Chapter 19 #3
It took me ten minutes to find a phone box, and another five to convince Lennon that he needed to call me a locksmith, or someone that could help me get Ashley’s door open.
Thirty minutes later, it was Milo that turned up with his tool kit. I swear that bloke was a safe cracker, or something equally dodgy in the past.
“Nice place.” Milo stated sarcastically as he walked to the bottom of the stairs. “Jesus, Marls. Did someone take a shit on the landing or what?” He screwed up his face as he talked.
“Probably mate, probably.” It certainly smelt like it.
I knocked once more on Ashley’s door and told her that I had someone with me that was about to take her door off its hinges. I was once again met with a ‘fuck off,’ and threats of legal action if I dared touch her door.
While waiting for Milo, I kept the entry door wedged open with my bag of goodies and had a look around the place.
Most of the windows were boarded up; the guttering was hanging off, and there were roof tiles missing.
I was pretty sure the place should’ve been condemned at least thirty years ago, leaving me convinced that no one would be suing me for taking a door off.
Milo started to pick at the lock and it sprung open in an instant. Next we used brute force, but it turned out that Ashley, was in fact, a little liar. The only other security she had in place was the chain, which Milo broke with one shove of his shoulder.
Milo stood back and I stepped inside the door before coming to a complete standstill.
What. The. Fuck?
There was a mattress on the floor, which Ash was sitting on, her back to the wall.
Her eyes were red and watery as she watched me take in the room.
Next to the bed was a small wooden table with a saucer on it.
Resting on the saucer and flickering wildly was a large candle.
There were three others burning around the room, and those were the only source of light.
There was a clothes rail, and the clothes hanging from it, along with the shoes lined up underneath, looked totally out of place in those surroundings.
There was a doorway off to the left, and I could see through it to a room that contained a small sink and toilet, but the saddest part of all, the bit that really hurt my heart, was the childlike suns that had been painted or chalked in bright yellow on the boarded up windows.
I looked from them, back down to where she was sitting on top of her purple and silver bedding. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them with a tissue in her hand.
“Ash,” I said quietly. “I bought some cold and flu tablets, stuff for your sore throat, and pain killers. I know you said last night it was hurting.”
“Why are you here?” she croaked.
“I was worried about you, baby. You said you didn’t feel well last night, and then today when I went to the shop…”
She shook her head and I trailed off.
“Well, now you can leave.”
“What? Why would I leave? I thought I could come play at being doctor Marley, or nurse Marley if you’d prefer. Whatever floats your boat, baby.” I wiggled my eyebrows and gave her my best rock star on the front of a magazine smile.
“Don’t make out, Marley. Don’t pretend that you want to spend another second in this place.” She held her hands out as if she was presenting her home to me, her pride and joy, instead of a room that was really not even fit for the rats she probably shared it with.
“I wanna be wherever you are, Ash.”
“Yeah?” She tilted her chin in the way she did when she was feeling challenged.
“Yeah.” I nodded my head and hoped that she could see that I meant it.
“Well, the last place I wanna be is here.” She started to cry. “How could you, Marley? How could you come here? I’m so ashamed, I’m so embarrassed.”
I fight to stop my bottom lip from trembling. “The last place you wanna be is here? You don’t wanna be here?” I asked.
She wiped her tears on the sleeve of her hoodie and shook her head no.
“Milo,” I called out.
“Boss?” He popped his head in around the door.
“Pull the car up to the front doors and I’ll take Ash down to it. Can you come back up and gather all of her clothes, shoes, anything personal, and bring it down for me please?”
“No problemo, Marls.” He disappeared out of view and I walked towards Ashley.
“What are you doing?’
“You’re coming home with me. I’m calling you a doctor and while you get yourself better at my place, we’ll find you somewhere else to live.”
“Somewhere with lights and glass in the windows and everything?”
“And everything.” I promised her.
She looked up at me through watery blue eyes. My heart pounded in my chest, echoing in my throat and ears. I’d hoped she wouldn’t fight me on this because there was no fucking way I was leaving her there.
She let out a long sigh.
“I’m not sure Marls, I’m just not sure.”
“Ash, look, whatever you might think of me and my reputation, all I wanna do is help you out right now.”
“Why?” Her chin wobbled as she asked and I hated that she just didn’t get that I was genuinely interested.
“Like I keep trying to tell you, I like you, a lot. I like being with you. I don’t know Ash, I don’t have the words.
I just know that I’ve never felt like this before.
I need to know you’re safe and that ain’t gonna happen if I leave you here, so either you come to mine, or I’m staying here with you. ”
“I might not want you here with me.”
“Tough fucking shit. Them’s your options, baby.”
She looked around the room before she looked back at me, saying so quietly, I could only just make it out, “I’ll come with you.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck as I lifted her up. “I still ain’t shagging ya,” she said in my ear.
“We’ll see about that, sweetheart … we’ll see.”