Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn

by Tilly Tennant

  Bonnie forced a bright smile. ‘I forgot to pay the bill, silly me. I’ll sort it out later.’

  Linda paused for a moment, before she nodded and returned to her task.

  ‘You want a cup of tea?’ Bonnie called as she went through into the back of the shop.

  ‘That’s the best offer I’ve had all day,’ Linda called back.

  As Bonnie filled the kettle, the usual morning knock came at the back door. Bonnie went to open it, moving aside to let Max in before returning to the kitchen to put out an extra mug. ‘You’re just in time for a brew,’ she said from the tiny sink.

  ‘Ah, that’s because I have my tea radar on,’ he replied, rubbing the cold from his hands. ‘I can hear the kettle clicking on from three streets away.’

  Bonnie came back through to the storeroom. ‘Got any plans for the weekend?’

  ‘Not really,’ he replied carefully, though Bonnie suddenly detected a change in his demeanour, as if there was something he didn’t want to say.

  ‘I’ll be here for most of it, of course,’ Bonnie added, trying to make light of his discomfort and change the subject. ‘Bloody shop work, I must be mad. A one day weekend is rubbish.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Max agreed, ‘there are some things to be said for being your own boss. At least I get to choose not to deliver on Saturdays.’

  ‘Yeah, Fred hates that, he’s always moaning about how he can’t have fresh stuff on Saturdays… just so you know.’

  ‘I know he does. Unless he wants to get his stuff for twice the price at Countywide, he’ll just have to put up with it.’ He glanced through the doorway to the main shop. ‘Where is the old goat anyway?’

  ‘Probably getting some more thatching,’ Linda said coming back through from the shop and catching the turn of the conversation.

  Bonnie grinned at Linda. ‘You be careful he doesn’t catch you saying that. He was almost right behind you when you pointed it out to Edith Jones the other day.’

  ‘Pah!’ Linda waved a dismissive hand. ‘What’s he going to do, sack me? I’d like to see what he’d tell the unfair dismissal tribunal if he tried.’ She turned to Max. ‘So what’s this thing you’re not really doing at the weekend?’

  ‘Bloody hell, Lind, you must have ears like a bat!’ Max exclaimed.

  ‘You’ve got to get up early in the morning to get anything past me. So spill.’

  Max glanced uncomfortably at Bonnie, hesitating for a few moments before he finally spoke. ‘I’m going to see Sarah.’

  ‘You’re what!’ Linda spluttered.

  Max shrugged helplessly. ‘She called and said she wanted to talk. What else could I do?’

  ‘She wants to talk you into giving it another go, you know that, don’t you?’ Linda warned.

  ‘Probably. But I suppose I owe her the courtesy of hearing her out at least.’

  ‘You owe her nothing. If saving the girl a broken heart further down the line is wrong, then I don’t think you want to be right.’ Linda glanced at Bonnie, whose expression had become suddenly uptight.

  ‘I’ll go and make that tea,’ Bonnie said quietly, slinking away to the kitchenette.

  ‘This is madness,’ Linda continued to Max, lowering her voice. She sighed. ‘The sooner you and Bonnie realise that you were made for each other, the better.’

  ‘Bonnie doesn’t want me.’

  ‘Of course she does. Weren’t you looking a minute ago when she sloped off to make the tea? Her face said it all – she’s gutted about you getting back with Sarah.’

  ‘I never said we were getting back together. I’m going to see her, that’s all.’

  ‘Hmph.’

  ‘I promise, Lind, I’m just going to talk to her.’

  ‘Where are you meeting?’

  ‘Blossom Palace.’

  Linda arched a cynical eyebrow. ‘Kind of public and date-like to be a serious talk about why you can’t get back together.’

  ‘Her idea.’

  ‘I’ll bet it was.’

  Bonnie came back through with three mugs on a tray. Linda and Max both took one and Bonnie removed hers, putting the tray to one side. She took a silent sip, looking from one to the other before putting her cup down on a bench and announcing that she was going to start getting the cold stock from the fridges before Fred came in. Linda had a curious look on her face as she watched her go.

  ‘I’d better get cracking too,’ Max decided as he left his cup next to Bonnie’s.

