Truth Or Date

by Portia MacIntosh

  The door buzzes. Crap. Whoever this is, I need to get rid of them ASAP so I can get back to my post. I only have five minutes to spare now.

  Whoever it is, I buzz them in, and hover at the flat door waiting for them.

  ‘Deborah, hi,’ I babble, surprised. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Oh, Heather, it’s such a mess,’ she tells me, tears in her eyes. ‘Arthur, Nick’s dad, they think he’s had some kind of heart attack. Is Nick not here?’

  ‘I’m so sorry to hear that,’ I tell her. ‘He isn’t, he’s out somewhere.’

  ‘I got the call while I was shopping in Harvey Nics, I’m headed straight back there. But I’ve got to pick up my grandkids on the way, and I’ve no one to leave them with, and I can’t have them running around the hospital unattended – oh, it’s such a mess.’

  I place an arm around her, giving her shoulder a reassuring rub.

  ‘Look, it’s going to be fine. Your husband is in the right place, you’re on your way over there, you’ll be with him soon enough,’ I reassure her. And then it hits me – exactly what I need to do. Well, I have two options: sit at my laptop and wait for the incriminating photos of Heather and Deano to go online, or help Deborah out when she really needs it. There’s only one option really.

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ I tell her. ‘I can watch the kids while you figure out what’s going on.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ she asks. ‘He’s at a hospital not too far from Ilkley, I’m driving over anyway.’

  ‘Of course I’m sure,’ I tell her. ‘Just let me grab my coat.’

  I close the lid of my laptop, grab a jacket and head for the door with Deborah.

  OK, so I’m not going to get the smoking gun I needed to break up Nick and Heather, but some things are just more important.

  Chapter 36

  ‘I can’t believe you’ve never seen Button Moon, it’s a classic,’ I insist. I’m sitting in a hospital waiting room with Megan and Sam, Nick’s sister’s kids. They’re twins, aged nine, and they’re beyond smart for their age. What they are lacking, however, is knowledge of decent kids’ TV.

  ‘I liked Dora the Explorer when I was little,’ Megan tells me. ‘But I’m too old for that now.’

  ‘I’ll never be too old for Button Moon,’ I insist. And I still have the VHS to prove it – not that I have anything I can play it on.

  ‘Is granddad going to be OK?’ Sam asks.

  ‘The doctors are taking care of him,’ I assure him. ‘You know how your Uncle Nick can fix anything? Well, the doctors here are just as good.’

  ‘Once I fell off our slide and Uncle Nick glued my head back together, it was so cool, and my mum says I have a scar,’ Sam brags.

  ‘That’s so awesome, can I see?’ I ask.

  Sam offers me his head, but I can’t really spot anything. Still, I get excited.

  ‘Whoa, that’s so cool,’ I tell him.

  ‘You’re good with them, aren’t you?’ Deborah observes. I’d no idea she’d crept up on us.

  ‘Must be having the same mental age,’ I muse.

  ‘Oh, I assumed it was because you were a primary school teacher,’ she replies.

  ‘And there’s that.’

  ‘Anyway, Nick will be here soon, he can take over babysitting duties. You’re welcome to stick around, you’re family now after all. And I don’t know what I would’ve done without you watching these two.’

  ‘It was nothing,’ I assure her. ‘How’s your husband?’

  ‘He’s going to be OK,’ she assures me. ‘They’re just running a few tests.’

  ‘I am so pleased to hear that,’ I tell her sincerely. ‘You get back to him, I’ll watch the kids until Nick gets here.’

  Deborah gives me a warm smile before heading back out into the corridor. As she passes the window around the corner, I notice her bump into Nick. She’s telling him everything that’s going on, which means I only have a few minutes to get out of here without him seeing me.

  ‘OK, kids, your Uncle Nick is here, so I’m going to go. But it was so nice to meet you both.’

  ‘See you soon,’ Sam tells me.

  ‘Yes,’ Megan agrees. ‘And I can’t wait until you’re my auntie, you’re cool.’

  I give them both a smile and pull them in for a group hug.

  ‘Take care of each other,’ I tell them.

