Mates, Dates and Sizzling Summers

by Hopkins, Cathy

  Suddenly all the feelings for him that I’d made myself bury threatened to come to the surface. I mustn’t let them, I thought as I took a deep breath. I still don’t know if I can trust him. But as I looked into his face. I wanted to trust him. He looked so earnest and sincere. Not the face of someone who would lie and cheat.

  ‘Listen, Luke, you have no idea what I went through. How I felt. Because yes, I did feel that we had something special and I thought you felt it too and that’s why I trusted you and . . . well . . . you betrayed that trust. I wish for just two minutes you could have been in my shoes and known how it felt . . .’

  ‘I know. I know. My fault. Stupid. It’s because I don’t want to hurt anyone, but in the end I hurt everyone, including myself. But what I wanted to say was . . . I’ve learned my lesson. Could we . . . do you think you could give me a second chance?’

  ‘But why now? It’s been months since we’ve seen each other.’

  ‘Well, you made it very clear at the time that I wasn’t welcome in your life. But I haven’t stopped thinking about you, honestly I haven’t, and I just about thought I’d got you out of my mind. And then there you were at the bus stop last week and I realised that all the same old feelings were still there. I couldn’t kid myself that I was over you.’

  Me too, I thought. As he continued to look at me, I felt like leaning forward and kissing him. He was like a magnet, pulling, pulling . . . I made myself resist. I wanted to be completely certain that he was on the level this time. No secrets. No complications. I couldn’t bear to get so hurt again.

  ‘I . . . I . . . It’s half-term now . . .’

  ‘I know and there’s so many things I want to do and places I’d love to take you. There’s a great exhibition . . . Oh. I . . . I was just assuming that you’re not with anyone at the moment, but of course, you might be. Sorry. Is there? Have you got a boyfriend at the moment?’

  For a moment, I considered telling him about Ollie, but what was there to tell? He wasn’t my boyfriend, and after the fiasco in the limo the other night, even though he’d apologised, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see him again.

  ‘No. No one at the moment, but we’re going down to Cornwall tomorrow for half-term. Mum and Dad are already there. How about I think about what you’ve said while I’m away?’

  Luke looked disappointed but he nodded. ‘OK. Sure. It’s your call.’

  I squeezed his hand and he smiled.

  ‘No secrets?’ I asked. ‘No acting weird? No complications? If we do get back together, I’d want everything out in the open.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ he said and looked more hopeful. ‘I promise.’

  I looked around. The café and bar were beginning to fill up with people who had come for the evening’s performance in the theatre at the back of the centre. ‘How about a walk?’

  Luke looked at his watch. ‘Sure. A quick one. I’m on shift at the restaurant tonight. They’re short-staffed so Dad hauled me in.’

  ‘OK. So walk me home. My brother Paul, who is usually Mr Liberal, has suddenly assumed the role of Mr Strict, so he’ll be very happy if I get back a bit earlier.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Luke.

  On the walk home he took my hand and we talked easily about general things. It was as if he respected the fact that I needed time to think and he wasn’t going to push anything by making the conversation too personal. As we walked up Archway Road, I couldn’t help but think how different my journey home this evening was compared to the night before. I felt like I was in my world, on my territory and being with Luke felt completely natural. Last night had felt as if I had been transported to another planet, with the theatre, the limo, the mini-bar and Mr Ollie ‘Suave’ Axford. I smiled to myself when a white limo like the one I’d ridden in cruised past. Already it was like something that had happened in another lifetime.

  When we reached my road and front gate, Luke glanced at his watch again. ‘Better get going to the restaurant or Dad’ll kill me,’ he said.

  ‘OK. So I’ll call when we’re back.’

  ‘Or while you’re down there. It would be great to hear from you whenever. Whenever you’re ready, TJ.’

  And then he pulled me to him and held me, and it felt like he’d wanted to do it for a long time. I pulled back and turned my face up to his so that he knew that I was feeling the same and he leaned down and kissed me. Tiny sparks of electricity shot through me. It was exactly how I remembered. Marshmallow and chocolate melting . . . melting . . . No reminders to soak paintbrushes. No inner voices arguing with each other.

