Chapter 21
Of This You Can Be Sure
‘Should I call Rose?’
‘It’s a DECFON ONE situation,’ was all Holly said.
‘Again?’
If Holly wasn’t in the midst of a spiral, she might have taken offence at the disbelief in Rose’s voice.
‘Yes, again. Get your arse over here, ASAP. I’ve had to wait for you to get back from your sodding weekend away with my inconsiderate brother. Time is of the essence.’
Five minutes later, a gentle knock at the door alerted Holly to Rose’s arrival, and she carefully walked the few steps to the door.
When Holly had finally made it to her appointment a couple of days ago, her consultant had thankfully squeezed her in.
He’d proclaimed her ankle as healed, but she’d struggled to focus on anything else he’d said.
Seb’s attempts at an explanation of what had transpired twelve years ago, trumped whatever news the consultant wanted to impart - good or bad.
She’d listened to Seb’s experience of that night, interjecting just once to clarify she most definitely had not described Seb as her second brother, before retreating back into herself.
The revelation he had actually liked her back then should have been that scene in the rom-coms she loved to watch, when the characters declared their feelings and were overcome with their latent passion.
She should have launched herself at him and made out in the back seat whilst the traffic continued to back up behind them.
But instead, Holly had felt hollowed out.
After the initial shock of seeing Sloane and Seb kissing on the night of her birthday, Holly had decided it had been inevitable.
Sloane had always been the prettier, more outgoing of the two, so of course Seb would want her instead.
It didn’t make it hurt any less though. When Seb moved away to Leeds, Holly had felt so alone.
Sloane had left too. In the space of one night, she’d lost both her friends.
Sloane hadn’t even reached out when Holly and Luke’s parents had died - and with her mum still living in the Bay, she knew Sloane would have been told about the accident.
Her best friend for so many years had ghosted her. And now, twelve years later, Holly had to deal with the fact she’d lied to her. One simple lie, told to each of them had changed the course of their lives.
*
Holly unlatched the door and took in the shivering mess that was Rose on her doorstep.
‘It’s bloody freezing out here, hurry up and let me in!’
‘Wear more substantial pyjamas and you wouldn’t feel the cold,’ Holly offered her advice with a wink.
Rose fingered the delicate cream lacy shorts and vest set she wore.
‘Your brother bought me these though, he–’
‘Urgh, stop talking and get inside.’
Rose chuckled as she stepped inside and grabbed one of the blankets Holly kept in a large basket by the chairs in the window seat of the pub.
‘OK, what’s the emergency that dragged me from your brother’s embrace this morning,’ she said as she sat and got herself comfy under the blanket. Then stopped and grinned, ‘Wait. You walked without your crutches!’
‘My consultant wanted me to stop using them as soon as possible. I still need to wear the boot for longer walks, but it feels so good to not wear it all the time.’
‘Amazing!’ Rose beamed at her.
‘Thanks.’ Holly smiled back.
‘So what’s with the emergency call out?’
‘I had an eventful conversation with Seb,’ Holly dangled the nugget of information out for Rose to latch onto.
‘Right…’
‘More life altering than eventful, if I’m being honest.’
Holly could see the delight in Rose’s widening eyes, but her friend managed to kept her voice under control as she said, ‘And?’
‘And, I don’t know what to do about it?’ Holly wailed, dropping her head to her hands.
‘Get me up to speed. What was the conversation about?’
‘My birthday.’
‘The birthday?’ Rose couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice anymore.
‘Yes the birthday.’
‘Oh my God. OK, give me a second,’ she fluttered out a breath and rubbed her face, ‘I need to prepare myself for this.’
‘You are such an idiot.’
‘I know you are, but what am I?’
‘Ten, apparently?’
‘Quit stalling, Loxley, and tell me what happened at your 21st birthday party.’
Holly took a couple of seconds to prepare herself before she relayed the memory she’d banned herself and Luke from ever talking about.
‘So in 2007, I was really into Keanu Reeves and The Lake House.’
‘Who wasn’t?’ Rose interrupted, then apologised, ‘Sorry, please continue.’
‘Thank you. As I was saying, I was really into The Lake House, and I also fancied the pants off Seb. I concocted this plan - I wrote him a letter, telling him how much I liked him and saying if he liked me too, to meet me, before the party.’
‘Cute.’
‘That’s what I thought. But when I told Sloane–’
‘Sloane?’
‘My best friend from school.’
‘Why am I only hearing about her now?’
‘If you let me finish, you’ll find out,’ Holly groaned.
Rose mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key, so Holly continued.
‘When I told Sloane, she said it was a stupid idea - really immature. She offered to tell him instead, to act as the go between for us.’
‘I’m sensing Sloane is the Iago in this story?’