  I quickly dash for the door, hovering there for a second while I make sure the coast is clear.

  ‘Heather has been amazing,’ I hear Deborah telling Nick. ‘Honestly, I couldn’t have coped without her. You’ve got yourself a good one there.’

  I make my exit from the hospital as swiftly as possible. Once outside, I flag down a taxi that’s just dropped someone off.

  ‘Any chance I can get a lift to the train station ASAP?’ I ask.

  ‘Sure, hop in,’ the guy agrees. Within minutes, I’m on my way home.

  I get out of the taxi and straight onto the train. As I get closer to Leeds, I notice how dark it’s getting.

  There’s a couple sitting opposite me on the train, they’ve got to be in their late fifties/early sixties, and yet they’re kissing like teenagers.

  ‘We’re celebrating our wedding anniversary,’ the man tells me, his sentence interrupted with enough hiccups to confirm that they have celebrated well.

  ‘Congratulations,’ I reply.

  ‘Eight years we’ve been married,’ the lady tells me. ‘But we actually first met when we were at uni.’

  ‘Really?’ I reply, too polite to seem uninterested in their story. Although that is quite a long gap before they actually got together.

  ‘Our first year, I tried to chat her up – she rejected me,’ the man laughs. ‘And even during our second year, I saved her from a mugger – a proper Mills & Boon moment where I swept in and saved the day – still, she didn’t want to know.’

  His wife laughs and squeezes his hand.

  ‘Your persistence paid off in the end, dear,’ she reminds him.

  ‘It certainly did,’ he smiles.

  ‘That’s lovely,’ I tell them, sincerely. ‘What have you done to celebrate?’

  ‘We’ve been out for dinner, maybe had a little too much to drink,’ she giggles. ‘Now we’re just heading back into Leeds, few more drinks and then home. Do you live in Leeds?’

  ‘I do,’ I tell her.

  ‘No work for me tomorrow,’ she tells me. ‘I’m a registrar. Births and deaths.’

  ‘I bet that’s interesting,’ I reply.

  ‘It is,’ she replies, her face falling slightly. ‘It can be a sad job, hearing everyone’s stories, but a joyous one too. Watching life. People coming into the world, people going out – it’s very humbling.’

  I nod thoughtfully.

  ‘What do you do?’ she asks curiously.

  ‘I, erm…I work in a coffee shop,’ I lie. No point telling them I got fired this week. Telling them I work in coffee shop is less embarrassing than telling them I’m unemployed now…although that’s the first time I’ve actually been embarrassed to admit what I do. Or did. Not because there’s anything wrong with working in a coffee shop, but because I don’t love it. Because I can’t talk passionately about it like she does about her job. I do it because it’s the absolutely bare minimum I need to do to survive. Not once have I ever hoped for better for myself, up until now.

  ‘Well, everyone loves coffee,’ her husband replies cheerily.

  The conductor makes an announcement over the train speakers: ‘We will shortly be arriving at Leeds Station, your final destination. Please remember to talk all belongings with you and thank you for travelling with us this evening.’

  ‘Well, it was nice to meet you,’ I tell them both as the train pulls in.

  ‘You too, dear. Take care,’ the lady tells me.

  ‘Yes, you take care of yourself,’ the man chimes in, struggling to his feet and heading for the door.

  ‘Have a great night,’ I call after them.

  I step off
the train and stroll towards the ticket barrier, the drunk couple still on my mind. They had to be in their mid-fifties at least, say they were eighteen when they met – that means it was nearly thirty years from when they met to when they finally got married. Thirty years! That’s such a long time, so much of their lives that they’ve wasted apart when they could’ve been together and as happy as they are now. I suppose you can’t look at it like that, can you? If I were in a good mood, I suppose the lesson to learn here would be patience. Because I don’t know what happened in the years between them being at uni and finally getting married, but his patience did pay off. They were meant to be together and they are now, even if it took a long time. Maybe that’s just the way things are supposed to go sometimes, que sera sera, whatever will be will be and all that.

