‘I don’t know yet… Something’s going on with Isla – she phoned and she needs me. We can do something tomorrow instead, can’t we? It wasn’t like we had something set in stone.’
‘We still had plans.’
‘Not proper plans; it was just you coming over. You can do that any time.’
‘So can Isla.’
‘I know, but I think it’s something really important.’
There was a heartbeat’s pause. ‘So your mate is more important than me?’
‘Of course not!’
‘But that’s what you’re saying.’
‘It’s not what I’m saying at all.’
‘Then what exactly are you saying?’
‘Ryan, why are you being so unreasonable? You know I wouldn’t let you down without a good reason.’
‘I’m not hearing any reason except that Isla matters more than I do.’
‘That’s not true and you know it. These are exceptional circumstances.’
‘What’s up with her then?’
‘I don’t know – she’s going to tell me when she gets here. But she sounds stressed.’
‘That’s alright then,’ he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. ‘You can totally drop everything for a reason you don’t know and because someone sounds stressed. Don’t worry about your boyfriend because he doesn’t sound stressed, even though you had arrangements to meet him.’
‘But I saw you a couple of nights ago!’
‘Rationed to once a week now, am I?’
‘Of course not! I just meant it’s more than we usually manage.’
‘If that’s the way you feel it’s no wonder we’re not going anywhere.’
‘What does that mean?’
There was a long sigh at the other end of the line. ‘I don’t even know. Forget it. See you whenever you can next fit me in…’
Dodie was framing a reply when the phone went dead. She stabbed at the screen to redial his number so they could slug it out, but then she paused, staring at it for a moment before finally locking it. Idiot. Let him stew. Ryan might have thought he was the centre of the universe but he was the only person who did.
As promised, an hour later Isla arrived with a bag of foil cartons and a mound of free prawn crackers. There was far too much – there always was – but Isla had a huge appetite for such a tiny girl, and what they didn’t eat now she’d happily hoover up after an hour’s grace. Dodie was constantly in awe of how her friend processed such vast amounts of food – her metabolism must have been something to rival the speed of the Hadron Collider. Dodie was still smarting from her spat with Ryan and she didn’t feel much like eating, but Isla always had the opposite problem and stuffed her way back to happiness whenever she was fed up. Judging by the bulging bag, she was very fed up indeed.
‘Lemon chicken for you,’ she said as she placed the items on the kitchen table. ‘Retro food to go with your retro shop.’
‘Lemon chicken is the only thing I like from that restaurant.’
‘But it is naff.’
‘What have you got?’
‘Pancakes, spring rolls, Szechuan chicken, special fried rice…’
‘Bloody hell! You could feed the street with that lot!’
‘The street’s not getting it. I’m going to eat until I’m sick. And then I’m going to eat some more.’
‘Like the Romans used to?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Go on then…’ Dodie took the plates she’d been warming from the oven, ‘tell me what’s happened.’
‘You know how I haven’t seen my dad since I was five? And I didn’t know where he was because Mum forbade me to talk about it for all these years? Well, I mean, I had a rough idea that he was in France but that was about all.’
‘Yes…’ Dodie said slowly. She had a feeling she knew what was coming.
‘He’s been in touch.’
Dodie’s eyes widened. It looked as though her own problems were going to have to go on the back-burner for this evening, at least while she gave Isla the support she clearly needed to cope with such momentous news. But the way she was feeling right now that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Ryan had phoned later that night, but Dodie wasn’t in the mood to pick up. Isla had raised her eyebrows as she noted Dodie look at her phone and then place it back on the table again, Ryan’s name flashing on the screen.
‘I don’t want to talk to him and I don’t want to talk about it,’ Dodie had told her, mostly because if she’d told Isla the whole story then it might have made Isla feel responsible for the spat and she didn’t want that. The rest of the evening was devoted to Isla’s dilemma, about how and why her father might have ended up living in the French Alps, about ski suits and drinks overlooking the pistes and what her dad might have done to get so rich. They discussed, at great length, whether it was a good idea for Isla to go and see him to find out about an inheritance from a gran she could barely remember, and Dodie was far happier to think of all that than her own problems.