  Only outer voices! It was Luke who pulled back first and looked around.

  ‘TJ!’ repeated Paul from the front door.

  ‘TJ!’ called Ollie from the open door of the white limo that had just drawn up outside our house. ‘And this is?’

  Luke looked at me and then at Paul and then at Ollie.

  Ollie looked at me then at Luke then at Paul.

  Paul looked at Ollie then Luke and then me.

  I looked at the open front door and, like a coward, ran for it.

  E-mail: Inbox (1)

  To: babewithbrains@psnet.co.uk

  From: leilaferrin@fastmail.com

  Date: 26th May

  Subject: Top Tip

  Hi TJ,

  My top tip for writing is: Never give up. Persevere through rejection and tough times and it will pay off in the end – a tip which I apply to my life as well as my writing.

  Hope this finds you well, and good luck with it all.

  Leila Ferrin.

  The long drive down to Cornwall was a blessing. It gave me time to think. And Paul time to tease me like mad. He thought Ollie turning up just when I was mid-snog with Luke was hysterical.

  ‘If you could have seen your face,’ he said, as we drove down the A303. ‘It was a picture.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad someone found it entertaining,’ I said.

  After I’d taken refuge inside last night, Paul said that neither Luke nor Ollie had hung about for long. Apparently Ollie had got out of the car (carrying a bunch of flowers, no less) and gone to speak to Luke. Paul couldn’t hear exactly what was said, but Ollie soon got back in the car and Luke stormed off down the road.

  Later that evening, when I’d calmed down and my breathing had gone back to normal, I’d picked up my e-mails.There was one from Leila Ferrin saying persevere through the bad times. I thought I should apply that philosophy to Luke so I tried to phone him at the restaurant. Whoever picked up the phone said he was working and couldn’t talk. It could have been his dad, it could have been one of the other waiters acting on Luke’s instructions not to take calls. I felt really bad about my reaction earlier. I had just panicked. My Minnie the Mouse sub-persona had taken over and taken the coward’s way out. And then I’d regretted it. I’m not a coward. Not normally. I just didn’t know what to do or say. Later in the evening, I tried Luke’s mobile. It was switched off. And I tried again a few times this morning before we left but still no luck. I thought about texting him, but changed my mind as I wanted to talk to him in person.

  As we drove along, I texted Izzie, Nesta, Lucy and Hannah to bring them up to date, then gazed out of the window at the passing fields and rolling hills that told us we were out of London. The weather had cleared since last night and it looked like it was going to be a gloriously hot day. As I stared up at the blue sky, I replayed the earlier part of the evening with Luke over and over again in my mind. Luke and I did have something amazing. I really wanted to make it work and, even though the end of the evening had turned out disastrously, in one way it proved to me how these sorts of things could happen. It made me think that I had judged Luke too harshly in the past. I believed now that he hadn’t meant to hurt me and he hadn’t meant to hurt Nesta. It was just a case of bad timing, just as it had been with Ollie showing up around the same time that Luke came back into my life. If I had met Ollie just after Christmas we could have gone out, broken up, gone out and broken up several times over by now.
All those months I didn’t have any boyfriends, then, as luck would have it, I meet Ollie a week before I bump into Luke again. Bad, bad timing, but I would explain to Luke that he was the one I wanted to be with. I wasn’t two-timing him. Hopefully he’d understand. If anyone should understand, it was him.

  I hadn’t called Ollie yet even though he’d tried again to call me this morning. I was still working out what I wanted to say. I had his number down in Cornwall so I knew that I could call him and apologise there. I was going to tell him that I hadn’t purposely kept anything back from him about Luke because up until that evening there was nothing going on. And then I’d explain that Luke and I were (hopefully) going to get back together. I hoped that Ollie and I could be friends and that he’d understand and not think that I was a scheming, conniving love rat.

  After cruising down the A303 for about an hour, Paul turned off the road into a service station. ‘Got to get some petrol,’ he said. ‘So if you need the Ladies, now is the time and, while you’re there, get some chocolate supplies.’

