Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
A nna’s biggest regret when she paced beside the gate was that she hadn’t picked up her hat and gloves before storming out of the house. With her hands shoved into her pockets and her shoulders hunched up to her ears, she stayed where she was as Warren walked casually towards her.
“I didn’t mean to slam the door,” she said when he got near. “The wind caught it.”
His smile was only a small curve of the lips, but his eyes sparkled. “That’s what you’re worried about? The door slamming?”
“I realise I shouldn’t have told your family they’re horrible people, but I just don’t feel bad about that yet. It was true.”
“I feel as though the dynamics are all off here. The way you explained it to me, I’m fairly sure I can say bad things about my family, but you can’t. At least that was how it worked when I said something about Carla.”
“But you didn’t say anything to them!” she shot. “You just sat there and took it. They were being mean.”
“They– ”
“Please don’t defend them,” she cut in. “They were mean, and I’m furious.”
“I can see that.”
His eyes went pointedly to her hands, which were balled into fists at her sides. “There’s a wall there if you need it.” He tipped his head and smirked.
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Really? You’re thinking of lying in the snow with your legs in the air?”
“No.” She almost smiled at that. “I was thinking of punching it.”
“Ah!” He pursed his lips. “That would hurt.”
“It would.” She rubbed the back of her hand across her forehead. “Could you please get my stuff?”
“What stuff?”
“My clothes and everything. I don’t want to go back in there.”
“Where are you planning to go?”
“You could drive me to a train station or something.”
He glanced around. “How about we just walk to the pub?”
“I can’t stay here tonight,” she said, but followed when he set off along the road.
“Why not?”
“Because I just called them horrible people. To their faces. Multiple times.”
“It’s probably not as big of a deal as you think it is.”
“Of course it’s a big deal.” She hurried to keep up with his long strides. “I’m going to feel terrible when my anger wears off.”
“We’ll have a drink at the pub. Everything will seem better then.”
“But they won’t want me in the house,” she said. “There’s no way I can stay there.”
“Let’s worry about that later. ”
“I’d rather worry about it now while I still have time to get a train home.”
“It’s too late to get a train anyway,” he said.
“Can you drive me home, then? You didn’t want to come in the first place. Not really. I convinced you it was a good idea. I’ve changed my mind. It wasn’t a good idea, so we should leave.”
“I’m not driving in the dark on icy roads. We’ll go tomorrow morning as planned.”
“Warren,” she said with a sigh.
“Everything will be fine. I promise.”
Sulkily, she kept quiet for the rest of the ten-minute walk to the village pub, and didn’t speak again until they were settled in the corner of the warm room with drinks in front of them.
“Why didn’t you defend yourself?” she asked as her nervous system gradually settled back into a relaxed state.
He hesitated before answering. “Because I know what they think, and I know nothing I say can make them think differently. I love my job, and that’s enough for me. I don’t need it to be enough for them.”
“But it upsets you.” She rested her elbows on the table. “When your parents came to visit and your dad spoke to you about it, you were upset. As I recall you were so upset that I had to order you out of the kitchen.”
“That’s true.” He took a sip of his pint. “I guess it’s easier to deal with my family when you sit there and shout at them and tell them they’re horrible people.”
“We’re not joking about that yet. In fact, I don’t think we’ll ever joke about that.”
“Sorry.” His shoulders shook as he chuckled. “I can’t help it. It was funny. I’m going to laugh about it often.”
“You’ll have to laugh about it alone,” she huffed.
“I don’t think so. Not once I tell Carla about this.”
Fighting a smile, she threw a beer mat at him .
He caught it and threw it straight back, making her smile properly.
“I can’t believe I shouted at them,” she said, covering her face with her hands.
She relaxed back in the chair as the faint buzz of alcohol loosened her tight muscles.
“Was there any point in your life when you considered going into the family business?” she asked seriously.
“Yes. That was my plan for a long time.”
“Really?” She shook her head. “What exactly is the family business, by the way?”
“Private equity. They essentially buy companies that aren’t performing well, restructure them and sell them on.”
“And you were going to do that?”
“It didn’t feel as though I had much choice,” he said with a shrug. “I grew up being told I’d join the family business and I didn’t particularly question it.”
