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I’d assumed we’d be driving out to a different pub. Perhaps the one in Buntingford, where he and Janey lived.
But when we came to the high street, he turned in the opposite direction.
‘So come on, tell me. The suspense is killing me. Where are we going?’ I asked with a smile.
‘Patience. You’ll find out.’ He glanced in his rear-view mirror, indicated, and turned into the petrol station. ‘Back in a minute,’ he said, getting out to fill up.
I smiled at him through the window, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling inside. Why was I being so ridiculous? He probably needed petrol anyway. It didn’t mean we’d be driving a long distance, did it? All the same, I wished I knew where we were going...
Something caught my eye... a flash of pink in the side compartment of the driver’s seat.Was that my scarf?I hadn’t seen it for a while. I thought I’d left it at the house when I fled. But maybe Janey had one the same.
Lance got back into the car and we drove away in silence. I could feel a tension that hadn’t been there, back at the flat, and the uneasy feeling increased.
‘Is... that my scarf?’ I asked, keeping my tone light.
‘This?’ He held it up. ‘Yes, I was going to give it back to you. There you go.’
‘You found it?’
‘Yep.’
The scarf felt butter soft in my fingers. Maybe I was mistaken and I’d left it at Janey and Lance’s when I was over there for dinner that time? ‘So come on, then.’ I pasted on a smile. ‘Why be so mysterious? Tell me where we’re going.’
He looked at me. ‘You mean you still don’tknow?’
‘Er, no. Why should I?’
‘It’s our special place, Rori. You surely can’t have forgotten?’ His expression was stern, almost angry, and a chill ran through me.
Our special place?
What on earth was he talking about?
‘No... I’m sorry, Lance, but I’ve no idea.’ I was frantically running through in my mind all the places I’d been to with him. There weren’t exactly many. The gym... the local pub when we were all living in Guildford...where else? ‘I mean, it could be one of a few places, couldn’t it?’
‘So youhaveforgotten!’ He thumped the steering wheel and accelerated hard, which jerked me right backwards in my seat.
The shock of his reaction was like a punch to the stomach.
Now I was scared.
Lance was clearly angry with me, for whatever reason, and all the old feelings of panic were surging up inside me. I needed desperately to get out of the car, but we were speeding along much too fast, and I knew instinctively that anything I said to try and calm him down would be useless. When Nash was angry, there was nothing I could say that would pacify him. If anything, it would actually intensify his fury. I’d learned that staying quiet was the quickest way to end the torment.
But my silence only seemed to be irritating Lance.
‘Christ, whatisit about women?’ He made a growling sound deep in his throat. ‘I mean, you do your best for them. You treat them with kid gloves because the female sex are generally more sensitive than we are. You provide a shoulder to cry on, and you try to understand them when they start talking illogically and behaving in ways that quite frankly are sometimes bordering on hysterical. But you forgive them that because they’re different, so you listen and you sympathise and you reassure them thatyou’ll always be there for them. But is that enough to convince them that you’d be worthy of their devotion? Of course not. It’s still the bloody macho oaf that they fall for, even while knowing deep down that the relationship is never in a million years going to give them what they reallyneed.’
I swallowed hard. ‘And whatdothey need, Lance?’ I asked softly.
‘They need a man who’s going to treat them right,’ he yelled. ‘Not some arrogant bastard like Nash, who only uses women for his own dodgy purposes.’
‘Someone like you, then?’
He turned and looked at me. ‘Well,yes! Someone like me.’
He was still staring at me, his eyes full of fury. Suddenly realising we were about to plough onto the grass verge, I yelled, ‘Watch out!’ and grabbed the wheel, only just managing to steer us back on course.
The shock seemed to break the tension and he slowed right down.
