Vince and Joy
Lisa Jewell
 The story begins in 2003 with Vince in a kitchen with his friends when the topic swerves to how they all lost their virginity. Vince begins telling the story of him and Joy. In July 1986, Vince and Joy meet at a holiday camp and are immediately attracted to each other. They soon begin a relationship in their late teens. They tell each other their stories. Vince told Joy how he had a really bad underbite and that his mother was married to a man called Chris who was his stepfather. Joy and Vince go out and leave their parents having a conversation. The following morning, Joy and her family have suddenly vanished, leaving only a note written with ink on the step of Vince's caravan. Due to the rain, all he can make out on the paper is, "I feel so ashamed." Vince is angry and upset that she has gone without leaving any way for him to get in contact with her. The story picks up again in September 1993 where Vince has a girlfriend called Magda. He then looks for a new roommate. He offers the room to a superstitious woman called Cassandra McAfee. Cassandra has a cat called Madeleine who always goes into Joy's house. Cassandra starts to get upset that her cat keeps diappearing so she follows the cat into Joy's house. On the other side of the story, Joy meets George Pole on a blind date. They eventually move in together, just before Cassandra storms into their house about the cat. Though, the only people left are Julia, Joy's plumpish friend and Bella, a spiteful gay man, who does not live there but is Julia's good friend. Cassandra finds out that there was a woman called Joy who used to live there (Vince told her all about Joy and how he loved her). Cassandra says it can only be fate. Joy catches sight of Vince in Oxford Street while on the bus one day but does not get to meet him again. At the end of this section, Vince also sees Joy going into a church ready to get married. Again, he does not talk to her. In 1999, things have moved on again and Vince is now with longtime girlfriend Jess who he later discovers is having an affair with a friend of hers. Joy is trapped in a loveless marriage where her husband, George, dominates her and does not allow her to have a life of her own. She eventually breaks free and she and Vince meet again in 2001, when they share coffee and talk about what has happened to them between the two meetings. The story wraps up in April 2003 where Vince finishes telling his friends the story. His friends advise him to hunt down this Joy again, as they believe that destiny wants the two of them to be together. The happy ending occurs in October 2003 when, after running into an old friend of Joy's, Vince is encouraged once more to see her and is given her address. The novel ends before they meet again.