Chapter Five
Maddie leaped up from the floor and moved closer so she could hear the conversation better as her father put them on speakerphone. Behind her, James and Stevie were on their feet, watching Ben pace around the living room.
“Dad, don’t panic,” Marley said right away. “We’re fine, we’re not hurt.”
“What’s happened? Where are you?”
“Calm down, Dad, we’re—” Marley tried.
Ben was not listening, nor was he calm. “I’m coming right now. Where are you?”
Marley sighed. “Pass the phone to Maddie, Dad,” he said.
Ben did as he was told.
“Where are you?” she said straight away.
“Blossom Lane. We’re fine, we just broke down. We’re fine, Maddie, I promise. We’re off the road and in the car — safe, just freezing. I don’t want Mum and Dad racing down here and hurting themselves. The roads are treacherous.”
James seemed to take that as his cue to jump into action. He marched over to Ben and put his arm around him, guiding him back to his armchair.
“I’ve only called to tell you because it’s a four-hour wait for the RAC and we can’t get a taxi,” he continued.
“I’ve had two glasses of wine,” she said. “One when I was cooking and another just now, so one of them is going to have to come with me.”
“Can James drive?”
Maddie’s eyes darted to James. He was nodding at her.
Maddie had to work hard not to roll her eyes.
Not at James — he was being helpful and she was extremely grateful, because she did not want her parents out on the roads in this weather — but at the universe in general.
It seemed she was fated to spend time with this man.
She wasn’t sure why. Perhaps her will was being tested.
“Can you leave them at home and you two come instead?” Marley said.
“Fine, we’re on our way.”
* * *
They took her parents’ 4x4 for ease. Despite that, the journey — ordinarily fifteen minutes — took them half an hour.
Maddie and James spoke of nothing but the snow.
When they weren’t talking about the weather, they sat in awkward silence.
It was torturous, but necessary. Maddie was grateful for his help, but she didn’t want him to think all was forgotten.
Her dislike of him was deep, and he’d need to do more than this to earn her forgiveness.
By the time they arrived, a fellow motorist had taken pity on the stranded couple. Autumn and Marley were sitting in the back seat of a silver Jaguar. Maddie was relieved. She’d been fretting they’d be freezing the whole way there.
James pulled up behind them and he, Marley and Maddie got out. As they did, Marley rushed towards Maddie.
“I need you to insist we still go out,” he said quietly.
Maddie was confused. “What?”
“Autumn wants to wait for the RAC and then go home, but I need you to insist we go out and to drop us at the restaurant,” he said.
“OK.” Maddie was bewildered. The snow was coming down thick and fast and the RAC were on their way.
It would make more sense for Autumn and Marley to postpone their evening and Maddie had presumed that’s what they would do.
There must be a good reason Marley was adamant they still go out, but for the life of her Maddie couldn’t work out what it was.
James seemed to get it. “I’ll insist,” he said, nodding at Marley. Marley patted him gratefully on the shoulder.
Autumn climbed out of the back of the Jaguar, calling “thank you, thank you so much” over and over again to the lady in the driver’s seat.
She teetered precariously over to them in her heels, reaching out to take Marley’s hand when he offered it to her.
When she reached them she sighed. “Can we go home now?”
“No, don’t be silly — we can drop you off!” James said.
Autumn shook her head. “No, it’s fine, James. We’re late for our reservation. I vote we cancel the RAC until the morning and call it a night. I’m cold and pissed off. I’m not even hungry anymore.”
“It’s not that late,” James said, ushering them all towards the car. “We’re so close to the restaurant now, it’ll take us ten minutes, tops.”
Autumn caught Maddie’s eye and visibly gritted her teeth. Her friend wanted her to intervene and agree with her, but Maddie’s hands were tied by Marley’s plea, so she smiled sheepishly and climbed into the front seat of the car. Autumn and Marley got in the back.
“Ready?” James asked, starting the engine.
Maddie saw Marley nod enthusiastically, reaching for his girlfriend’s hand.
Autumn rolled her eyes and stared out of the window.
Maddie felt so sorry for her. She probably wanted to climb into bed and forget tonight had ever happened.
