AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Silence falls. He’s staring straight ahead out of the windscreen and his face is unreadable. My guess is that he’s contemplating what I’ve said and trying to marry it up to his own experience. By the look of him, it’s not going that well. I feel slightly uncomfortable and I’m starting to wish I’d never said anything about it.
‘I’m really glad you came tonight,’ I say, to break the silence. ‘I was so confused and hurt when you gave me your number and then wouldn’t take my call. It’s nice to know what really happened, even if we don’t agree on the motive.’
He turns back to face me and his expression clears. ‘I’m really pleased I came too,’ he replies. ‘When I didn’t hear from you, I assumed that you didn’t want to contact me. I did find you on the internet and thought about messaging you, but in the end I decided to do the gentlemanly thing and not make a nuisance of myself. If I’d known that you’d called I would have called you back straight away.’
‘I wrote to you as well,’ I say to him.
‘Mads told me. Honestly, I never got the letter. It must have gone astray somewhere.’
I roll my eyes. It’s very clear to me now where it went astray, but I’m not going to push Ed any more about his PA’s obvious crush on him; I get the impression he’s not ready to hear it and I don’t really want to talk about her any more either.
‘I’m sorry about Mads,’ I tell him. ‘I hope she didn’t make things awkward for you at work.’
He laughs. ‘You were right about her, she is a force of nature. When she accosted me in the lobby of the office on Wednesday morning, I worked out who she was as soon as she told me her name. She’s not someone to be on the wrong side of, that’s for sure. Thankfully, she softened a bit when we worked out what had happened. She even told me a bit about how you’d been. Tell me, do you really have a shrine to me in your flat?’
I’m going to kill her. Thankfully it’s dark, so he can’t see the blazing embarrassment on my cheeks.
‘It’s not a shrine!’ I say, more forcefully than I intend. ‘It’s just a collection of photos from the holiday, some of which happen to have you in them.’
A London-bound train rolls into the station. Neither of us moves and the train leaves. We continue to sit, talking. He tells me about the steps he’s taken to improve his work–life balance, and I fill him in on my life since I saw him last, such as it is. He’s suitably impressed when I tell him about the water-skiing and windsurfing lessons, and we reminisce about the activities we did together. Neither of us mentions the sex, although it hangs unspoken between us. Trains come and go.
‘So, is there anyone special in your life?’ I ask him, as yet another London-bound train departs. ‘Did Sarah realise her mistake and come crawling back, begging for forgiveness?’
‘No, and no,’ he replies. ‘Michael, who was my best man, persuaded me to sign up to Tinder a month or so ago. I’ve been on a couple of dates, but they didn’t come to anything.’
‘Why not?’ I ask. I’m trying to keep my voice steady, but the fact that he’s single has caused something strange to surge through me, and I’m feeling a bit trembly.
‘Don’t get me wrong, they were both lovely people, and attractive. But… umm… I’m not sure I should tell you this…’
‘Go on,’ I urge. ‘What was wrong with them?’
He looks at me, and his eyes glitter in the darkness. ‘They weren’t you,’ he says, simply.
I can’t believe what he just said. It’s like the last six months are falling away, and we’re having the reunion we should have had as soon as I got back from Antigua.
‘What about you?’ he asks.
I don’t want to tell him, but I know it wouldn’t be fair not to.
‘I had a close shave with Josh,’ I say. ‘I met him for a drink, we got on really well, and then he came on to me. Stupid of me really, I fell for the “come up for coffee” line. I think I was a bit muddled because we’d had such a good evening. Anyway, as soon as he started trying it on, I came to my senses and left.’
‘Why didn’t you take him back, if you got on so well? You’ve got a lot of shared history and he’s probably learned his lesson.’
‘Simple,’ I tell him with a smile. ‘He wasn’t you.’
We sit there in silence for a while, digesting these revelations. Another train rolls into the station and leaves. Ed’s hand finds mine in the darkness and the last fragments of doubt fall away as we lean towards each other and our lips meet. It just feels right, and I know for certain that he’s my Ed and I never want to let him go again.
Suddenly, the station lights start to go out.
‘Shit, Ed, I think you’ve missed the last train!’ I exclaim, breaking off the kiss. I can’t help giggling. Here we are, snogging in a car like teenagers.
‘Ah. Yes, it does look that way,’ he agrees, as the lights continue to go out.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘There must be a hotel somewhere nearby I can check into. It’s not a big deal.’ He fishes out his phone and starts searching the internet.
The prospect of driving him to a hotel and leaving him is more than I can bear. I’ve only just got him back.