  One thing that won’t be, without a bit of help and a lot of apologising on my part, is my friendship with Millsy. He was right, I was getting too obsessed with this Nick thing, and showing him that photo really would’ve crushed him. He doesn’t deserve that at all. And Millsy has been my friend my entire life, no man is worth falling out with him over.

  I stand outside the theatre for a second, scared to go in. I know that the show is supposed to start within the next two hours, but hopefully there’s time for me to have a conversation with my best friend.

  Once inside the theatre, I overhear two members of box office staff talking.

  ‘So Emma has concussion, she’s still in hospital under observation,’ the girl says.

  ‘That’s awful,’ the boy adds. ‘But wasn’t she the understudy?’

  ‘Yeah,’ the girl replies. ‘So basically the show can’t go on.’

  We have a saying in theatre, and that’s that the show must go on, so if that means stepping up to the mark, so be it.

  ‘Excuse me,’ I address them both. ‘I couldn’t help but overhear your problem and I think I can help,’ I tell them.

  ‘Well, unless you know all the lines to this play, then I don’t think you can,’ the boy laughs.

  ‘Not only did I play Lady Macbeth in high school, but my best friend is playing Banquo, and I’ve been helping him rehearse every day for the past couple of weeks, so, yeah, I think I can help you.’

  ‘Oh really?’ the boy laughs is disbelief. ‘You don’t look like a Shakespeare nut.’

  ‘How now, my lord! Why do you keep alone,’ I start, ‘Of sorriest fancies your companions making…’

  As I deliver my lines perfectly, I watch as the boy and girl just stare at me, stunned, then impressed.

  ‘Let me get a message to the director,’ the boy says excitedly.

  ‘You do that,’ I call after him.

  Chapter 37

  The last few hours have been a whirlwind of events, with more unexpected twists and turns than a Shakespearean tragedy.

  The play must’ve been in big trouble because, before I knew it, I was plonked in front of the director with the promise that I could save the play. With literally no other option – and after a brief audition – he agreed to let me fill in as Lady Macbeth for tonight’s show, and I have to admit, I’ve enjoyed every second of it.

  After my dramatic exit scene, I dashed back to my dressing room to slip on my red dress, ready to step out on stage and take a bow.

  The opening night was a triumph, if I do say so myself, with the audience loving it. I have to admit, it’s really reignited my love for acting. Proper acting. Not lying to the librarian about why my books were returned late, not convincing bad Matcher dates that I had weird nipples so they’d give up on trying to see me naked, and not messing with girls in the street, telling them tall stories, simply because I was bored.

  Finally back in my dressing room, I sit back in my chair and exhale deeply.

  There’s a knock on my door.

  ‘Come in,’ I call out.

  ‘Hey you,’ Millsy says cautiously. ‘You’re not going to give me a concussion like you did those two other people, are you?’ he teases.

  ‘Don’t,’ I insist. ‘I feel bad enough as it is. Are they OK?’

  ‘They’re both going to be fine,’ he assures me. ‘But Emma has quit the play. Just a heads up, the director is looking for a replacement as soon as possible. I suggested he might want to keep you on in the meantime – if not for the whole run. Nothing to do with you being my best friend, or newly unemployed – you earned it, Rubes. You were phenomenal out there. This is what you were born to do.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I tell him, climbing to my feet. ‘I know it’s going to seem sudden, but it’s just reminded me that acting is my passion, and that this is something I want to pursue. I don’t know why I was convincing myself otherwise.’ I offer him my fist to bump. He hesitates for a second before doing it, but then he grabs me and he hugs me so tightly.

  ‘Let’s never fall out again,’ he insists.

  ‘Never,’ I tell him. ‘Unless it’s over what to watch on Netflix or what topping to have on a pizza.’

  ‘No chance of that,’ he laughs. ‘House of Cards and pepperoni. That’s the way it’s always been, that’s the way it’s always going to be.’

  ‘Amen to that,’ I tell him.

  ‘Right, well, I need to go outside and check out the groupie situation, so I’ll see you in the bar later?’

  ‘You will,’ I reply. ‘Enjoy your groupies.’

  Millsy has no sooner left when there’s a knock at my door again.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ I ask. ‘You need lube or something?’

  I open the door expecting to see Millsy. Instead it’s Nick.

