AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Hi! Welcome to the class. I’m Cal.’
‘Aurora.’ I stood up. ‘Well, Rori. Call me Rori.’
Cal looked to be in his late twenties. He had an abundance of glossy, caramel-coloured hair, which he kept sweeping back from his brow, and his eyes were kind and friendly beneath the round glasses.
He smiled. ‘Lovely name. Have you experimented with watercolour before?’
‘I have, actually. It’s my favourite medium. But I’m... well, a little bit rusty.’
‘Right, well, I hope you’ll have fun here, Rori. That’s what my classes are all about.’
‘That sounds great.’ I smiled, sitting back down and feeling my shoulders relax a little.
Cal glanced at his watch. ‘Right, I’ll give it another five minutes for people to arrive and then we’ll get started.’ He turned at the sound of someone entering the room. ‘Speaking of which... hi there! Come in and find a pew.’
I turned, feeling happy now to greet the newcomer myself.
But the welcoming smile froze on my face.
Janey?
‘Hi! Sorry I’m late. We’ve just moved here and we’re still living out of boxes.’ Janey smiled apologetically, and my heart sank.
She and Lance were living in Sunnybrook now?
‘You’re not late at all,’ Cal said cheerfully.
Suddenly catching sight of me, Janey’s eyes opened wide. ‘Rori? Hi there! What a surprise to findyouhere.’
I pasted on a smile and nodded, and Cal said, ‘You two know each other? Well, I’ll leave you to catch up.’ He pressed my shoulder then went to the door to greet another two students, just arriving.
My heart thumping, I turned to Janey, who was setting her bag down at the easel next to me. ‘So you’ve moved here?’ I swallowed. ‘Gosh, it’s a small world.’
She sat down, shook back her long dark hair and smiled. ‘It is, isn’t it? No, Lance was working in Guildford, as you know, but things changed and he’s able to work from home now, so we decided to move further out. Get away from the busy city and all that.’
‘So you’re in Sunnybrook now?’
She shook her head. ‘We’re renting a flat in Buntingford, just along the road? We’ll probably try and buy eventually, but this is fine for now.’ She laughed. ‘Actually, I was in Sunnybrook the other day and I popped into the Little Duck Pond Café and I thought I saw you, but I wasn’t sure. I don’t think you saw me?’
‘Oh. Really? No, I don’t think I did see you. I mean, I definitely didn’t.’ I could feel a blush starting to suffuse my cheeks, heat rising up from my neck. I was hopeless at lying.
‘So was it you? Are you working at the café?’ she asked.
‘Erm, no. I...’I can’t lie to her.I’m going to have to come clean. ‘I’m actually living in the flat above the café. Just moved in. My head’s all over the place right now, trying to get organised and settled in.’ I shrugged, adding feebly, ‘That’s probably why I didn’t see you.’
‘Makes sense. You’re hair’s different these days. It’s nice. That’s probably why I didn’t instantly recognise you.’ She beamed at me. ‘So... we’ll be near neighbours! We’ll have to goout for a drink some time, you, me and Lance, and have a catch-up.’
‘That would be great.’
She frowned. ‘So how are you, anyway? Nash told us that you’d... gone your separate ways. Are you okay? I’ve been meaning to phone you but I’ve been so busy.’
‘Oh, don’t worry. Yes. I’m fine,’ I said cheerily. Then I shrugged. ‘I mean, obviously at first it was...’
‘Yes.’ She was looking at me intently. ‘So was it... his decision to break up? Or was it a mutual decision?’ She gave a funny sort of apologetic grimace.
I sighed. There was no point trying to hide the truth from Janey. She’d gone out with Nash once upon a time and then finished with him... so she knew...
‘It was me. I left in the middle of the night.’ I shrugged uselessly. I hadn’t talked to anyone about what it was like living with Nash, except for Milo – mainly because I felt embarrassed and so ashamed of myself for having put up with his nonsense for so long. ‘I should have walked long before I did. Looking back, I really don’t know why I stayed so long.’
