Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Immy closed down Xander’s laptop and yawned. She just could not shake this weariness today. As Xander pointed out, she’d had a hell of a night the evening before, her body going through a complete emotional rollercoaster, so it was no wonder she felt so tired today.
Xander had popped out to the shops and she had spent some time trying to order everything she would need for the Easter egg hunt again.
New cardboard bunny ears, all the Easter sweets.
She’d emailed over the map and clues to Belinda so she could get it printed out.
There was so much to organise which had already been meticulously planned weeks or months before but had sadly now gone up in smoke, quite literally.
And then there was the shop itself. Even if they got the go-ahead to start clearing it out and rebuilding and redecorating, the chances of getting all of that done by the weekend were very remote.
She hated the thought that the Easter egg hunt wouldn’t be able to go ahead.
She’d also had to email all the community groups to let them know that for the foreseeable future they wouldn’t be able to hold their weekly meetings in her shop too.
She felt like she was letting a lot of people down, even though none of it was her fault.
Her thoughts turned to Xander, again, because she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
Was she really going to spend another night in his bed, cuddled up with him, but then insist they were just friends during the day?
He was being really sweet and attentive right now and she knew she could fall for him very easily.
Was she cutting her nose off to spite her face by refusing to take it any further with him?
They got on well, had unbelievable chemistry and were having a baby together.
Didn’t she owe it to herself to give them another chance?
Suddenly the doorbell rang and Immy climbed off the sofa and went to the intercom to see who it was.
She could see Lizzie and Diya outside, waving almost manically at the camera.
She pressed the buzzer to let them up before thinking about it.
Would Xander be mad that she’d invited people into his home, even if they weren’t exactly strangers.
It was too late now because she could hear them coming up the stairs.
She opened the door to let them in.
‘Hello my love, we are so sorry to hear about your shop,’ Lizzie said, giving Immy a hug.
‘If there’s anything we can do please let us know,’ Diya said, hugging her too.
‘Thank you and I’m sorry that you won’t be able to hold your Knit ’n’ Natter group for a few weeks at least – or months if the insurance company has anything to do with it.’
‘Oh, don’t you worry about that,’ Diya said.
‘We can meet at each other’s houses instead.
We’ll miss your coffee and cake of course but we can make do in the meantime.
We know you had so many wonderful quirky decorations around the shop, all those sweet-based knick-knacks that you’d collected over the years, and I know those aren’t the worst things to lose, but we were talking about how we could help once you’re back on your feet.
We’ve decided we’re going to knit you some decorations to hang up in your shop.
Mandy is going to knit you an oversized fizzy cola bottle, I’m going to crochet one of those jelly fried eggs you get in the pick ’n’ mix.
Mary has volunteered to knit a fizzy snake and Stephen is going to knit one of those white chocolate buttons with sprinkles on it. ’
‘A jazzie,’ Immy said.
‘Yes, that’s it. I think Maz is going to knit a large jelly strawberry too. At least then once the shop is painted, you’ll have some decorations to hang in your shop. Temporarily of course. We know you’ll want to start collecting all those lovely sweet-themed ornaments again.’
‘That’s a lovely idea, thank you so much,’ Immy said, touched that they would go to so much trouble for her.
Lizzie waved it away. ‘No problem at all, you’ve always been so kind to us and the other community groups letting us use your room. There is a definite shortage of space round here to do these things. Is there much damage to the shop?’
‘It’s hard to tell at this stage. We can’t go in to check the damage until a building inspector can assess the shop and the structure of the building to make sure it’s safe.
From what I can see, most of the damage is at the back of the shop, near the till.
The door to the spare room where you have your meetings was closed so with any luck that would have been protected somewhat. ’
‘So fortunate Xander saw the fire and got you and Jacob out. It’s the talk of the town,’ Diya said.
‘How does everyone know that?’
‘Beth, who lives in the house next door, she saw it all happen. Actually she spotted the fire and called the fire brigade, but seconds later she saw Xander charging across the street, breaking into your flat and, a few moments later, carrying Jacob out and dragging you out too. It was all very heroic.’ Diya flapped her hand in front of her face as if she was getting hot under the collar at the thought of it.