  ‘Lube?’ he asks, stifling a laugh.

  ‘Don’t ask. Just come in,’ I insist. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘I called your phone looking for you, Millsy answered it, said you’d left it here. He also told me you were about to go on stage and perform. I was already back in Leeds, so he hooked me up with a seat.’

  ‘So your dad is OK?’ I ask.

  ‘Now how did you know about my dad?’ he asks with a smile.

  ‘I…you mentioned it?’

  ‘Give it up, Ruby,’ he says. ‘I know it was you at the hospital. First of all, because when my mum described Heather to me, it sounded nothing like her in any way. Not looks, not personality – and when she said good with kids, well I definitely knew it wasn’t her. Her class hate her because she makes them eat vegan cookies and she tells them that sausages are evil.’

  I laugh.

  ‘I also knew that it wasn’t her because when my mum finally got through to me and told me that “Heather” had stepped up to look after the kids, I was actually already with Heather, talking about our future.’

  ‘Oh, well that’s good,’ I tell him, my heart breaking. ‘Good to have a plan.’

  ‘It is,’ he replies, slowly making his way towards me. ‘Because we realised that we weren’t right for each other. I don’t love her and, anyway, she’s met someone who she reckons she’s crazy about – who am I to stand in the way of that?’

  ‘Yeah, I reckon she deserves him,’ I reply, safe in the knowledge Heather is finally going to get her comeuppance now that she’s saddled with dumb Deano the womaniser.

  ‘Look, I can’t really explain it,’ Nick starts, seemingly wracking his brain for the right words. ‘You’ve always annoyed the shit out of me.’

  ‘Oh, thanks,’ I say sarcastically.

  ‘I mean, you’re messy – so messy, you don’t have a wardrobe, you have a mountain. You eat nothing but junk food, somehow managing to leave Coco Pops everywhere, even when you haven’t eaten them. You swear even more than I do, you need a dating app intervention, but, more than anything else, you need to realise just how amazing you are. Without the scary tights. Without the hair colour that just isn’t you. Without pretending to be whatever you think you need to be to impress people. Whether you’re eating cake with your hands or setting our bathroom on fire, what I’m trying to say…it’s not that something has changed, I think I’ve just finally realised what I
knew all along. That when we met that first day and we hung out and we had a blast – that was us, and that was real. There is something between us. Other than piles of washing and Coco Pops,’ he adds, diffusing a little of the awkwardness.

  I can’t believe it. Ever since I had that first dream, I’ve tried so hard and been through so much just to try and get Nick to like me, and yet everything I did just pushed him further and further away. As soon as I stopped trying to force the issue, things have just fallen into place. It’s just like that couple on the train who finally got together after all those years – what will be, will be.

  I place my arms around his neck as he wraps his around my waist.

  ‘Well, seeing as though we’re assassinating each other’s character,’ I start. ‘Sometimes it seems like all you care about is the gym, and protein, and how the tea towels are folded before they’re draped over the oven handle. You go to bed way too early, you get up way too early, you don’t know what you’ve been missing these past few months because there are so many cool new bars and restaurants with things like steaks and burgers that you’ve been avoiding…but when I was upset, you took care of me, and when I need you, you’re there. And when you got engaged to Heather, it broke my heart,’ I confess.

  ‘I just panicked,’ he tells me. ‘I didn’t want to hurt her. Silly really, considering how easy she found it telling me she’d got off with some guy in a club. When I said I couldn’t believe it, she offered to show me a picture. Can you believe that?’

  ‘Shocking,’ I reply. ‘So what now?’

  Nick runs his hands up and down my back before releasing me. The second he breaks contact with me, all I want is for him to touch me again.

  ‘Now this,’ he tells me, taking my face gently in his hands, kissing me. It’s a long, lingering kiss and it makes the ones in my dream seem like the kind of peck you’d give your elderly auntie on the cheek.

  ‘Then what?’ I ask cheekily.

  ‘Well, as much as I want to pick you up and lay you down on that sofa, I’ve heard you’ve got a three-date rule,’ he teases. ‘So I guess I’d better take you out on a date.’