Chapter 28
? Small-town guy falls for big-city woman
The next thirty-six hours or so passed by in a blur of dry Coco Pops,
a continuous conveyor belt of Christmas movies thanks to the dedicated
channel on Freeview and a medically inadvisable amount of Night Nurse.
By the time Christmas Eve rolled around, I felt sluggish rather than
refreshed when the toddler upstairs began bounding about at 5.47 a.m.
The void that had opened up inside me after Rory had collected Elle felt
smaller today, but it was definitely still there. I stretched and
automatically reached for my phone before stopping myself. There was
nothing within that device that would improve my day today. I needed to
get up, otherwise I could well imagine myself spending another entire
day in bed. At the very least I had my advent calendar to complete.
I flung back the covers to coax myself into an upright position. I finally swung my legs off the bed and allowed my feet to find their slippers and padded to the kitchen.
I flicked on the kettle for a cup of milkless tea before placing a rank-smelling food waste bag that had been festering since pre-Scarnbrook on a tray to carry outside. I opened the interior door and squeezed myself past the buggy.
It was then that I spotted the note on the communal doormat. I placed the food waste down and scooped up the piece of paper. In Tom’s distinctive script, it read:
Mally,
Don’t freak out, but I’m outside.
T
Tom was here?
I peeked through the letterbox. Sure enough, there was Tom’s immaculate car parked directly outside my flat. I could see his silhouetted figure in the passenger seat. It looked like he was asleep with his head resting against the window.
I grabbed an umbrella from the rusted stand in the hallway and approached the car. Draped around Tom’s shoulders was an emergency foil blanket. A Nutrigrain wrapper had been placed neatly on the driver’s seat.
I knocked on the window next to his head.
Tom jumped awake and attempted to open the door, which was locked.
His car erupted into a wail. Well, if the rest of the street weren’t awake already, they certainly would be now.
I noticed Sophie peering out through a gap in the curtains from the upper flat, Oscar attached to her hip and waving frantically at me in an elf onesie.
I mouthed ‘sorry’ with my fingers in my ears, then gave them a thumbs up to indicate everything was fine.
After a few seconds or so of fumbling, Tom managed to silence the alarm and step out of the car while rearranging his shoulders.
‘That stash of Nutrigrains came in handy again, then?’ I asked.
‘Yeah, turns out I should add “overnight drive in pursuit of unresolved issues” to the list of permitted cereal bar emergencies.’
I noticed that Tom was shivering, despite the fact he was still sporting his silver blanket.
‘Shit, you’re freezing. Come inside. You should’ve just rung the doorbell.’
‘Would you have answered the door at four o’clock in the morning?’
‘You’ve been out there for two hours? Bloody hell. That means you must’ve left Scarnbrook at…’
‘About two fifteen, yeah. I couldn’t sleep, Mal. Ryan sent me your address after he eventually told me what had been going on between him and Elle.’
I pressed my inner front door closed and walked with Tom along the narrow hallway to the living room. By then I’d remembered about the information Ryan had needed for his garage records.
‘He really shouldn’t be giving out my address.’
‘I know, I know, data protection and all that. I’m sorry.
I know this is… intense. But you haven’t been receiving any of my messages and I couldn’t even call you.
I’ve been so fucking worried, Mally – so’s my mum, and Becky and everyone, really – especially after we saw the news about The Helix .
We tried calling you and leaving voicemails but you never answered.
I had to check you were all right after, y’know, what happened back home. ’
‘ This is my home, Tom. And here I am, alive and well.’
I busied myself washing the rotting food juices off my hands and making my cup of tea, grabbing another mug from the cupboard and chucking a bag in it for Tom.
I poured in the boiling water, annoyed my hands were trembling.
I grabbed a teaspoon from the drawer and drowned each floating teabag in turn while I spoke.
‘To be honest, I don’t know why you’re here.
What’s motivated you to just turn up like this?
Guilt for stringing me along? Pity for poor old Mally and her pathetic, lonely life? ’
‘No, neither of those things. I hope you realise that I had absolutely nothing to do with whatever plan Ryan and Elle had concocted between themselves.’
A bubble of hope broke the surface, but I smothered it down, just like the teabags.
‘Oh, come on, so Ryan never told you he was keeping my dad’s car hostage at Elle’s insistence?’
‘Absolutely not. Like I told you in Scarnbrook, me and Ryan have been drifting apart for ages now. Calling him about your breakdown was the first time I’d spoken to him all year.’