“Until when?”
“Until I got a job in a restaurant when I was at university.”
“You decided you wanted to be a chef?”
“Pretty much. Working in the kitchen interested me far more than my degree in economics, or my parents’ business talk. Even when I was only doing food prep.”
“What happened? Did you finish your degree, or switch to a catering course?”
He ran a finger up the side of his glass. “I continued with the economics degree until about halfway through the final year. Then I dropped out of the course.”
He paused, looking thoughtful. “I’d known for a while that I wanted to become a chef.
I didn’t dare say anything, or do anything about it, but I knew that once I finished my degree, I’d have to go and work with my parents.
That was the plan, anyway. The closer I got to that reality, the more I panicked.
Eventually, I told them I wasn’t going to work for them.
Which wasn’t actually the worst thing. If I had some other dream that they approved of, it would probably have been fine. ”
“But they didn’t approve of you being a chef?”
He shook his head. “They thought it was beneath me.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Maybe. But remember that they employ a full-time cook. To them, my job is on the same level as the household staff.”
“I don’t even see why that’s a bad thing.”
“Yeah, but you’re not like them.”
She wouldn’t argue with that. “How come you didn’t finish your degree if you were so close to the end of it?”
He rubbed his forehead. “Because my dad said that if I didn’t finish it and do something worthwhile with my life, that he wouldn’t pay off my student loan.
That was the deal, you see… they wouldn’t support us financially through university because they believed their kids shouldn’t get used to having things handed to them.
But when we graduated and joined the family business, they’d pay off any student debt. ”
“But if you were so close to the end of your course, why not just finish it and join the business for long enough for them to pay off your loan?”
He turned his glass on the mat. “Because I knew it would annoy my dad more if I didn’t.”
“You quit your degree out of spite?”
“Yeah. Admittedly, not the greatest idea I’ve ever had, but in my defence, I was young and angry.”
She sighed as a thought occurred to her. “That’s why your dad mentioned you being in debt.”
“Yes.”
Not an entirely random comment then.
“Which I’m not, by the way.”
“You paid it off?”
“Yes.” His eyebrows twitched. “The perks of living for cheap in someone’s garage. I saved money. ”
“Does your dad know you paid it off?”
“I don’t think so. I certainly never told him.”
“Don’t you feel like telling him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He sucked in a breath. “Because nothing I do will be good enough for them so I gave up on trying to get their approval. Anything I achieve, I’ll keep to myself rather than risk their opinions spoiling it for me.”
“That’s really sad.”
“It is what it is. I don’t agree with my parents, but I do think they want the best for me. We just have different ideas about what that is.”
A heaviness weighed on Anna’s chest. “I think you’re a brilliant chef,” she said eventually. “I’ll just be proud of what you’ve achieved instead of your family.”
She’d expected him to laugh at her, but he held her gaze and looked at her in earnest.
“Thank you,” he said, then looked over his shoulder at the bar. “Should I see if they’re still serving food? You probably didn’t eat much since you were so busy shouting at my parents.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m actually surprisingly hungry.”
They ordered chicken wings and chips to share, and stuck to lighter topics as they ate. Warren told her stories about the time he’d spent in the area as a kid and all his tricks for slipping away from the nanny to go off on adventures in the countryside.
By the time they set off back to the house, Anna’s anger had dissipated and she looped her arm through Warren’s, sticking close by his side to shelter from the freezing wind.
“I can’t go back in there,” she said when they reached the front door. “I’m too embarrassed.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.”
She screwed her face up. “I really don’t want to go in.”
“Remember the night I argued with my dad and I told you it would just get forgotten and never mentioned again…”
“I really don’t think that in the last two hours they’ll have forgotten me shouting at them over the dinner table.”
“Maybe not forgotten, but I don’t think they’ll draw attention to it.”
“The atmosphere will be terrible.”
“If it is, you can go straight to bed, and we’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
“Okay,” she said, while looking at the door with trepidation.
Following him inside, Anna held her breath and had just begun to take her coat off when Selena stalked into the entrance hall.
“You should probably keep your coats on,” she called angrily.
Anna’s stomach twisted. So much for them pretending nothing had happened.