  ‘Actually…’ Linda said slowly, ‘I could do with you looking at this tray of kiwis.’

  ‘Kiwis?’ Max said in a bemused voice.

  ‘Yeah, we had some complaints that there was some kind of worm in the ones we sold yesterday. I kept them in the fridge so I could show you.’

  Max followed Linda to the huge, open fridge doors. Bonnie was in there rotating the stock on the shelves.

  ‘Just in the corner,’ Linda said, ushering Max in. ‘Oh, and you two…’ she added with a sly grin, ‘I am really sorry about this, but you’ll thank me one day…’

  ‘Huh?’ Bonnie looked up.

  Linda’s grin widened. ‘I’m not letting you out until you agree to go on a date with each other.’

  And she slammed the door before either of them had a chance to get to it, trapping Max and Bonnie inside.

  Max spun around as the fridge was plunged into gloom. ‘What the hell…’

  ‘Oh my God, Linda!’ Bonnie squealed, tripping over a tray of tomatoes that sent her sprawling across the floor to land at Max’s feet. She felt a strong pair of hands pull her gently up to stand.

  ‘Are you ok?’ Max’s concerned voice cut through the darkness.

  ‘Yeah, nothing broken. What the bloody hell is Linda doing now though?’

  Max chuckled softly. ‘I always knew she was a bit of a loose cannon but this is off the scale.’ He thumped a hand on the door. ‘LINDA!’

  ‘She probably can’t hear through this thick wall, and even if she can she’s not going to give up that easily,’ Bonnie said. ‘Hang on…’ she was silent for a moment as she felt along the wall. A strip light flickered into life and she could see Max’s part-quizzical, part-annoyed, part-amused expression. It looked a lot like the one she was sure she had too.

  ‘She’s joking, right?’ Max asked. ‘She won’t make us stay in here?’

  Bonnie bit her lip. ‘I wouldn’t put it past her.’

  ‘But Fred will be back soon, surely? She’s got to let us out before then.’

  ‘Fred doesn’t scare Linda. She’s got this mad idea in her head and she won’t let go of it.’

  ‘About you and me?’ Max gave her a sheepish grin.

  Bonnie nodded.

  ‘So the only way we get out of here is if we agree to go out on a date? Doesn’t seem like such a hardship when you put it like that.’

  There was no escape this time. Bonnie couldn’t change the subject or make excuses and scuttle off like she usually did. Linda knew what she was doing locking them in together, because faced with telling Max like this, Bonnie wouldn’t be able to do it. She flopped down onto a sack of carrots and looked up at Max, who came over to sit next to her.

  ‘It’s pretty cold in here,’ he said, the breath unfurling from his mouth in a soft plume to reinforce the fact even as he spoke. ‘Let me know if you need warming up.’

  Bonnie shot him a sideways glance. His face was poker straight but there was an impish humour dancing in his blue eyes.

  ‘We’ll both be frozen stiff if we don’t get out of here soon.’

  ‘That’s a bit melodramatic,’ Max chortled.

  ‘We might suffocate then.’

  ‘More likely.’

  ‘Bloody Linda. Wait till I get out of here.’

  ‘If you get out of here.’

  ‘I thought I was the melodramatic one?’

  ‘But just imagine,’ Max began, putting on a spooky voice, ‘Linda is kidnapped right now and driven away in the boot of a car and nobody knows we’re here until i
t’s too late…’

  Bonnie smacked him on the arm and he grinned broadly.

  ‘So, what are we going to do then?’

  ‘We can tell Linda we’ve agreed to it,’ Max said.

  Bonnie shook her head. ‘She’s not that stupid.’

  ‘There’s only one thing we can do then,’ Max replied.

  ‘One drink,’ Bonnie warned. ‘And there’s nothing in it but mates going out together.’

  ‘One drink. Yes ma’am!’

  Bonnie was thoughtful for a moment, hugging herself against the cold that was now beginning to bite through her clothes. Max leaned across and rubbed her arms to try to warm her.

  ‘What about Sarah?’ she suddenly asked.

  Max’s arms dropped to his sides again. ‘I still have to meet her. I said I would.’

  ‘Does that mean you want to try again?’

  ‘I don’t think so. I don’t know, if I’m honest.’

  ‘What would she say if she found out about us?’

