Lewis lay on his bed and replayed everything back in his head from start to finish. From the moment he met her in Books ‘n’ Beans, to the time he left her on the beach. He analysed every word and conversation to see if it yielded any clues. It was painful because he remembered everything he had said. It all sounded so ridiculous, partly because Lewis had never really thought about the things he said. His words had never really bothered him before but now they made him feel self-conscious and insecure. Pandora’s box was well and truly open.
He winced when he thought of what he’d come out with. Especially when he thought about what was said on the beach and, more importantly, what wasn’t. He’d told her she was good looking, which was definitely too strong and then he’d followed it up with silence. No wonder the girl was uncomfortable and wanted to leave.
Lewis couldn’t do this anymore; he had to get out and move around. At least then he would feel like he was doing something. He decided to drive into town and go to Books ‘n’ Beans, where they had first met. He didn’t expect she’d be there of course, the chances of that were far too remote. But it was all he had. Lewis thought maybe he could go there every day until she appeared again. A stupid idea - they had met purely by chance. But he would do it if he had no other option.
Walking into the book store, he began browsing around. He then remembered where he’d seen her - the Twilight section. He found it easily enough and stared at the books. She’d really been into these. Lewis picked one of them up at random and began reading the jacket blurb. It was all coming back to him now. The book was about Edward and Bella – that’s what Rachel had said. He was a vampire and they were in love. Lewis held on to the book affectionately. At the moment it was the only thing he had that connected him with Rachel.
Just then one of the store assistants came along and started stacking the shelves with new titles. Something clicked in Lewis’ mind. He remembered there had been someone else here with them last Saturday, apart from Cassie. It was a guy who worked here, who seemed to know them. Lewis had borrowed a pen off of him. Maybe he knew how to get in contact with her.
‘Excuse me,’ Lewis said. Then he noticed her name badge, ‘Lynn.’ She was as tall as him, and had an elegant slim figure.
‘Yes can I help you?’
‘Were you working here last Saturday?’
‘Yes, I was.’
‘There was a guy working here with brown wavy hair.’
‘That sounds like Clive.’
‘Yeah, I need to speak with him urgently. You couldn’t give me his number could you?’
‘No, I’m sorry we can’t give out employees’ numbers to customers, but he’ll be in on Saturday if you need to speak to him.’
‘Saturday. That’s great. You’ve been very helpful, thank you.’
Lewis smiled at Lynn who gave him a big smile back. For a few seconds Lewis felt his old charm return. But then Lewis could be charming around girls he wasn’t bothered about. It was just the one girl who seemed to tie his tongue in uncomfortable knots.
Saturday was only a few days away. Lewis could wait until then.
*
Rachel hadn’t said anything much to Clive all week and she certainly hadn’t mentioned the story he had written. It seemed she was doing very little talking to anyone. All her replies were monosyllabic and she rarely made eye contact. Something had definitely happened at the weekend and Clive still had no idea what it was. Cassie had been off sick all week, so he couldn’t even ask her about it. He thought about calling her, as the mystery was driving him insane but he thought that might be too insensitive.
Clive was in a weird sort of limbo. After the brief high of writing his story, fuelled by adrenalin and desire, it had all come to nothing and left him feeling weary and anxious. He wanted Rachel to say something. Even telling him that his story was crap would have been better than silence. At least it would have given him something to deal with or react against or get angry at. Instead there was a big empty hollow feeling, like waiting for a plane that was delayed. It was dead time. The best he could hope for was that Cassie would be back on Monday, and could enlighten him about the whole situation. Until then he had the weekend to get through.
Saturday finally came around and Clive was pleased to be going to work for the distraction. The last thing he needed was more time to think about Rachel. Over the past few days he had run through every conceivable outcome in his head. He needed something to take his mind off things. Being surrounded by books and pointing customers to the travel section would do the trick. Why did people always get lost trying to find the travel section?
As he got off the bus and walked to work, his spirits picked up slightly. A change of scenery would do him good and he was looking forward to a busy day. As he got closer to Books ‘n’ Beans he saw a strange and unexpected sight. There, sitting on a bench outside the store, was Lewis. What was he doing here? He was the last person he wanted to see. Clive slowed down. There was no way he could get to work without walking past him.
Clive thought about turning around and calling in sick, but his conscience wouldn’t let him. Instead, he put his head down and walked purposefully towards the store, pretending he hadn’t seen him. Anyway, Clive didn’t even know him, so what was there to fear? He doubted Lewis would remember him, he’d been so focused on Rachel the last time he was here. Clive nearly made it to the entrance when a friendly voice called out to him.
‘Clive.’
Clive stopped and turned around to face Lewis who was now bounding towards him with a handsome smile on his face. It was easy to see why Rachel liked him.