Rose’s promised silence had lasted all of six seconds. But Holly didn’t mind - she hadn’t expected her to not interrupt - this was Rose.
‘The who?’ Holly asked - she had no idea who or even what an Iago was.
‘Iago, Holly. Othello? Shakespeare? The greatest villain ever known?’
‘Never heard of him.’ Holly shrugged.
‘What am I going to do with you?’ Rose groaned.
Holly rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.
‘So what happened next. I’m guessing Seb didn’t show up?’ Rose prompted Holly to carry on her story.
‘Not only did he not show up, but Sloane told me he didn’t like me like that.
That he saw me as a sister.’ Rose started to say something, but Holly held a finger up, halting her, ‘It got worse. When I stepped outside the pub during the party, heartbroken he didn’t like me, I saw him and Sloane snogging up against the wall of the pub. ’
Rose’s shocked gasp was instantaneous, ‘Nooo?’
‘Yes’
‘What a cow!’
Holly nodded. ‘I didn’t speak to Seb for years afterwards - not until Mum and Dad’s funeral.’
‘What about Sloane?’
‘I didn’t want to lose both of them. I didn’t even tell Sloane that I’d seen them together. But, it didn’t matter in the end. She ghosted me. It started off as a few unanswered texts, and then she changed her number.’
‘OK, so that’s what happened at the birthday party. What’s the deal with the conversation at the weekend with Seb?’
‘He said Sloane told him I thought of him as a brother, and could never fancy him.’
‘She didn’t? Oh my God, Holly, she is Iago. At least Seb didn’t kill you though.’
Holly shook her head. ‘You are so weird, Rose, but I love you.’
Rose ran a hand through her hair, and winced.
‘What?’ Holly asked.
‘I get the trauma of the scheming Sloane did. But now you know neither of you think of the other as a sibling, what’s the emergency? Surely, now, it can be game on. I mean why aren’t you currently with him, instead of me, making up for the last twelve years of lost time?’
Holly sighed. ‘It feels like we’ve missed our chance. Everything felt perfect in 2007. The planets were aligned for us. Maybe we just weren’t meant to be?’
Holly reached for her trusted fortune telling cube that she’d left out on the table.
‘Seb gave me this for my birthday.’
‘On that birthday?’
Holly nodded. ‘Has mine and Seb’s time gone?’ she asked as she pressed the all too familiar rubber button.
Rose snatched it out of her hand before Holly could read the message.
‘You can’t let it decide,’ she said, outraged.
‘I don’t see why not. It hasn’t failed me yet.’
But Rose wouldn’t let her have it back. Instead, she pushed the button herself and asked, ‘Has Holly been using you instead of making her own decisions’. She blanched a little as she read the response.
‘Come on, disbeliever, what does it say?’
‘Yes,’ Rose read out the word, her scepticism fading.
Holly smiled, ‘Even though he broke my heart that night, I kept his gift and I’ve used it nearly every day since.’
‘Except, he didn’t break your heart, did he? Sloane did. Please talk to him?’
‘I don’t think I can, though. I feel so stupid.’
Whatever Rose was about to say was interrupted by a delivery arriving, and Holly left the pub to deal with the quiet commotion outside.
*
Rose watched on through the window. It looked like Holly would be busy for a while so she decided now was as good a time as any to sneak back to Luke’s warm chest. Before she could do that though, she felt a tug at her elbow.
‘Morning, Natalie,’ Rose said, not needing to look to know who it was.
‘Morning, Aunty Rose. I found a letter,’ Natalie announced - with absolutely no preamble. Rose loved pre-schoolers.
‘Is it for your Mummy?’
Natalie shrugged, and pulled out a lilac envelope from the bucket she always seemed to have with her now.
‘That looks like a pretty letter. Can I see?’
Natalie nodded, and thrust the letter into Rose’s face, narrowly missing her eyes.
‘It was under my bed,’ Natalie explained.
Rose took it, turning it over in her hands. When she traced her fingers over the faint letters on the front, her heart stuttered. She knew what this was.
‘Can I keep this for a bit?’
Holly’s daughter pouted, but Rose was undeterred. ‘I’ll take you for a milkshake at Tony’s?’
Natalie scrunched her face.
‘And a donut?’ Rose added.
The smile was immediate and Natalie’s eyes brightened as she replied with a simple, ‘Deal.’
*
When Holly finished with the delivery, she was relieved to see Rose had gone.
Which she knew was ridiculous - she’d been the one who had insisted she came over.
But Rose wasn’t telling Holly what she wanted to hear.
She needed someone to tell her she was being sensible.
To tell her that whatever had been between her and Seb was in the past.
‘Morning,’ Lucy called from the bottom of the stairs.
‘Morning. You’re up early - sleep well?’ Holly asked, pleased for the distraction of chatting with Lucy.