  Max held her in a penetrating gaze for a moment before he replied. ‘There is no us, is there? It’s just a drink, like you said.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Bonnie said, something like disappointment creeping into her expression. ‘Just a drink. Of course it is.’

  The door opened and they both span around to see Linda grinning from the doorway. She held a mop out at them threateningly. ‘Don’t think you can rush me and get out. Have you sorted it yet?’

  Bonnie and Max shared a loaded glance.

  ‘Yeah,’ Bonnie said. ‘We have.’

  ‘And?’ Linda asked.

  ‘We’ll do it. One date and then you leave us alone.’

  Linda stepped back and let them out of the fridge.

  ‘Bloody hell, Linda, it’s cold in there. I need another brew now to thaw out,’ Max said as he stepped back into the cool, but at least a little warmer, stockroom.

  Before Linda had time to reply, Fred’s furious, bright red face appeared at the doorway of the stockroom. ‘Industrial action is it this morning?’

  Bonnie gave him a confused frown.

  ‘Well, don’t just stand there; we have a shop to open. What the bloody hell have you been doing all morning?’

  Bonnie glared at Linda, but she simply burst into laughter and went to put the mop away.

  Nine

  ‘You’re going out?’ Paige asked with more than a hint of suspicion in her tone. ‘Where?’

  ‘I do go out, you know,’ Bonnie said as she looked at her through the mirror, fastening an earring.

  ‘I know but…’

  ‘Twice in one month?’ Bonnie raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that what you were going to say?’

  ‘Course not. It’s just weird.’ She folded her arms across her chest. ‘Do I have to go to Jeanie’s? Why can’t I have Annabel here? Why do I have to sleep at Jeanie’s? You won’t be that late, will you?’

  ‘I don’t know how late I’ll be. There’s no harm in seeing your nan, she’ll be happy to have the company.’

  ‘She’ll make me watch rubbish films.’

  ‘Take a book or something.’

  Paige frowned.

  ‘Alright, take your ipad then.’

  ‘Can’t I stay here? Tina and Mike are just next door if I need anything.’

  Bonnie turned around. ‘You can’t go knocking for Tina and Mike every five minutes. They have lives of their own, you know.’

  ‘Yeah, but they don’t mind. Tina’s dead nice; she’s said loads of times that they always wanted kids so they like having me around.’

  ‘For the occasional five minutes at the end of a school day, not in the evening when they’re trying to relax.’

  Paige scuffed her shoe against the doorframe with an irritated pout. Bonnie looked up from rummaging in an old stained make-up bag for the right lipstick.

  ‘Surely the prospect of going to your nan’s can’t be that bad.’

  ‘It’s not that…’

  ‘What then?’

  Paige shrugged silently.

  ‘If I didn’t know you better, Paige Cartwright, I’d say the reason you want to stay here is to check that I come home tonight.’

  ‘MUM!’ Paige groaned.

  ‘I’m right then?’

  Paige paused for a moment. ‘Ok,’ she said finally. ‘Who is he?’

  ‘He?’

  Paige looked her up and down meaningfully. ‘Usually, if it’s a drink with a mate – which you never do, by the way – you wear your jeans; you don’t dress up like that unless it’s a special occasion. You’re going on a date, right?’

  Bonnie sighed as she straightened her dress. In the end, she had gone for a forest green lace number with a fitted bodice and flared skirt. It had a vintage look about it and Bonnie had always felt that it was one of her most useful dresses, one that she could wear tarted up, or dressed down, as she had done tonight by keeping the accessories to simple silver jewellery. ‘Does it matter if it is a date?’ she asked.

  ‘Depends who it is.’

  ‘I think that’s my business.’

  ‘Not if you’re thinking of moving him in.’

  ‘Of course I’m not thinking of moving him in,’ Bonnie replied wearily.

  ‘So you admit that you’re going on a date then?’

  ‘One date. Just to see how it goes, and I very much doubt there will be a second one to be honest.’

