Chapter Twelve
What do I do? Seriously, what the hell do I do?
I looked out of the window and, the snow is slowly clearing, but it doesn’t look like any cars are getting anywhere any time soon, so my chances of getting a taxi are slim.
Did Chris leave on foot? I guess that’s what I’ll have to do too. Take my chances in the snow.
With it being morning, and daylight, I’ll need to be careful. If someone were to see me… they might call the police!
Obviously, I forget that the front door doesn’t open until I try it, and then I remember the thing about the garage door. The problem then being that I can’t open the garage door. Only Chris can open it, with the remote control he has.
Oh my God, has he seriously locked me in here? Is that his plan? Get himself off the hook by throwing me under the bus? I can’t believe him.
I have a brainwave before I risk hurting myself by climbing out of a window. The bi-folding doors! Chris came in through them yesterday so I imagine the key is inside. I won’t be able to lock it behind me but it will be fine, right? No one is going to trek through a snowstorm to try their luck breaking into a house. No one but Chris, anyway.
I run to the dining room and I’m a little taken aback when I see Chris on the other side of the doors, letting himself back in.
‘Oh my God, Chris, I thought you’d left me here alone,’ I blurt.
It suddenly occurs to him what it must have been like for me to come down here and see that he was gone.
‘Shit, I’m so, so sorry,’ he says. ‘I can’t have been outside for more than 15 minutes. I walked down to the games room, to get you this.’
Chris holds up an ancient-looking box of Scrabble.
‘I figured I had a lot of making up to do and, you’re right, I am selfish, and I do think I know best, so I just wanted to give a little, and if that meant you kicking my arse at Scrabble over breakfast…’
‘No, look, you were right,’ I tell him. ‘I’m not delighted at the way you went about it, but calling Claire was absolutely the right thing to do, I feel so much better having spoken to her. We’ve patched things up.’
‘That’s amazing,’ he says. ‘I’m so pleased for you. And, again, I’m sorry. I just thought…’
‘It’s OK, I know what you thought,’ I interrupt him. ‘You were going to tell me life is short, and it is. I feel so guilty, with my dumb family squabbles, when you clearly miss your family so much.’
‘You’re allowed to fall out with your relatives,’ he tells me. ‘I just wanted to help you fix things. I don’t know why I’m being so ridiculous I just… I really like you.’
‘I really like you too,’ I tell him. ‘So, what now?’
Chris smiles.
‘Well, the snow is starting to clear, so I think our time as Lord and Lady of the manor might be coming to an end,’ he says. ‘But you’ve been right all along, we absolutely shouldn’t be here, and I’ve managed to book us into a B&B on the other side of the island – it’s in a lighthouse!’
He sounds so excited at the idea of a B&B in a lighthouse. To be honest, I am too.
‘So, let me make you breakfast, and thrash me at Scrabble, and then we’ll set about making the place look like we were never here,’ he says. ‘We can check it any time after 4 pm.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ I tell him.
‘Set the game up,’ he says. ‘I’ll start breakfast.’
‘I could get so used to this,’ I reply with a big, dumb grin on my face.
‘Well, feel free to, just imagine it in a much smaller house, moving forward,’ he replies.
So, I set up the Scrabble board, and make a point of giving Chris some nice, easy letters, because if he starts off on a winning streak he might actually enjoy it, and then head into the kitchen to help with breakfast.
Chris looks so at home in a kitchen and, it might be an odd thing to say so early on, but I feel so at home with Chris.
I feel like I’ve stumbled upon something really amazing with him – something I had no idea was coming. I honestly can’t believe my luck.
Considering I don’t usually do things like this, I have to say, I think it’s worked out pretty well.