‘Beth saw him holding you in his arms, stroking your hair and back. She watched him get you a jumper so you wouldn’t be cold. It sounds very romantic.’
‘I think he was just in the right place at the right time,’ Immy tried.
‘And then later when you came back from the hospital, he was holding you in his arms again, comforting you, and then you came back here to spend the night,’ Diya said, her eyebrows waggling mischievously.
‘Because I had nowhere to stay,’ Immy explained. ‘My sister is away and I didn’t even have my purse to book a hotel for the night.’
‘But Beth’s house is exactly the same as Xander’s layout-wise. Two bedrooms. I presume one of the bedrooms here is Etta’s,’ Lizzie said. ‘So where did you both sleep?’
Should Immy say that Xander slept on the sofa? But the sofa was only a two-seater with two big armchairs either side – if they saw the sofa they’d know Xander wouldn’t have fitted on there. Maybe she could say he had a blow-up mattress.
But clearly Immy was taking too long to answer that question because Diya and Lizzie suddenly started squealing in excitement as if they were two teenage girls at a Harry Styles’ concert.
Immy sighed. ‘We just slept in the same bed, nothing happened. Just two friends sleeping. I was exhausted, I wouldn’t have had the energy to do anything even if I wanted to, which I didn’t.’
Lizzie and Diya looked at each other knowingly as if they didn’t quite believe her.
‘And where are you staying tonight?’ Diya asked.
‘Umm, probably here but nothing is going to happen. He’s just been a good neighbour.’
Lizzie pulled out her phone, swiped the screen a few times and then turned it round to show Immy. ‘The look on his face is something a lot more than neighbourly. That boy is in love with you.’
It was a photograph of Xander from the night before, cupping her face and wiping her tears away.
Lizzie swiped the screen to show the next photo of Xander kissing her forehead and the next one of Xander taking her by the hand and leading her back towards his house.
Immy couldn’t believe that her weakest, most vulnerable moment was being spread around town like the most exciting piece of gossip.
She cleared her throat. ‘I’m glad to see that the moment my life fell apart, the most heartbreaking thing that’s ever happened to me, is the source of so much entertainment.’
Lizzie’s face fell. ‘Oh my god, I’m so sorry.
Of course, this is so wrong. I didn’t realise, I just got so excited about the prospect of the two of you being together that I got carried away.
I am so sorry. Of course this is something so awful for you and we’ve cheapened it by gossiping about the two of you, when we should have been more supportive.
I’m going to delete these off my phone and tell Beth to do the same. I’m so so sorry.’
Immy nodded. She didn’t want to say that they were forgiven because it still hurt, but she knew their intent was anything but malicious.
If it had been any other time, she probably would have found it amusing and been happy that they were so excited for her, but this photo of her crying after she’d lost everything was too much.
But they were her friends, she didn’t want to make a big deal of this, especially when Lizzie was so apologetic.
She also knew that in a few days half the town would probably know she was pregnant with Xander’s baby so it seemed a little wrong to get too angry about a photo of the two of them together.
‘I appreciate your apology,’ Immy said.
Diya took her hand. ‘I’m sorry too, this was completely thoughtless of us. If there is anything at all we can do to help with your shop, please do let us know.’
‘Thank you,’ Immy said, quietly.
They stood in awkward silence for a few moments.
‘We’re going to go, I really am sorry,’ Lizzie said.
They quickly left and Immy went back to the lounge and sat down heavily on the sofa.
She hated the thought that pictures of her crying had been circulated around the town, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the way Xander had been looking at her when he wiped away the tears in the photo.
The look of love that Lizzie had talked about had been as clear as day.
It was only a short while later that Xander returned from the shops, weighed down with multiple bags.
‘Hello,’ he called, going straight to the kitchen and putting something in the fridge. Then he came back to the lounge.
‘Hi,’ Immy said.
Inexplicably Jacob got off the chair to go and greet him. Clearly the little terrier didn’t have any reservations about giving his love away or keeping his heart protected.
Xander bent down and scratched Jacob’s ears before coming over to the sofa and sitting next to her.