I threw my hands in the air in exasperation, the teaspoon clattering to the ground. ‘I just don’t know who to believe any more! My life suddenly feels like The Truman Show . For all I know, the constant appearance of Nutrigrain bars could be a paid-for product placement situation.’
‘Now you come to mention it, did you know they bring together all your favourite breakfast ingredients into one tasty bar…’
My mouth dropped open and Tom’s voice faded out as it dissolved into laughter.
‘Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,’ he said, his shoulders still shaking with amusement.
I whipped him with a tea towel and tried very hard not to smile.
‘Ouch! But, yes, I deserved that. Listen, Mally, please. I spoke to Ryan earlier. Or last night. Or whenever it was. I shouted at him if you want to know the truth. He told me everything. It was only him who was in touch with Elle, and she’d sworn him to secrecy.
Apparently, the plan all along had been for Ryan to bring Darren to the pub quiz that night in an attempt to set you up on a disastrous date for your article.
And she’d booked that poky rental purely because it was so close to The Star. ’
‘Yes, I know all of that. But did you know I was going to be in Scarnbrook last week?’
‘No, I didn’t. I swear. When I’d ended up calling Ryan from the petrol station disaster, he and Elle couldn’t believe their luck.
She convinced him to hang on to the car for as long as possible to keep you in Scarnbrook so you could gather more material for your piece.
I feel so awful for what’s happened, Mally.
And I’m so sorry that I seem to have inadvertently fuelled the flames of their deceit. ’
Fuelled the flames of their deceit. Gosh. Despite everything, I couldn’t help but feel a little wobble of longing triggered by his turn of phrase.
‘What about Carly? And Becky?’
‘They had no idea, either. In fact, Ryan has begged me not to say anything to Carly for fear of what it might do to their relationship given his history with Elle.’
‘Yeah, he asked the same of me.’
‘Well, there you go then.’ Tom’s teeth chattered as he spoke.
‘Shit, you’re still cold.’
I felt the nearest radiator. It was freezing – the heating wasn’t scheduled to come on for a couple of hours.
I boosted the thermostat on the mantelpiece but the warmth wouldn’t kick in for at least thirty minutes.
And the wood burner would need hours of fuel – and actual logs, which I hadn’t restocked for at least a couple of years – before it finally threw out any kind of heat into the room.
‘Right, don’t argue with me but I’m going to run you a bath. It’s the quickest way to warm you up. You can take your cuppa in with you.’
‘Um, yeah, okay.’
I glugged a decent amount of Feel Relaxed Radox into the running water, wondering to myself exactly when I’d last Felt Relaxed, and sloshed it about with my hand while Tom watched on in the increasingly steamy room.
‘There you go. Have a soak and just shout if you need anything.’
‘Thanks, this is… all a bit embarrassing.’
‘Tom, you were mopping up my vomit not long ago. I think my shame still tops yours.’
‘Yeah, fair enough.’
I stepped out into the hallway and started panicking internally. I was acutely aware that I was looking my absolute worst while Tom Brinton’s naked skin was absorbing the warmth of the water mere inches away. In my bathtub.
I crept into my bedroom and examined myself in the mirror.
Argh. So bad. I hadn’t changed out of my tatty pyjamas for over a day, let alone crossed paths with any shower gel.
I changed into my ‘best’ PJs under my dressing gown (so it didn’t look like I’d made an effort), slapped some nice-smelling moisturiser onto my face, ran a brush through my hair and sprayed some Impulse down my pyjama top.
I was about to scrabble about for something minty to chew on when Tom called out from the bathroom.
‘Umm, Mally, can you hear me?’
‘Yep!’
‘It’s just that I need a towel.’
‘Shit, yeah. Hang on.’
I fetched a soft beach towel from the top shelf of my wardrobe, deducing that my standard towels probably wouldn’t be big enough for him. I tapped the bathroom door, which opened a crack, his long, damp arm poking out. I pressed the towel into his outstretched fingers.
‘Ta.’
The door closed and I made my way back to the living room to make a start on my cup of tea. He joined me on the sofa a few minutes later.
‘Warmer?’
‘Yes, thanks.’
But I could still detect a tremor in his voice.
‘You’re still shivering, though. Let me grab you a blanket. Or I can see if I’ve got any tin foil if you prefer?’
‘I’m never going to live that down, am I?’
‘Never.’
‘A blanket would be good, but I’m not cold any more, Mally. I think I’m just a bit… nervous.’