  Bonnie thought about the meeting that Max had scheduled in with Sarah for the following evening. In the end, she and Max had decided that there was no point in beating about the bush, and they had made their date for the Saturday night, so that Max could arrange to see Sarah on the Sunday. Bonnie wasn’t sure how she felt about this arrangement. On the one hand, they had both agreed that this date was purely to appease Linda. At least, that was Bonnie’s reasoning behind it. She still felt slightly uneasy about how Max seemed a little too keen on the whole thing. Bonnie had been furious about the fridge stunt, while Max seemed faintly amused. But his insistence that he was still going to see Sarah afterwards rankled with Bonnie more than it ought to. He had made it clear that he was not meeting Sarah for any reason other than that she had asked him to, and to draw a line under their relationship once and for all. But still… what if Sarah persuaded him to take her back?

  Bonnie shook her negative thoughts away. What did it matter? She had been trying to get Max a girlfriend anyway, so what if Sarah was the perfect one after all and he just couldn’t see it?

  ‘Whatever,’ Paige said, and disappeared into the living room.

  A moment later, Bonnie went to find her. She was sitting on the sofa with a sheepish grin.

  ‘Ok, what have you done?’ Bonnie asked, narrowing her eyes.

  ‘There’s been a slight change of plan…’

  Bonnie’s hands went to her hips. ‘What?’

  ‘Jeanie says she’ll come over here.’

  ‘You phoned her and told her to come here?’ Bonnie’s frown deepened.

  ‘What does it matter where she looks after me as long as she does?’

  ‘Because… it means dragging her out on a cold night, it’s not fair.’ Bonnie didn’t add the real reason she wanted them both out of the way safely at Jeanie’s house. Max had offered to pick her up and she didn’t want either of them to start asking awkward questions when they saw who her date was with. If she could have them both tucked away at her mum’s house before Max arrived, that would be perfect.

  ‘Phone her and tell her to stay put,’ Bonnie said, checking her watch. ‘I’ll run you across there now.’

  ‘She’s already got a taxi,’ Paige said.

  ‘How can she…’ Bonnie glared at Paige. ‘You phoned her ages ago! I specifically told you what the plans were and you went behind my back!’

  ‘Like you’re doing with me?’ Paige fired back.

  ‘How do you work that out?’

  ‘Secret dates, trying to get me out of the way so I don’t know anything about it. If this guy is going to be my new
dad, I have a right to meet him first.’

  ‘For the last time, he is not going to be your new dad!’

  ‘So I can meet him anyway?’

  ‘So you can cock it up?’

  ‘Ha! You said it was one date, now you admit that you are thinking of moving him in!’

  ‘Paige!’

  ‘Next thing you’ll be telling me it’s that loser of a delivery man that comes to your shop. He’s always drooling over you.’

  ‘Max does not drool and it is only one date to shut Linda up!’

  Paige’s eyes opened wide. ‘Oh my God, tell me it isn’t him…’

  ‘I don’t have to tell you anything.’ Bonnie swallowed the lump in her throat. It was her life, how dare Paige make her answer for everything she did. ‘Go to your room and wait for your nan to arrive.’

  ‘Make me…’

  ‘So help me, Paige, if you don’t get out of my sight I won’t be responsible for my actions!’

  Paige leapt up from the sofa, glowering at Bonnie. ‘Alright, keep your knickers on.’

  She threw a last mutinous glare back at her mum as she slouched to her bedroom and slammed the door.

  Bonnie drew a huge breath and collected herself. Now she knew for certain that there could only ever be one date with Max. But she was sure as hell going to enjoy it, if only to teach Paige a lesson.

  ***

  Jeanie kissed Bonnie lightly before shrugging her coat off.

  ‘I’m so sorry that Paige dragged you over here,’ Bonnie said as they walked through into the living room.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Jeanie said briskly. ‘If she’s not well then it doesn’t seem fair to drag her out on a night like this.’

  Bonnie’s eyes narrowed. ‘She told you she wasn’t well? Little sod.’

  ‘Oh,’ Jeanie replied with a half-smile. ‘Not entirely true, then?’

  ‘About as true as me being related to the Pope.’

  ‘Well….’

  Bonnie’s forehead creased into a frown. ‘Not even in jest, Mum.’

  Jeanie grinned and settled on the sofa.

  ‘You know where everything is, Mum. Paige is in her room – long story – and my lift will be here any minute –’

  ‘Is this an actual date?’ Jeanie cut in.