Chapter 78
78
Despite the girls’ assurances that things would feel better in the morning after some sleep, Daisy soon discovered that wasn’t the case.
‘He’s right to end things. I don’t blame him,’ Daisy snivelled. On the table beside her, a stack of used, scrunched-up tissues had formed, and she suspected it was going to get a lot higher. Bex was serving at the coffee shop, in between answering her own work emails, and rushing back and forth to check on Daisy. It was the epitome of multitasking. Claire, on the other hand, was the one supplying the words of comfort. Not that they helped. ‘It makes sense. I treated him so horribly.’
‘No, you didn’t,’ Claire said. ‘You messed up. You did mess up. There’s no denying that. But so did he. He made mistakes too, and you forgave him.’
‘Yes, but he didn’t say he thought it was better not to be with me,’ Daisy countered. ‘He’d never have said something like that.’
There was no way around it. She had been an idiot. How did she possibly think ending their relationship would make things better in the long run? All that was going to happen was that she would spend her entire life regretting her mistake. She could see it now. The old spinster Daisy, still living in the September Rose , hobbling to make cups of coffee, and struggling to carry them in her withered, old hands. And she wouldn’t even be able to have cats either. Not if she was going to keep the café open. Health and safety rules wouldn’t allow it. Nope. Her future was panned out in front of her. And it was bleak.
‘Maybe I should move,’ Daisy said. ‘I can’t stay in Wildflower Lock, not with him so close. But that’s the point of a boat, isn’t it? I’m meant to be able to set up wherever I want. Maybe I’ll put it on the back of a lorry and move to the other side of the country. Stratford-upon-Avon is meant to be lovely. There are lots of boats over there.’
‘You’re not moving to Stratford-upon-Avon,’ Bex said, poking her head into the living room. ‘It’s way too far for us to travel when you’re having one of your breakdowns. You’re going to get through this. I promise you are.’
But Daisy didn’t want to get through it. What she wanted was to go back to a week ago, when she had known her life was perfect, or as perfect as a life could get, and not felt the need to mess it all up. She wanted to go back to when she had listened to her mother’s words of advice, and simply ignore her. What she wanted to do was to take back all the stupid things she had said and done. Yes, there were plenty of things that Daisy wanted to do, but getting over Theo just wasn’t one of them.
‘Maybe I should try to talk to him,’ Daisy said. ‘Now that I’m sober. He was angry. And I was drunk. You said that things seem better for people in the morning. Well, maybe that’s true for him too. I should ring him, maybe. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.’
Daisy reached for her phone, only to see the way Claire and Bex exchanged a look.
‘What? You think that’s the wrong thing to do?’
‘I think that’s definitely the wrong thing to do,’ Bex replied. ‘What are you going to do when he doesn’t pick up? If you start leaving hundreds of messages and voicemails, that’s not exactly going to convince him.’
Daisy could see what she was saying, but it only caused the panic to rise within her.
‘But I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to let him know I’m serious. That there’s nothing more I want than him.’
‘Okay, but ringing him isn’t the answer,’ Claire agreed. ‘We already know you tried to call him this morning. At least three times.’
It was true. The first thing Daisy had done when she had woken up was dial Theo’s number. She hadn’t even checked what time it was. All she knew was that she needed to speak to him. But just like the girls had said, he had ignored it. Given that there was still a fair amount of alcohol in her bloodstream at that time, she had decided that perhaps it was just because it was early and had tried again fifteen minutes later. Then she had wondered if perhaps he had his phone on silent and she just needed to keep trying. Yep. The girls were absolutely right. Ringing him up hadn’t worked. And there was no way she was going to knock on his door again. Just thinking about the way he spoke to her was like having daggers piercing her heart. So what other options were there?
She thought about it for a moment before a smile twisted on her lips.
‘I know what I’m going to do,’ she said. ‘But I’m going to need you guys to look after the coffee shop. Is that okay? This might take a bit of time.’