But the next morning when she woke there was a text message.
Sorry about last night. New restaurant opened in Poole harbour, could drive out and have dinner tonight if you want. My treat. X
Dodie couldn’t help a small smile. It was nice to know he hadn’t stewed too long and for once she hadn’t needed to back down. A new restaurant did sound tempting and it would be nice to have a change of scenery. She loved Poole harbour; on a summer’s day you could almost imagine you were in Nice or St Tropez, only with fish and chips and without the need to speak French. But even though it was only half an hour down the coast she didn’t get time to visit nearly as often as she would have liked. Most importantly, she couldn’t remember the last time Ryan had taken her out and treated her, so it meant he was making a real effort.
Sounds good. X
I’ll pick you up at 7. That OK for you? X
Perfect. X
Early December, with a harsh wind whipping up the waters of the harbour, it couldn’t have felt further from St Tropez, but the quayside was lined with restaurants and pubs all decked in pretty Christmas finery, and the warm smells coming from each doorway were enough to make Dodie forget the cold. Ryan, having made an effort to scrub up for her in a powder-blue shirt and smart trousers, led her to a whitewashed building where bay trees standing sentry at the entrance were decked in fairy lights and Christmas baubles. A sign painted in scrolled writing above the door read The Sandbank. The interior was a chic mix of rustic wood and wrought iron, ambient spotlights dotted around the ceiling and modern art on the walls.
‘Looks lovely,’ Dodie said as he guided her towards it.
‘Nice food – or so the paper said.’
Dodie turned to him with a raised eyebrow. ‘You read a restaurant review in the newspaper? Have I stepped into a parallel universe or was it stuck to the sports pages and cunningly disguised as a football score?’
‘Come on, I’m not that bad!’ he laughed as they stopped at a sign requesting new customers to wait for seating.
‘Did you book?’ Dodie asked as she glanced around the packed room.
‘Yes.’
‘Oh Lord, now I know I’ve fallen into a parallel universe! You actually booked a table at a restaurant!’
‘I knew it would be busy. Proud of me?’
‘Staggered is what I am. There’s hope for you yet.’
A waiter arrived and swiftly showed them to a table for two by a window that looked out onto the quay where boats of all shapes and sizes, from tiny dinghies to sleek yachts, danced on the darkness of the choppy waters. Dodie ran her gaze over the menu as he left them again.
‘Everything looks so good I don’t know where to start. Better than crackers and ham sandwiches, which is all I’ve eaten today. I might go for fish, seeing as we’re by the sea.’
‘You’re always by the sea.’
‘I’m too busy in the shop to see much of it these days, so it hardly feels like it.’
&
nbsp; ‘All the more reason for a night away from it,’ he said. ‘Order what you like, my treat.’
‘In that case I’m having one of everything.’
Ryan grinned over his menu before turning back to it again. ‘So,’ he asked, in a voice that sounded far too nonchalant, ‘do you know what Isla is going to do?’
On the drive over, they’d briefly touched on the reasons for Isla’s impromptu visit. They’d needed to if they were going to clear the air, and as Isla hadn’t exactly told Dodie to keep it a secret she felt it would be OK for Ryan to know. He was her boyfriend, after all, and it wasn’t as if he knew anyone who knew Isla, even if he did want to gossip about it. Ryan wasn’t a gossiper anyway, he was more of a down-the-pub, at-football, silently-glued-to-the-telly kind of guy. He’d been surprisingly sweet about it, especially since he’d never really been a big fan of Isla, and said he hoped that things worked out whatever she decided to do.
