Chapter 35
Elise had offered to work a couple of shifts over the school holidays. She was waiting outside the shop for me on Monday morning and glanced at her watch as I fumbled with my keys in the door. ‘Cutting it a bit fine this morning, aren’t we?’ It was two minutes until opening time.
‘Don’t,’ I mumbled. I felt stressed enough about being late without anyone commenting on it. ‘It’s been a hideous weekend and I slept through the alarm this morning.’
Getting the door open at last, I flipped the sign round to open and headed into The Outback to get the float for the till. ‘Can you watch things? I’ll just be a minute.’
‘Sure.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Elise said when I’d brought her up to date on the Andy situation between serving customers. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Angry but relieved.’
‘You did the right thing. I hate to be the bearer of more bad news but you know the fireworks he said he’d organised…?’
‘Another lie?’
She nodded. ‘Sorry. The landlady of The Ship was celebrating her fiftieth birthday and twenty-five years of being a landlady with—’
‘With a firework display that would have been seen over the castle?’
Elise nodded. ‘It was in this morning’s paper. I was wondering how to tell you.’
I covered my face with my hands and muttered. ‘Oh, Elise, I’ve made such a mess of things this past week or so.’
‘Hey. You didn’t make a mess of anything. Andy did this; not you.’
I looked at her sadly. ‘But I could have told him to get lost right at the start. I could have stuck with Nick but I had to be blinded by the whole Steven thing.’
‘What are you going to do about Nick?’
‘I honestly don’t know. I know I want to be with him but I can’t decide whether he’s moved on or not.
We saw him with Blonde and you’ve seen them twice since, but then he sent me that lovely text.
You wouldn’t send something like that if you were seeing someone else, would you?
’ Something about Elise’s expression concerned me. ‘More bad news?’
‘I’ve seen them together again. Twice more.’
‘No!’
‘Sorry.’
‘When? Where?’
‘In her car at the lights near the theatre yesterday afternoon and I saw them on foot the night before but I can’t remember where.’
I hardly dared ask but I had to know. ‘Did they seem… together?’
‘Ooh. I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that. When I saw them on foot, he had his arm round her.’
‘I guess that’s that, then.’ I swallowed hard on the huge lump in my throat.
‘It could still have been innocent.’
‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’
Elise slowly shook her head. ‘I want to, though.’
‘Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea. Or plenty more Stevens on .’
‘And you don’t really believe that, do you?’ said Elise.
I shook my head and sighed. ‘I really do think Nick was The One and I’ve let him slip away. He was obviously just being nice in his text on Saturday and I’ve built it up to be something I want it to be. I guess I know why he didn’t reply to my text about Andy leaving. He doesn’t care.’
‘You know that’s not true,’ Elise said. ‘I know the evidence points towards Nick and Blonde being together, but we don’t know that for certain and, even if they are, it doesn’t mean it’s anything serious. He said he’d wait for you however long it takes, didn’t he?’
‘Words. Only words.’
Elise gave me a hug. ‘So what now?’
I sighed and shrugged. The only certainty I felt was that my search for Steven was over.
For me, it had to be Nick or nobody. And terrifying as the thought was of being alone like Uncle Alan, I knew that I’d rather be alone than with the wrong person like Jason or Andy.
And, as Auntie Kay had pointed out, I had family and great friends so I’d never truly be alone. I hoped.