  As Paul filled the car up, I went and got a few things from the shop inside, then got Mojo out of the back of the car and went and sat on a grassy verge outside the café area where I dialled Luke’s mobile. This time, he picked up.

  ‘Oh Luke, hi! It’s TJ.’

  ‘Yes. I know who it is,’ he said. His voice sounded cold.

  ‘About last night . . .’

  ‘Yes. You made your point. Quite a set-up.’

  ‘Set-up? What do you mean?’

  ‘Earlier. When we were at Jackson’s Lane, you said you’d love for me to feel what it was like to be hurt the way that you were. To be two-timed. Well, mission accomplished. Well done. I wouldn’t have thought revenge was exactly your style, but I guess I had it coming.’

  ‘No . . . Luke, it wasn’t like that.’

  ‘No? What about when I asked if you were with anyone at the moment. You said you weren’t. So who was the guy in the limo, then? You don’t need to tell me. I asked him and he told me that you’d been dating.’

  ‘No, but we’re not . . .’

  ‘Look, I’m not stupid, TJ. Go on, go ahead. Say all the stuff that I said to you. It’s not serious with him, etc, etc. You’re the one I want, etc., etc. Go on, get your own back. I hope you’re enjoying it.’

  ‘No, Luke, listen please . . . About Ollie . . .’

  ‘No, you listen. OK, I walked right into it. I got what I deserved. I said I was sorry, but you got me anyway. So now we’re equal. I don’t want to play games, TJ. And contrary to what you might think, I did really care about you.’

  ‘But . . .’

  He didn’t give me a chance to say anything. ‘Stick with your rich boyfriend,’ he said. ‘Maybe he doesn’t mind girls who play head games.’

  And then he hung up!

  I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. So much for perseverance paying off. I felt so mad I wanted to kick something.

  ‘Arrrghhhhhh,’ I cried.

  Mojo, who was always eager to join in whatever I was doing let out a loud howl. ‘Awooohhhh.’

  ‘Exactly, Mojo,’ I said. ‘Abloomingwoooooooh.’

  ‘You all right, love?’ asked a middle-aged lady who was going into the service station.

  ‘Oh yes, fine,’ I said. ‘Just stubbed my toe.’

  She gave me a strange look and carried on her way.

  ‘Hey, TJ, come on,’ called Paul from the car. ‘Best get going if we’re to be there for supper.’

  For the next couple of hours we drove along listening to the radio, each of us locked in our thoughts and private worlds. I didn’t want to discuss my feelings with Paul because I was stunned at Luke’s reaction. It was totally unreasonable. He’d thought the worst possible thing about me. Not only that I was seeing someone else, but that I would flaunt it in front of him for revenge. As if! Well, that killed any romantic notion that he somehow knew the real me. I would never do anything so calculated, and if he thought I could then he could stuff it. I wasn’t into playing games. And he hadn’t even given me a chance to explain my side of the story. Pfff. There was no hope for us as a couple. If a boy wasn’t even prepared to listen, then what chance did we have? None.

  As we drove further down south, the countryside began to open up and became greener. Paul and I began to chat more and for a while it took my thoughts off boys and what complications they caused. We drove on through Exeter, down past Plymouth, across the Saltash Bridge and on to one of the B-roads leading to the Rame Peninsula.

  ‘Not much longer,’ said Paul as we drove down a road with high hedgerows on both sides. ‘In fact, we’ve done good time. Four and a half hours. We should be there before five.’

  He turned a corner and suddenly we were out in the open again and could see where we were.

  ‘Wow!’ I gasped when I saw the panoramic view in front of us.

  ‘Woweekazowee,’ said Paul, and pulled the car over so that we could take it all in.

  The countryside in front of us was spectacular. A perfect scene. A perfect day with not a cloud in the blue, blue sky. To our right and ahead as far as the eye could see, was the ocean – glistening silver blue in the late afternoon light. Miles and miles of it along an unspoilt coastline that stretched out in front of us until, in the far distance, it reached a part of the landscape that jutted out into the sea. To our left were rolling hills, valleys and fields of green and honey colours.

  ‘This is absolutely stunning,’ I said. ‘It’s like a painting.’

