CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
‘I wouldn’t have agreed to Mo joining our little group if I’d thought she was going to radicalise us!’ I fumed to Cheryl, as we jogged along together. ‘She and her stupid war against the male population. I mean, yes, I was a little bit anti-men after the way Richard treated me, but the idea that they’re the inferior sex and every last one of them is either an idiot or a nasty scumbag is absolutely ridiculous.’
‘Wild,’ agreed Cheryl in between sharp intakes of breath. ‘No way was I going to wear that T-shirt.’ She chuckled. ‘It was funny, though. That poor man couldn’t get away fast enough after he read the slogan on your chest. What was his name? Callum?’
‘Caleb,’ I muttered, my cheeks pulsing hotter at the memory. ‘Actually, he was probably rushing back to his girlfriend.’
‘Girlfriend?’
‘I think it’s his girlfriend. I’m not sure.’
‘Hmm.’ She looked across at me. ‘So how do you know him?’
I gave her a rough explanation, starting with Ivan the Terrible and my stand-off with the bulldozer and how Caleb had tried to calm things down. ‘He’s the boss of a building company. They’re building eco houses over at Lockley Meadow.’
‘Oh, I think I saw him on TV being interviewed about it,’ she said. ‘I thought he looked familiar somehow.’
‘That’s him,’ I said bluntly. ‘A bit too full of himself if you ask me.’
Cheryl nodded thoughtfully. Then she pointed up ahead. ‘Dot looks as if she’s flagging.’
‘Oh, yes.’ Dot had stopped and was leaning over, hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath.
We slowed down beside her and Cheryl asked her if she was okay.
Dot grinned. ‘Not used to this. I think I ran too fast off the starter blocks and peaked early.’
‘Me, too,’ I commiserated. ‘Why don’t we walk for a while instead?’
‘Great.’
‘I’ll catch Ray up,’ said Cheryl. ‘He looks a bit lonely running all on his own.’ She gave us a cheerful wave and jogged away.
‘Shall we walk this bit by the river?’ I suggested. ‘Then start running again when we get to the industrial estate?’
‘Sounds good.’ Dot nodded. ‘I... sorry about Mo. She can be a bit overbearing at times but she’s got a good heart.’
I smiled. ‘I’m sure she has. And I can understand her suspicion regarding men. Speaking from experience, if you’ve been badly betrayed in love it can hit really hard and affect everything in your life... including your attitude to the male sex.’ I stopped, remembering what Dot herself had been through at the hands of a controlling man. ‘I mean, you’ll know all about that,’ I said softly. ‘It must have been really bad. Thank goodness the women’s refuge was there in case you needed it.’
‘Sorry?’ She narrowed her eyes at me.
My heart sank.
She must have sworn Mo to secrecy. I’d just assumed that because Mo told me about Dot’s controlling relationship it must be common knowledge. But clearly, it wasn’t.
‘Sorry, Dot. Mo told me about it in confidence. I haven’t mentioned it to anyone else and I wouldn’t, I promise.’
She shook her head. ‘But why would I have needed a women’s refuge? Did Mo tell you I did?’
‘It’s okay. Just forget I ever said anything.’ I felt so uncomfortable. I’d only been trying to sympathise with Dot but somehow, I’d managed to put my foot in it.
‘What did she say about my Pete, my ex?’ asked Dot.
‘Erm... well, just that he was a bit controlling so you were forced to escape?’
She laughed and shook her head in disbelief. ‘Talk about an exaggeration! That’s typical Mo.’
‘So he wasn’t? Controlling?’
‘No! Well, he was in that we had to watch the football if it was on, regardless of whether I wanted to watch my favourite soap. But that was just a standing joke between us. He’s the biggest football fan ever and I totally understood.’ She shrugged. ‘We bought another telly and then we were both happy.’
‘Right. So . . . you didn’t split because . . .?’
‘Pete was controlling? No! We just drifted apart.’
‘But why would Mo say all of that?’ I murmured, wondering if I’d somehow misunderstood what she’d told me about Dot.
She sighed. ‘It’s because she doesn’t think logically when it comes to men treating women badly. It all stems from when she was in her early twenties and due to marry her long-term fiancé Will. The rotten bastard left her standing on her own at the altar.’
‘What?’ I stared at Dot in horror. ‘You mean he was actually at the church and then he bolted when Mo arrived?’
Dot nodded sadly. ‘I was her chief bridesmaid and the night before the wedding, I spotted Will in a bar, sitting with a woman he worked with. I assumed it must be just a friendly good luck drink and I mentioned it to Mo. But later, it turned out they’d been getting close for months and Will realised as he waited for Mo at the church that he couldn’t go through with it because he was in love with this woman.’
‘Oh, that’s awful. Poor Mo. She must have been absolutely devastated.’
‘She was. And it really affected her psychologically. For years she wouldn’t even contemplate seeing other guys. And then when she finally did start dating, if she found herself getting too close to a man, she’d always find a reason to end it – even if they were perfectly lovely guys. I thought with Gaz it might be different. But I think she’s still trapped in that awful self-destructive cycle. I don’t think she can bear the thought that she might get hurt again, like she was that day at the church. More than ten years later, she still can’t trust a man with her heart. It’s all so sad.’
‘It really is. So... what about Gaz? She said she ended it because she found out he’d been unfaithful to her with her sister?’
Dot shook her head sadly. ‘Not true. He and Mo’s sister did have a drunken fumble but that was before he even met Mo. In fact, it was her sister who introduced them.’
‘So she was kind of using that discovery as an excuse to end things with Gaz?’
‘Well, I think so. She seems really into him and then suddenly, she’s calling it off again. She’s just so terrified of getting too involved.’
‘Why did she say that about you and the women’s refuge, though?’ I wondered.
‘Oh, I guess because she’s really protective of me. We’ve been friends since schooldays. And she never thought Pete was good enough for me. She’d have picked up on things like our friendly fights over the remote control and interpreted them as bad behaviour on Pete’s part. But it definitely wasn’t controlling. Pete was actually a real softie. It’s just that Mo’s view of men is really skewed.’
‘That’s so sad,’ I murmured, thinking about poor Mo, all excited about getting married to the love of her life and then being dumped so cruelly at the church.
It was a good lesson in how you shouldn’t judge people on first appearance without knowing their back stories. Because the things that happened to you in your life tended to shape the person you became.
I’d been quite scathing about Mo’s tendency to be rather brusque and domineering.
Now, I just wanted to give her a big hug...