Autumn, like Maddie, had no real tolerance for things that did not go according to plan.
She would want to run back to the safety of her home and the predictability of everyday life.
Once a busy socialite, the past few years had carved her into a woman who happily no longer prioritised adventure.
The slow stability, comfort and mundaneness of an ordinary day was what was wanted.
Every morning, Autumn rose early to eat breakfast with Marley and Benjamin, kissed Marley goodbye before he went to work, took Benjamin to school, then sat at a vintage oak writing bureau and wrote books all day.
She’d put dinner in the slow cooker at lunchtime and work until it was time to pick Benjamin up, at 3.
15 p.m. Sometimes they went to the park, most of the time they went straight home and ate dinner together in front of the television.
She’d put him to bed at 8 p.m. and work until Marley came home, usually some time between midnight and 1 a.m. Autumn didn’t view writing as work.
It was her absolute favourite thing to do.
Her first published book — Beans: An Extraordinary Pig Tale — had been a realistic portrayal of what life was like for factory-farmed pigs.
Then she’d written a book called Henpecked , about egg-laying hens.
Both books had won awards. From there she’d moved into the contemporary romance genre, where she had excelled in writing love stories that subtly forced readers to consider important moral questions, not least euthanasia, a subject that felt personal to her, given what Bowie had gone through.
She was known as a master of character dialogue and an expert builder of sexual tension.
She had been hailed particularly for the way she wrote the preceding moments before a big event, something Autumn liked to call ‘the time before’.
‘The time before’ was essentially the moment before everything changed — the hour before a bomb went off, the minute before a man won the lottery, the seconds before two new lovers kissed — a pivotal moment in history, on a small or a large scale.
Autumn loved these moments and spent a lot of time crafting them, forcing her readers to care deeply about her characters, before dragging them out of ‘the time before’ and into a completely different set of circumstances.
She loved it. Work was not a drag for her, it was a hobby she happened to be good enough at to get paid for.
Every now and then she’d be asked to attend a book signing or give a talk on writing, veganism or feminism — the key themes in most of her books — which would take her away from home for a couple of nights at a time.
When that happened, Maddie, Emma and Ben would step in to help Marley with Benjamin, but most days passed in the exact same way, and Autumn was glad about that.
She felt safe and secure, she and Marley had built a home where nobody slammed doors or shouted.
She was happy. She was pleased to indulge Marley in his desire for something different every now and then, but only if it came without drama.
Marley knew this. He understood it and respected it.
He would know in no uncertain terms that Autumn was frustrated and homesick.
Maddie found herself wondering once again why her brother was so insistent that they go out.
* * *
James was right, the drive didn’t take long.
Once they reached the main road the snow had mostly cleared, blasted into oblivion by a steady stream of traffic.
They took Autumn and Marley right to the door of their favourite restaurant, a pizzeria called Il Pomodoro, and bid them a hearty goodbye.
Then, with James insisting he was happy to wait with Maddie for the RAC, they made their way back towards the stranded vehicle.
It would save Autumn and Marley a job in the morning, he said.
“Should we go get a coffee or something before we head back to the car?” Maddie asked. She was usually in bed early and was exhausted at the very thought of what they were proposing to do.
“Good idea.” James nodded. “There’s a drive-through just up here.”
They ordered soya caramel lattes with extra coffee and a jammy pastry each, then made their way at a snail’s pace back to the car.
James yawned the entire way there. Since her parents’ initial fears for Autumn’s and Marley’s safety would have almost certainly subsided, Maddie offered to drop James at home and pick up her dad instead, but he shook his head, defiant.
He was fine, he insisted. He just needed some caffeine.
They parked a short distance away from the car in a lay-by, where they could see the vehicle and would spot the approaching RAC.
They left the engine running so they could have the heating on, pushed their chairs as far back as they could go, then Maddie put her feet up on the dash and settled back to eat her pastry.
James was already part-way through his. He put the radio on, navigating to a station that played 00s hits.
Maddie caught his eye and smiled, grateful that he hadn’t chosen a channel full of songs she wouldn’t recognise.
Clearly surprised by the gesture, he smiled back.