‘Yes,’ Clive said weakly.
‘Hi, I don’t know if you remember me but I was here last Saturday.’
‘I think so,’ Clive lied.
‘Oh good. You’re a friend of Rachel’s aren’t you?’
‘Yes, yes, I am.’
‘Great. Listen I need to get in contact with her urgently and I was wondering if you had her mobile number’
‘Er, no I don’t, I’m afraid,’ Clive lied again.
‘Okay, what about her email.’
‘Sorry, I don’t know her that well.’
‘Damn it.’
Clive was surprised at Lewis’ sudden change in mood.
‘Are you sure you don’t know how to get in contact with her?’ Lewis asked.
‘No, I’m sorry.’
‘What about her house? Do you know where she lives?’
‘I don’t know.’ Clive’s lies were starting to make him feel uncomfortable. He very rarely lied but now he had told five in a row. ‘I’m sorry I can’t help.’ He decided to make a quick getaway and bolted straight into the store. If he stood here answering any more of Lewis’ questions it would mean making more things up and it would all get far too complicated.
Clive headed for the security of the staffroom and hung his bag up on a peg. Maybe Lewis would disappear if Clive waited here long enough. He felt like a terrible coward but what could he do? Lewis was the enemy, wasn’t he? You didn’t help your enemies.
Sitting in the staff room, he thought about the way he’d lied. It had come easily to him but now he was getting a guilty conscience. Plus, if Lewis did eventually catch up with Rachel, he would certainly tell her how he’d asked Clive for her number. Rachel would then know he’d lied and that would make him look sneaky and untrustworthy – something he knew Rachel abhorred. Clive tried to push this thought out of his mind but it kept returning like a wretched boomerang.
He stood up, put on his name badge and walked to the tills at the front of the store. Through the window he could see Lewis still sitting on the bench. It looked like he would be there all day.
Clive pulled his mobile out of his pocket, found Rachel’s number and hit the call button. He walked up to Lewis who looked surprised to see him and handed him the phone.
‘It’s ringing.’
Lewis took the phone and suddenly his eyes twinkled when he saw Rachel’s name on the scre
en with the little phone icon wobbling.
‘Thank you so much, I really appreciate this.’
Clive had thought Lewis might’ve be angry at him for lying, but he seemed overcome with happiness.
Clive was probably going to regret this. Anyone else would have thought it was a stupid move. If it was the other way around, Lewis probably wouldn’t have done the same. But that was the difference between him and Lewis. Clive always did the right thing and that thought made him feel slightly better.
Clive moved away from Lewis to make it appear like he was giving him some privacy, but he stayed within earshot so he could hear the conversation. He may have given away his advantage by handing Lewis the phone but his goodwill wasn’t endless. At least he could get some benefit from this situation and find out what was going on.
‘Hi, hello, Rachel, is that you?’ Lewis said. ‘No, it’s not Clive. I’ve just borrowed his phone. It’s Lewis, you know, from the party.’
This seemed to be a different Lewis from the one Clive had encountered a week ago. The impossibly cool dude who had smoothed his way around Rachel now stumbled over his words like a two year old in stilettos. Perhaps the playing field was a little more level than Clive had first thought.
‘… yeah, I hope you don’t mind me calling you. Listen, I didn’t get to say goodbye to you the other night and I wanted to just check, you know, that you were okay.’
There was a long pause. Clive could hear the small tinny disembodied voice of Rachel on the other end of the line, but he had no idea what she was saying.
‘…Oh, I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Lewis continued. ‘Er, Rachel, I was wondering if, I mean, could I meet up with you? How about today? You are? Well that’s great. I’m in town at the moment. Yeah, fantastic. I’ll see you then. Bye.’
Lewis hung up and handed the phone back. Clive took it and wanted to twist it and smash it into to little pieces. Why the hell had he allowed Lewis to get in contact with Rachel? He was supposed to be keeping them apart, not matchmaking. His stupid warped sense of fair play had shafted him again. Well, he only had himself to blame, and blaming himself was something Clive was an expert at.
‘Thanks, man. I really appreciate that,’ said Lewis.
‘No problem,’ Clive replied. Even though he wasn’t looking at him he could feel Lewis’ puzzled stare boring into his skull.
‘But why did you say you didn’t have Rachel’s number?’
‘Sorry about that,’ Clive lied again. He was getting good at it. ‘It’s just I don’t really know you so I was a bit reluctant about giving out Rachel’s number.’
‘Hey, don’t worry about it, I understand. I’d have probably done the same thing. Rachel’s on her way into town. I’m going to meet up with her for a coffee.’
‘Great.’ If Clive’s grip got any tighter on his mobile it would explode.
‘You can say hi to her,’ Lewis replied.
