn’t be. His name had been removed from the list of participants. I have to do 3.9 km in two hours by myself. Sounds doable, but other teams have three to five people that can tap in and out at any point.

I am alone in this physical endeavour, but Leon and Sashka have come to support me. In winter coats.

‘Why are you doing this? You don’t even like swimming,’ he asks. Quite an apt question, considering the situation.

I blow a raspberry, wondering the same.

I’ve filled the last few weeks to the brim with the most painfully awkward things. Things that I don’t like and am not good at—karaoke in public, speaking to strangers, entering talent shows that I knew I would fail at completely. I wouldn’t let myself stop until the bell on my amulet jingled.

The open audition for a West End show was particularly bad. My rendition of ‘Cell Block Tango’ will haunt me for the rest of my life. Even more annoying, I got no luck from it. I embarrassed myself in front of a hundred other auditioners for nothing.

A surprising jingle came from joining a free elderly t’ai chi class in the park. The women were so happy that I was there that I was given bags of fruit and vegetables from their allotments, which does make me worry that I wasted my luck on the free harvest.

The most stressful jingle came from work, where because of my blatant honesty, the design team had to redo weeks of work in about three days. I volunteered to help them, staying late after work, copywriting all the text for them.

What am I using my luck on, you may ask?

Every effort is going towards setting up a ‘fateful’ day for Toby. I say ‘fateful’, because it will not be fate. It will be me.

But for it to work I need to make sure that my poor luck does not get in the way.

I have done as much prep as I can, each step of the way using up as much of the good fortune as I could have mustered. But I still need the final confirmation for a submission that the entire plan rests on.