AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Everything is going to be fine,’ I assured her as she settled herself in the back seat of the taxi. ‘Just keep remembering how much your parents love you.’
Hope attempted a confident smile, and almost succeeded in pulling it off. ‘I guess I’ll see you again when I’m about thirty or so,’ she joked.
‘I’ll be right here.’ Hidden beneath the long sleeves of Mitch’s jacket, I crossed my fingers.
Just as I was about to push the car door to a close, Hope’s phone rang once again.
‘I suppose you have to admire his persistence,’ I said, shaking my head.
Hope glanced down at her phone and a slow, secret smile found its way to her lips. ‘Actually, it’s not Dan, it’s Sam.’ With a quick wave in my direction she picked up the call. ‘Hi,’ she said shyly, before the closing car door cut off her words.
I walked back up the pathway with a spring in my step as I crazily addressed my comments to Mitch’s denim jacket. ‘Well, I have to say your boy’s timing is pretty much perfect.’
*
There were a great many things I’d planned to do with my Saturday, but on less than two hours sleep I wasn’t in the mood for any of them. The laundry, grocery shopping, and vacuuming could all wait I decided, as I made myself a hot drink and padded into the lounge.
I channel hopped for something mindless to watch on TV, but I’d got through only half the menu before I could feel my eyelids beginning to droop. ‘Just a few minutes,’ I promised myself as I curled up my legs and drew a chintz-covered scatter cushion beneath my head. I was vaguely aware that I was still wearing Mitch’s jacket and really ought to take it off, but I was just too sleepy to remove it. Curled up within its copious folds I felt curiously safe, as though there were arms holding me close as I drifted off.
I awoke three hours later, completely disorientated. It took a while for me to even remember what day of the week it was, let alone what I was doing asleep in my lounge in the middle of the day. I unfurled myself like a pipe cleaner figurine, hearing the cracks from limbs and joints that used to be silent. The mirror might say I didn’t look like a woman in her forties, but my bones politely disagreed.
I was still muzzy from sleep when the sound of three loud knocks on the front door reverberated down the hallway. Only Black Rod and Mitch rapped on a door in quite that fashion. He was leaning casually against the frame by the time I’d finished undoing the numerous locks and security chains he’d insisted on fitting. And although he couldn’t have had much more sleep than me, Mitch definitely appeared far more refreshed and invigorated.
‘Hello,’ I croaked, my voice as rough as sandpaper, the way it always sounded whenever I had just woken up.
‘I’m sorry, Maddie, did I wake you?’
I caught my reflection in the hall mirror: puffy cheeks, squinty eyes, and hair that resembled a giant, ebony-coloured haystack.
‘No, I’m just trying out a new look.’
His laughter seemed to fill every corner of the two-bedroom flat.
‘I was just going to put the kettle on,’ I said, frantically wiping the sleep from my eyes the minute I was turned away from him. There was nothing to fix the furry coating on my tongue until I’d had something to drink.
Mitch followed me down the corridor, observing mildly as he did, ‘Nice jacket, by the way. I’ve got one like that.’
I spun around to face him, not realising he was quite so close behind me. My face was just inches from his. ‘Oh God, Mitch, I’m really sorry. I grabbed it when Hope was leaving and then I just…’Didn’t want to take it off?suggested an irritating voice in my head, ‘…fell asleep on the settee,’ I completed lamely.
‘That’s okay,’ he said good-naturedly. ‘It looks better on you anyway. But then you could probably make a bin bag look stylish.’
I ran through several responses in my head but couldn’t find a single one I liked. ‘Is that what you’re here for, to collect it?’ I asked, wriggling Houdini-fast out of his jacket. I passed it to him, noticing with dismay it was a good deal more creased than it had been before I had slept in it for hours.
‘Partly,’ he said with an easy shrug. ‘Mainly I just wanted to check and see how you and Hope were doing.’
He pulled out a kitchen chair and settled himself on it. He suited this room, I thought; suited the whole flat really. But then of course ithadbeen his grandmother’s home for a great many years, so it was hardly surprising he was comfortable here. It had nothing to do with being in my company, even though I suddenly found myself wishing that it did.
‘Hope was actually remarkably chirpy this morning. No sign of the hangover that I was expecting she’d have. She didn’t even seem too distraught about the boyfriend thing. Her biggest concern was having to face Ryan and Chloe.’
Mitch’s grin was sympathetic. ‘Yes, Sam mentioned that.’ I was clearly ineffective at hiding my surprise. ‘Sam was staying over at mine last night. He does that whenever he has early football practice on a Saturday morning,’ Mitch explained.
‘Ohhh,’ I said, unable to hide the fact that I was really rather pleased Sam had been the person waiting for Mitch to return last night, and not Sally.
The dangerous thing about having too little sleep and an over-active imagination is that sooner or later one or both of them are going to get you into trouble. Which is exactly what happened when I guilelessly admitted, ‘I thoughtSallywas the one at your house.’
I don’t really know how I imagined he’d react, but the blank stare, followed by the owl-like blinking, wasn’t what I was expecting. For once he seemed robbed of all words.
Awkwardly I felt the need to fill the silence. ‘Of course, it’s absolutely none of my business who you’re seeing and whether or not they’re… you know…’
