Chapter 11 #3
‘I, um…’ She held out the bag. ‘I found this at my house. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it back sooner…’
‘It’s fine. I don’t blame you.’
‘I would have… I just honestly didn’t see it before this morning. I don’t know how I missed it. Just another Hudsbury thing, I guess.’
‘Maybe.’ Aiden seemed distracted – more interested in the decorative pumpkins in the window than in her. Painful, but she couldn’t blame him.
‘I guess I should get going. Bye, Aiden.’ She reached for the door, wanting him to stop her – to say something. Anything. But maybe, like her, he didn’t really know what to say.
The handle turned as it should, but the door remained firmly closed. She wriggled the key even though she hadn’t seen him lock the door. But it still stuck fast.
‘Let me try?’ Aiden leaned past her to tug at the door a couple of times. ‘Really? You’re actually going to do this?’
‘I didn’t do anything.’
‘I didn’t mean you.’ Aiden’s reply didn’t make sense. ‘Let’s try the back door.’
She followed him towards the back of the shop, past the painting that looked decidedly moody, and the closed shelves that hid the kitchen. The back door didn’t open either. Nor did the window. ‘If this is some sort of joke…’
‘It’s not my doing.’ Aiden held up his hands. ‘I swear.’
She didn’t really know what to think to that.
His reply made no sense, but she didn’t think he was lying.
Then again, she hadn’t thought he was lying to her before.
‘I guess I should call Katie. Ask her to head home and break us out.’ She pulled out her phone and scowled at it. ‘Wonderful. No signal. You?’
‘Nope. Nothing.’
They turned around at a low whistle that got louder and louder. Mia eyed the kitchen suspiciously. Surely that had been shut up a few moments ago, instead of brightly lit up with the kettle happily singing to itself.
‘Are you sure?’ Aiden murmured, before turning back to her. ‘Seems the kettle is boiled and I’m allowed back in the kitchen. Do you want a drink?’
‘Don’t you think we should be trying harder to get out of here?’
‘I’m pretty sure it’d be pointless.’ Aiden shrugged.
‘How are you so calm? This isn’t normal.’
‘No, it’s not.’ He sighed and went to turn off the kettle. ‘But it is Hudsbury. And normal is a bit… subjective here.’
‘I guess.’ Mia leaned against the bookcase, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. ‘Is that offer of tea still going?’
‘Always. Vanilla rooibos? Something a bit sweet and comforting?’
‘Sounds lovely.’
Aiden threw the tea in a pot, and grabbed the tray quickly.
It felt so awkward, sitting opposite her where they’d laughed and flirted so often in the past – and not knowing what to say. Everything either seemed to be too trite, or too much, and he couldn’t quite work out the middle ground.
‘How’s your mum’s hand?’
‘Much better thanks.’
‘Good.’ She fiddled with the cuff of her cardigan. ‘The store looks really good.’
‘Yeah.’
Oh for sunspots’ sake! Mist trotted up to them, ignoring Aiden’s warning glare, and rubbed against Mia’s legs.
‘Hi, Mist.’ Mia bent down to pet her, but she skipped away, almost knocking the teapot flying. ‘Be careful! You’ll get burnt!’ Mia scooped her up onto her lap, where Mist immediately started purring.
Aiden supposed he should be grateful for the distraction. Even if she wasn’t telling him what was going on, Mist seemed to be helping Mia to relax. And anything was better than awkward silence.
He poured Mia’s tea first, handed it to her and watched her take a sip.
She looked at him in surprise, but smiled and sipped again while he poured his own cup.
He nearly choked on the first mouthful as mallow, sage, mint and liquorice danced across his tongue.
One of Ophelia’s truth teas. And from the tingle of power making his nose itch, he guessed it had come from the top shelf: her strongest, black-lidded blends.
You didn’t seem to be dealing with the situation, so I did. Mist sounded smug as she turned to grin at him, then jumped down and stalked across the shop. Talk.
He didn’t have any choice – not really, as the tea took hold – but he didn’t try to fight the words either as they tumbled off his tongue. ‘Mia, I’m so sorry.’
‘Aiden, I really need to apologise.’
They stared at each other – surprised – for a few seconds before the mood broke and they both started laughing.
Around them, Aiden felt the store relax as the world righted itself again and magic breathed a sigh of relief. They were talking again. So long as they kept talking, everything would be OK.
