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‘Yes, I do.’ Adele’s voice drifted away. She was distracted. ‘We had some good times.’
‘Look, I’ve got to go now. Speak later.’ Carmen ended the call. Adele had been right all along. She should have borrowed the money from her to go on the girlie holiday. If she had, she’d still be homeless, but at least she wouldn’t have had her heart broken by Rob yet again.
She stood up as the bus came into view over the top of the hill and lurched to a stop in front of her. She dragged her suitcase up the steps of the bus and paused in front of the driver. ‘A ticket to Trestow train station, please?’
‘Of course.’ Taking her money, the driver grinned at her.
‘Thanks.’ Heaving the huge suitcase into the luggage rack at the front, she made her way down the aisle and sat on the bench at the back of the bus. Shifting along to the window, she looked out across the road, towards the picturesque cottages lining the path opposite. She’d been so happy when she’d arrived here in the bay. It had felt so nice to belong to a community, to a readymade friendship group, to the bakery family.
She’d been so so happy to get back with Rob.
She’d miss Penworth Bay. Life had been perfect here. Even if it had just been for a split second. Life had been perfect.
Leaning her elbow on the narrow window frame, she rested her chin on her hand and watched the couple walking their dogs opposite. Why did some people have it so easy, whilst others, like her, never seemed to be able to? Or if they did, it was only fleeting?
The engine rumbled beneath her as the bus staggered forward before coming to an abrupt stop again. What was going on? She shrugged. She didn’t care. She had nothing left to care about anymore. Her life was in tatters.
‘Carmen.’
Jerking her head up, she looked up. Rob was standing in the middle of the aisle, hand gripped onto one of the red poles with the bells on.
He indicated the seat next to her. ‘May I?’
Clasping her hands in her lap, she nodded. He must have been the reason the bus had stopped again.
‘Sorry, I didn’t come by the bakery yesterday.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ It didn’t. Him not turning up told her more than if he had.
‘It does. It really does.’ He shifted in the seat. ‘I tried to, but Naomi stayed until quite late, until Ava’s bedtime and because Ava hardly ever sees her, so she likes to make the most of it. She didn’t want me to leave.’
Carmen nodded.
‘I stopped by the bakery this morning and spoke to Elsie. She told me what’s happened with your houseshare. She told me you were catching this bus.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘I’m so sorry to hear you’ve lost your home.’
She sighed. In truth, she didn’t much care about losing the houseshare, not as much as she cared about losing Rob, anyway.
‘Carmen, I was telling the truth yesterday when I told you that I didn’t have a clue that Naomi was coming over, that I didn’t know Tricia had picked Ava up from the holiday club. I was telling the truth.’
‘I don’t know what to believe anymore. I really don’t. I believed you, I believed my so-called landlady, and now look where I am.’ She shrugged.
‘But it really is the truth. Look.’ Rob rummaged in his back pocket and pulled out a small flat pebble. ‘I kept it.’
Frowning, she held out her hand, and he placed the pebble in the middle of her palm. Picking it up, she turned it in her fingers and smiled as she spotted the two small red heart outlines, each one linking to the other. ‘I can’t believe you kept it.’
‘You remember, don’t you? You remember that day we went to the waterfall, and you found it? You held it under the waterfall and told me it was the symbol of our love for each other.’
‘That’s right. And then we stopped off at that little café and you asked to borrow a pen, a red pen.’ Carmen ran the pad of her finger over the hearts. ‘You said we’d each draw a heart each and that our hearts would be forever linked.’
‘That’s right. It’s got to prove something to you that I kept it. It’s got to prove that I’m telling the truth. Nothing is going on between me and Naomi. There really isn’t.’
Carmen looked from the pebble to Rob and back again. ‘Honestly, I just don’t know what to think anymore. When I saw you hugging Naomi, especially after you told me you were fixing a leak, I...’ She shook her head.
‘I can imagine it was a shock. It was a shock for me to see her there, too. And I’m sorry I couldn’t slip out to the bakery to speak to you.’
‘You could have rung.’
‘I could have, but I wanted to show you this.’ He indicated the pebble. ‘Carmen, I love you. Please give me another chance.’