  Paul consulted his map then pointed out to the sea. ‘That’s Whitsand Bay along there, and that hill with the little church on top in the far distance is probably Rame Head.’

  ‘Fanbloomingtabulous,’ I said.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Paul as he started up the car again.

  We drove on down through winding lanes, through a small village called Millbrook, and once we were through it, we found the landmarks that Mum had told us to look out for. Left at the school at the top of the hill, two miles through woodland, two big rock boulders after the turn off to Anderton, and then take a left on a road with an orchard on your left and a field with horses on your right.

  We carried on down the sandy lane as instructed, took a left at the bottom and then found ourselves in a private bay.

  It was beautiful. A quiet inlet of water with one boat bobbing about in the low tide. The only sound was the water lapping gently. On the land in front was Rose Harbour Cottage and there, in a deckchair on the lawn leading down to the bay was Dad. It looked like he was asleep as he had his Panama hat over his face. He looked the picture of perfect peace.

  Mum came running out when she heard the car. She looked much more rested than when they left last week and so pleased to see us. She took our bags from the boot and ushered us inside the cottage.

  ‘It used to be a coaching inn,’ said Mum as she gave us the tour and led us through the forty-foot, low-beamed living room and into a vast open kitchen with a little conservatory off to the right. The whole place smelled of woodsmoke, as if hundreds of log fires had been burned there. ‘And I think this part was built later.’

  Upstairs on two floors were four spacious bedrooms, each with double windows, a window seat and a view of the ocean. There were two large bathrooms and, at the back in an outhouse, there was a snooker room, complete with table. There was a garden with a pond and barbecue area at the side, as well as the lawn at the front. Fabulous, I thought. I could see that we were going to have a great week here.

  After tea and sandwiches, I went up to my room on the first floor to unpack. As I was putting things away in the pine wardrobe, my mobile rang. For a moment my stomach turned over as I thought it might be Luke calling to apologise or talk things over.

  ‘Hi,’ said Ollie’s voice.

  ‘Oh. Hi,’ I said. ‘I’m glad you called. I wanted to talk to you. Er . . . About last night. I want to explain.’

  ‘No, me first. I want to explain about what happened in the
limo on the way back from the circus the other night. I’m sorry I pushed things along too fast. That’s why I was there waiting for you last night. I’m really sorry. I got carried away and . . . well, sorry.’

  ‘You’re sorry? Oh right. Yes, of course, the limo!’ I said. I’d been so busy thinking about what I was going to say to him about running away last night and about Luke that I’d completely forgotten about the groping incident. ‘It’s cool. Apology accepted.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. Forgiven. Forgotten.’

  ‘Wow, TJ, you really are something. Excellent.’

  ‘And I wanted to say that I’m sorry too. You know . . . for diving inside last night when I saw you. Sorry.’

  Ollie laughed. ‘That guy didn’t seem too happy to see me either,’ he said. ‘Who was he?’

  ‘Luke. No. I guess he wasn’t too happy.’

  ‘And Luke is?’

  ‘Old boyfriend. Unfinished business.’

  ‘Still unfinished?’

  ‘Nope, I think we’ve pretty well got that one wrapped up now.’

  ‘Fab, so we can hang out,’ said Ollie. ‘And I promise no more funny stuff. You on your way down to Cornwall?’

  ‘No. I’m here already.’

  ‘Excellent. I’ll be down tomorrow, so see you at your cottage?’

  ‘Yeah. Sure,’ I said. Why not? I thought. Luke has just blown me out. Why shouldn’t I see Ollie? ‘And . . . you’re not mad or anything about last night?’

  ‘Nope,’ said Ollie. ‘It’s not as if we were married or anything. We’re young, we’re free, we’re single! And a girl like you, I expect competition.’

  Hah! I thought. If only you knew my track record (or lack of it).

  ‘Yes, it really is difficult some days,’ I said. ‘I have to fight the boys off.’

  ‘Me too. Or girls that is in my case.’ Ollie laughed. ‘It’s hard being as drop-dead gorgeous and desirable as I am.’

  I laughed, but I hoped he was joking.

  ‘OK, so we’re cool,’ I said.

  ‘Yep. We’re cool,’ said Ollie.