Dodie wanted to believe him, she really did, but there was just something suspicious about the way he was acting this evening. She could feel a bombshell coming; a reason that he might want Isla, with whom Dodie spent almost as much time as she did him, out of the picture.
‘I don’t think she knows yet. When she left me last night she was going to sleep on it.’
‘That’s good. Do you think she’ll go?’
‘No idea.’
‘Gut instinct?’
‘I think she’ll go. She’s got too many unanswered questions and she’s got the sort of mind that needs answers. She doesn’t do mysteries or blind acceptance.’
‘You’ll miss her.’
‘Like crazy.’
‘So… you might get a bit lonelier than before…’
‘I doubt it.’
‘But you might. You’re with her a lot when you’re not with me.’
Dodie lowered her menu to look at him. ‘Where’s this going?’
‘Does it have to be going somewhere?’ He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Why does it have to be going somewhere? I’m just asking.’
‘Sorry, it’s just… I doubt she’ll be gone long.’
‘But what if she loves her dad and ends up staying? What if there’s a house in France for her? I don’t know… a huge family she wants to get to know?’
‘She loves her mum way more than she could possibly love her dad. She doesn’t know her dad and she’s not going to get that close to him that quickly after all that’s gone on. She’s going to come home.’
‘But what if she didn’t?’ he insisted. ‘You’d miss her, right? You’d be lonely.’
Dodie narrowed her eyes slightly. This was definitely going somewhere but where was anyone’s guess. ‘I suppose I will be a bit lonely. I mean, it’s proving difficult for us to get together as much as we used to and most of my old friends are too busy to drive out to Bournemouth. But I’d get used to it. Besides, the shop keeps me too busy to worry about being alone.’
The waiter returned with drinks, and they were occupied for a couple of minutes with placing their food orders. When he left them again, Ryan leaned across the table.
‘Cos I was just thinking… we don’t see that much of each other any more – not since you moved – and it’s a shame because we have a laugh when we do.’
‘There’s nothing to stop us driving over to each other a bit more when the weather improves. And I know I’ve been a bit busy with the shop and everything, but that will get better when things pick up, hopefully.’
‘But it might be better if we were closer – right?’
‘Well, yes but—’
‘So I was thinking maybe we could move in together.’
Dodie blinked. This was not what she’d been expecting. Ryan, by nature, was a nomad not a settler, and she’d accepted that very early on. In fact, she was happy with the arrangement because she quite liked her freedom. The only thing that could have shocked her more was a marriage proposal. If she got one of those now she might just pass out.
‘I can’t afford a mortgage for a house,’ she said slowly, trying to work out what sort of reaction she was meant to give.
‘We don’t need to buy a house,’ he replied in a triumphant voice, as if he’d just made an incredible scientific discovery. ‘You’ve got the flat above the shop! I’ll move into the flat!’
She stared at him. ‘You want to move into the flat? That’s crazy!’
‘Why?’ he asked, his expression darkening. ‘Why is it so crazy? Why can’t I move into the flat? Because I suggested it, and I’m too stupid to have good ideas?’
‘Of course not – that’s not what I mean at all. But it’s far too small for a start. And then there’s the inconvenience to the business—’
‘Inconvenience? Is that what you think I am?’
‘You’re not listening. I said inconvenience to the business, not to me.’
‘Aren’t they one and the same?’
‘No, they’re not. I need the space up there for stock. And there’s the extra costs for heating and electric and whatever else.’
‘I’d pay my way.’
‘I know you would but…’ Dodie paused. That was a white lie because she couldn’t be certain of just how much Ryan intended to pay his way. He didn’t pay his parents anything to live in their house – he just assumed they’d soak up the costs. But without laying it on the line and possibly insulting him into the bargain, she couldn’t ask whether he thought the same was going to happen if he moved into her place. After all, the rent itself wouldn’t change whether he was there or not and she could probably manage at least that. But the principle of the matter, that was a different thing altogether. And she certainly couldn’t afford any of the other extras his presence at her flat might bring.