‘Yes. Yes I can.’ Clive’s lips went tighter than an elastic band about to snap. Who the hell did this guy think he was? Rachel was his friend. He had known her for years. He didn’t need some posh bloke giving him permission to say hi to her.
‘What are you two up to then?’ asked Clive.
Lewis went quiet for a second.
‘We’ve just got some, er, important things to discuss.’
‘Really. I thought you only met each other last week.’
‘Yeah, we did but I think we’ve got a lot in common.’
‘Oh yeah? Like what?’
‘Er, well …’
Clive had Lewis on the ropes and he knew it. Lewis had nothing in common with Rachel. He didn’t even know her. He was just another randy teenager who wanted to get off with her. At that point, Clive’s supervisor came out.
‘Clive, we need a little help in here please.’
‘Yeah coming,’ shouted Clive. ‘See you later,’ he said to Lewis and tried to give him a hard stare, as if to broadcast that he knew what he was up to. But Clive didn’t have a mean bone in his body and it looked more like constipation than aggression.
When he got to the tills, Ginster was already there.
‘Hey, who was that guy you were talking to?’
‘No-one,’ replied Clive.
‘Is he a friend?’
‘No.’
‘Do you think he would be my friend?’
‘No.’
‘He’s really cool. It’s like Brad Pitt and George Clooney had a baby or something. I’d like a friend like him. Maybe I’d get some girl action if I hung around with someone like that.’
‘Would you shut up!’ Clive raised his voice and several customers looked up from the books they were reading.
‘I’m just stating facts is all,’ said Ginster. ‘Hey, she’s doing it again.’
‘Who’s doing what?’
Ginster nodded towards Lynn who was looking over in their direction and smiling. Clive looked back at her and several books slid off the top of the pile she was carrying.
*
Rachel shut her mobile and clutched it as the bus swayed her gently towards town. Everything had been so simple before Lewis had rung. She was coming to terms with the fact that he wasn’t the one. This wasn’t easy as she wanted it to be him so much, but after what she’d seen and heard on Saturday night, he was certainly no Edward Cullen. This was a decision of the head of course. It was a logical solution to a problem.
But her heart felt otherwise.
The fact that Lewis had called and asked to meet up had sent sparks of electricity around her body. It felt like pure magic being poured into her blood. Beneath all her common sense and reasoning, she still wanted him just as badly as before. Trouble was, her head was screaming at her not to fall for him. It was a terrible schizophrenia, especially as Rachel was now trying to work out what she should say to him.
One thing was obvious; she knew he must like her. Why else would he go to the trouble of tracking down Clive and getting her number off him? That should have put her mind at some sort of rest. Instead it just threw up more complications. She now had to make a decision. Would she take a leap of faith and see him again or would she cut it short and move on? As the bus pulled into town she was still undecided.
Rachel headed into Books ‘n’ Beans. She walked past the tills.
‘Hi, Rachel,’ said Clive.
Rachel turned, gave him a little wave and carried on walking. She didn’t want to get into a conversation with anyone at the moment. There were too many conversations and discussions already going on inside her head.
As she reached the coffee shop at the back of the store, she saw Lewis reclining on a large sofa. He looked like a Roman emperor, regal and majestic. As soon as he saw her, he jumped up and flashed her a perfect smile.
Whatever happened, this was going to be difficult.
‘Hi Rachel, do you want a latte or a cappuccino or something?’ he asked.
‘I’ll have a small cappuccino, please.’
She took a seat and watched him queue up to order. He stood out a mile, like a movie star who’d just stepped out of a film and into the real world.
Lewis returned with the two drinks and sat down. He had a huge latte in a bucket-sized cup. Rachel watched as he poured sachet after sachet of sugar into his drink.
‘Like coffee with your sugar?’ she asked.
Lewis laughed nervously into his drink and then took a giant slurp. He winced and swallowed hard.
‘You okay?’ said Rachel. ‘You look like you’re in pain.’
‘Yeah, probably should have waited for it to cool down.’
They both smiled and looked away from each other. The store was full of customers and Rachel pretended to people watch. An uncomfortable silence grew between them. It was like being back on the beach all over again. Rachel was reminded of what had happened last time. The memory of the two men and their little sister still hadn’t gone away.
‘So, er, how are you?’ Lewis asked.
‘I’m good.
How are you?’ she replied.
‘I’m good too. Is your asthma okay?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry, I get these little attacks every now and then.’
‘That’s good,’ said Lewis. ‘I mean it’s not good. But it’s good that, you know, that it’s only now and again. I think that came out a bit wrong.’
‘It’s okay I know what you meant.’
‘Look, I didn’t get a chance to thank you the other night.’
Becoming Edward Page 8
