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‘Carmen, wait!’
She could hear his voice as she ran down the hill, but she didn’t stop. She didn’t want to hear his excuses. He’d said Ava was at the holiday club. He’d said he was going to Tricia’s to help her with some plumbing issue or other. Both had been lies.
‘Please, Carmen. Let me explain.’
It was no good. He wasn’t going to give up, was he? She paused and waited for him to catch her up before taking a deep breath. ‘I don’t want to hear anything you’ve got to say, Rob. You lied to me, and I don’t know what’s worse, you not giving me an explanation last time we broke up, or you lying to my face this time.’
Stopping in front of her, Rob held his arms out, palms upward. ‘I’ve not lied to you.’
‘Yes, you have. You told me you were helping Tricia fix some leaky tap or pipe or something and you also told me Ava was at the holiday club.’
‘Yes, I said those things. At the time, I believed those things.’
Shaking her head, Carmen snorted. ‘You lied.’
‘Please hear me out. Let me explain.’
Turning to look at him, she shrugged. ‘You can explain all you want, but it’s not going to make any difference.’
‘Right, okay. Thank you.’ Rob leaned forward and took her hand.
Carmen pulled her hand away and shook her head. She didn’t want him touching her.
‘Sorry.’ Nodding, Rob shoved his hands in his pockets.
‘Explain then.’
‘Yes, yes. I will. Tricia did ask me to go round and help her with a loose tap, and I did. I fixed the tap.’
‘It didn’t look as though you were doing much fixing back there.’
‘No, I know. She hadn’t told me that Naomi was back in England, in Cornwall, and she’d come to see Ava. Tricia pulled her out of the holiday club so Naomi could spend some time with her.’
Carmen frowned. Even if that was true, even if he really hadn’t known she’d be there, it didn’t explain why he’d had her arms so tightly wrapped around her. ‘You were hugging her.’
‘Yes, I was. It was a family hug, as Ava calls it. She likes us to hug as a family whenever her mum visits.’
‘Seriously?’ She raised her eyebrows.
‘Yes. It’s not by choice. I can promise you that. I’ll never forgive Naomi for not telling me I had a daughter from the onset.’
‘Right.’ Carmen twisted her purple scrunchie around on her wrist.
‘You believe me, right?’
‘No, yes. I don’t know. I need some time.’ Carmen looked up at him. She didn’t know what to think. She had so much whirring around in her mind, she couldn’t focus. She couldn’t tell fact from fiction, truth from lie. She needed time, space.
‘Okay. I can give you some time. I’ll pop by the bakery later so we can talk, shall I?’ Taking a step towards her, he paused, unsure what to do.
‘Just give me some space.’
He nodded, and she watched him walk away, back to Tricia’s house, back to his Naomi.
––––––––
CARMEN WIPED HER TEARSand looked out across the vast ocean. Not that she could see much, just a sliver of water illuminated by the moon. She should be getting back to the bakery. Elsie and Teresa would begin baking soon and she should be helping, too.
She wasn’t sure how she’d got through the afternoon yesterday. She had. She’d served and pretended everything was okay. But it wasn’t. All she could think about was how her life had once again been pushed into another direction. Against her will. She didn’t have any choices left. Not anymore.