‘It’s just difficult,’ she sighed. ‘I only live up there myself because I can’t afford the rent on the shop and another place to live but it’s just not practical as a home – it’s hardly practical for me, let alone a couple. It’s a lovely idea but…’
‘But what? I don’t need a lot of space.’
‘You’re not listening to me. It’s not a place designed for anything but to run a business from. It’s crap there, it’s like living in a warehouse with a bit of old furniture and you’d soon hate it.’
‘You don’t hate it.’
‘I make sacrifices because I want the shop to succeed.’
‘You always seem happy living there. And you’ve got it cushy. You don’t have your mum nagging you about socks on the floor and dirty dishes and where you keep your work tools. I mean, I’m nearly thirty and I shouldn’t be living with my parents, should I? None of my mates live with their parents. It’s not right.’
Dodie eyeballed him in silence for a moment. She could have replied that the only reason he was still living with his parents when his friends weren’t was that they’d all had enough get-up-and-go to actually get up and actually go, and that he liked his money too much to spend it on a mortgage. But perhaps that was an argument that was guaranteed to inflame things and best left alone. Instead she shook her head. ‘Where’s this suddenly come from? You’ve never shown an interest in any sort of commitment before, so why now?’
‘You’re the one who keeps saying we’re stuck in a rut. You’re the one who thinks we’re not going anywhere so I thought—’
‘I’ve never said we’re not going anywhere! If I remember correctly you said that last night, not me!’
‘So you don’t want to live together?’
‘I want to be consulted first. You can’t just assume it’s OK to move into my flat.’
‘I wasn’t assuming, I was just asking.’
‘It didn’t sound like asking to me; it sounded very much like you’d decided it was OK and that I would agree.’
He folded his arms tight across his chest and looked across the restaurant. ‘Forget it,’ he muttered.
‘We’ve got my flat for visits any time you like but it’s not big enough for the both of us to live i
n… It’s just not practical.’
‘I said forget it.’
Dodie held in a sigh. ‘I would forget it, but it’s clear that you can’t.’
He turned to her. ‘Then why am I the one saying forget it?’
‘You can say it but you don’t really mean it! For God’s sake, Ryan, grow up! You’re so passive aggressive it’s painful!’
‘I’m passive aggressive? Is this another one of your fancy terms you’ve learned from Isla?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘You’re ridiculous.’
Dodie turned to the window. If he said another word she was quite sure she’d throw her drink right over his stupid head. Which would be a shame because it was a very nice Zinfandel. She grappled for something to change the conversation, something they could talk about that might diffuse the tension, but she couldn’t leave it because something about the situation still didn’t stack up.
‘Is this something to do with living with your parents?’
‘No.’
‘Because I know you’ve been complaining about it for a while now…’
‘It’s got nothing to do with my parents. I thought the girlfriend who’s supposed to love me might want to spend more time with me.’
Dodie ignored the jibe, feeling that she was perhaps getting to the real heart of the issue despite his denials. ‘So you’re happy at home?’
‘I haven’t been happy there for a couple of years and you know it. Like I said, it’s not right, a thirty-year-old bloke still shacked up with his parents.’
‘Your mum would be inconsolable if you left.’
‘She’d have a spare room.’
‘Is that what she said?’
He turned back to face her. ‘What does it matter what she said? You’ve told me no, so that’s the end of the discussion, isn’t it?’
‘I was just asking; that’s all.’
‘Let’s change the subject, eh? You’ve made it clear you don’t want me.’
‘I want you – the flat just isn’t a practical solution.’ This time the sigh escaped. ‘Look… Ryan… I wasn’t trying to put you off because I don’t want you, I just thought… the flat’s very small and I wasn’t sure how we’d manage. But if it means that much to you we could give it a go.’
A Very Vintage Christmas: A Heartwarming Christmas Romance (An Unforgettable Christmas Book 1) Page 8