‘You know I’m usually a fan of ladies first…’
‘I do.’ Her small smile made him feel better than he had done in ages. ‘And I’m taking full advantage of your good manners. Aiden, I’m so sorry. If I really were a princess like you call me, it’d be the bratty, oversensitive type whinging over a single pea under twenty mattresses!’
‘Mia, you really don’t have anything to apologise for…’
‘But I do. I was so busy focussing on the fact that you hadn’t told me something and getting my feelings hurt that I missed the fact that someone I care about was in hell. I was so busy focussing on how I felt betrayed that I didn’t stop to think about how you’re feeling. And I’m sorry for that.’
‘I really am the one who should be apologising. I promised you could trust me, but I didn’t trust you and I lied by omission – despite knowing how important honesty is to you.
And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, then I dragged you out in the middle of the night, putting you in a difficult professional position, because I was too stupid to realise you might be the one person on the planet I can really talk to. ’
‘We really are a right pair, aren’t we?’ Mia sighed and took another sip of her tea.
‘Yeah. Oh, and speaking of honesty… I swear I didn’t do it on purpose… but that’s not rooibos. I’m fairly certain it’s one of Ophelia’s truth teas. Sorry again.’
Mia peered into her cup and then laughed. ‘Maybe I did need a kick up the arse. If I’m being honest’ – she grinned – ‘I didn’t know how to start this conversation, or what to say to you. In some ways, I feel really silly…’
‘You’re not silly, Mia.’
‘But we were. We were so careful about setting and keeping the boundaries around Friday nights that we almost forgot about our friendship.’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Me neither. But I did say “almost”. We were so clear about Friday fun expectations, but we didn’t talk about them for everything else. And I went off all butthurt and with my knickers in a twist because I thought you were keeping something from me, which you never agreed to share with me.’
‘No. But I should have told you, because you needed to know. I was trying to be brave and stoic, and instead I screwed up one of the best friendships I ever had. And, if I’m being honest – which I’m not sure I have any choice about right now – then I should have talked to you because it might have helped. ’
‘I’m still here.’
‘I know, and I’m so grateful for that. I really am sorry, Mia.’
‘I’ll tell you what.’ She put her drink down and leaned to stretch her hand across the table between them. ‘If you can forgive me for being a stupid bratty princess, then I’ll forgive you too.’
She hadn’t even got past the – highly amusing and quite adorable – comment about her knickers before he’d made his decision, not that there really was any other one he could consider making.
He caught her hand and used it to pull her out of her seat and into a massive hug.
‘If you can forgive me for being an arse, I can definitely forgive you for getting your knickers in a wad.’
‘I definitely can.’ She hugged him back tightly. ‘And it was in a twist, not a wad. Annoying Biker Boy.’
Despite her grumbles, she stayed there, exactly where it felt like she was meant to be, and peace flooded through him. When she looked up at him again, her eyes were glossy and bright. ‘You know I meant what I said, right?’
He was so tempted to kiss her right then, to pretend it was a Friday night before he’d nearly screwed up the best – if oddest – friendship he’d ever had.
But that was far too likely to break things, so he did the most sensible thing he could think of, and grinned down at her.
‘What? About wodging up your lacy things?’
‘Ugh, you’re so annoying.’ She laughed, just like he’d hoped she would, and shoved him away – less good, but at least it was a lot more normal. For them, at least. ‘I meant about still being here if you need to talk. If you still think it will help.’
‘I’m not even sure I know how to start the conversation. And you know I’m being honest right now!’
‘Yeah.’ She laughed softly. ‘But you could try something like “Mia, I could use someone to talk to” and keep it simple.’
‘Mia.’ He licked his lips nervously and blurted out the words. ‘I think I need someone to talk to.’
‘OK.’ Mia sat down again, this time on the sofa, and pulled him down next to her. ‘Talk.’
‘It was really gradual at first.’ The words tumbled out.
‘She just seemed a bit clumsy sometimes… especially when she was tired, which she put down to being too busy at work. She was a hairdresser. I can’t remember if I’d told you that.
But obviously she had to give it up. Can’t exactly be waving sharp scissors and hot styling tools around people’s heads when your own hands don’t always do what they’re told. ’
‘No.’ She squeezed his hand, encouraging him to keep talking.
‘Then things got worse – she started forgetting things. Not just normal everyday things like where her phone was, but the more complicated things… like she’d get halfway through a recipe she’d been cooking for years and get confused what stage she was at.
There were some… interesting… outcomes from that.
That and a few aches and pains. Nothing you couldn’t easily put down to a lack of sleep or getting older. ’
‘I think that can often be the case.’