It was an interesting point. What did I want? I certainly hadn’t gone into any of my other disastrous short-term older-man relationships expecting marriage but Tony was different. Different enough to marry? Different enough to have children with? I wasn’t sure.
‘Callie!’ Nick waved from the other side of the road. I stood up but a long trail of cars meant no chance of crossing. While I waited, I glanced up at the first-floor window of The Lobster Pot and did a double take. Seated in the window seat, all alone, nursing a glass of wine and gazing out to the sea was the She-Devil. As I stared, she lifted her hand and wiped her cheeks, as though wiping tears away, and then she caught my eye.
‘Callie! You can cross now.’
I tore my gaze away as Nick called me. When I looked back, the glass of wine was still there, but the She-Devil had gone. Had I imagined it? No. It had definitely been her and she’d recognised me too. She’d looked so very sad. A flicker of sympathy went out to her again.
4
‘How was your weekend?’ I’d decided to start the week with a new attitude towards the She-Devil, but the shocked look on her face suggested it had been the wrong approach.
‘I don’t think my weekend has anything to do with the situation with Mr Johnson, does it?’ she snapped. ‘Do you know anything about his missing money?’
I cringed. ‘I don’t think it’s actually missing.’
‘Are you saying that Mr Johnson’s family are liars? His son assures me they gave him one hundred pounds cash during their visit last Sunday and it was all gone by yesterday.’
How was I going to tell her without dropping Ruby in it? ‘It’s still in Bay View. It isn’t actually missing. It just… er… doesn’t belong to him anymore.’
She fixed a steely stare on me, reminding me of my Year Four teacher who’d terrified me so much that I’d actually wet my pants when she yelled at me one day for talking too much. I hoped I wasn’t about to do the same. ‘Carolyn Derbyshire, if you value your job here, you’ll stop talking in riddles and tell me what you know about the missing money.’
I sighed. ‘It’s a rumour. I have no facts. Some of the residents like to play cards on an evening.’
She stood up and put her hands on her hips. ‘Cards? Yes. I already know that.’
‘For money.’
Her grip on her hips tightened and her eyes flashed. ‘What did you say?’
‘I think that some of them may have graduated from gin rummy for matchsticks to poker for real money and it would appear that Mr Johnson hasn’t quite grasped the rules of poker.’
She sank down onto her chair again. ‘Oh my! A gambling ring in my care home. Never in my…’ She stopped and looked up. ‘Who set it up?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Carolyn!’
‘Honestly, I haven’t a clue. I haven’t done a weekend night shift recently. All I know is the rumour about Mr Johnson.’
The She-Devil ran a hand through her short blonde bob then removed her glasses and left them to dangle on their chain. ‘There’ll need to be a full investigation. As if I don’t have enough to deal with at the moment.’ She fixed her evil eye on me again. ‘If you know who’s involved, it would save us a lot of time and trouble that I really don’t need right now.’
‘I’d like to help, but I don’t know. Sorry.’ Bloody Ruby. I’d have to warn her. I turned to leave, but a thought struck me. ‘Could you maybe make an announcement instead and say that you’re aware of the gambling and that, if any monies won aren’t returned by the end of the week, there’ll be a full investigation and consequences? If the person who fleeced him hands the cash over anonymously, it would save you the need for an investigation and it would placate Mr Johnson’s family.’
She stared at me for a moment then put her glasses back on her nose. ‘I’ll think about it. You can leave now.’
‘Thank you.’ I paused in the doorway. ‘Was that you I saw in The Lobster Pot on Saturday night?’ Argh! What on earth possessed me to come out with that? Would I ever learn to keep my gob shut?
Her head jerked up and her eyes widened. ‘No. Why?’
‘I was there with my brother and I could have sworn I saw you in the window.’
‘Not me. I wasn’t there. I was… actually, it’s none of your damn business where I was. What I do on the weekend is nothing to do with my staff. We’re finished here. Close the door on your way out.’
I did as instructed and headed down the corridor to find Ruby, kicking myself for pushing the subject with the She-Devil. Ironically, she could have done with lessons from Ruby on what a poker face looked like because I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that it had been her in the pub on Saturday.
‘My grandson is visiting this Friday,’ Ruby said, after I warned her about Mr Johnson and the impending investigation.
‘And that’s not what we’re discussing. You need to take this gambling business seriously, Ruby. You could get evicted.’
‘Oh nonsense! Storm in a teacup. Did you hear what I said, Callie, about Rhys coming on Friday? He’s such a lovely young man. So kind.’
‘Will you stop talking about Rhys and concentrate on what I’m telling you about your gambling racket?’
Ruby laughed. ‘I used to make a fortune back in the day. Nobody suspected a woman would be such a great player. I moved in some impressive circles you know. Princes, dukes… fleeced them all.’
‘I’ll bet you did! But Angus Johnson is neither a prince nor a duke and you need to give him his money back.’
‘Spoilsport.’
‘I’ve got work to do,’ I said, heading towards the next gambler’s room.
‘Oh, by the way,’ shouted Ruby down the corridor. ‘I saw you with your sugar daddy on Friday. He looked familiar. Do I know him?’
‘I showed him round here last year and introduced him to some residents. You probably recognise him from then.’
‘That must be it. See you later, Callie. I’m off to practise my poker face in the mirror for when the She-Devil tries to confront me.’
I giggled as I continued down the corridor. Gambling with princes and dukes? Nope, that definitely didn’t surprise me.
5
I propped myself up on the pillows on Thursday evening. ‘Tony?’
‘Yes, angel?’
‘What are we doing together?’
He grinned mischievously. ‘If you don’t know that after all this time, I’m not about to explain it.’
I gave him a playful shove. ‘Very funny. I mean relationship-wise. What are we doing?’
‘Having fun. Aren’t we?’
‘Yes, but am I the only one with whom you’re having fun?’
His eyes widened. ‘What are you asking?’
‘Are you seeing anyone else?’
‘Callie! How could you think that?’ He sounded and looked genuinely hurt.
‘I’m not saying you are seeing someone else, but it struck me that we’ve never talked about fidelity and I might have made a big assumption that we’re both on the same page about it.’
Tony glared at me. ‘You think I have a woman in Sheffield and another in Liverpool and—’
‘No! I’m not saying that. But we don’t have a normal relationship. All we seem to do is have sex. We never go out and…’
I tailed off as he thrust back the duvet, rolled out of bed, and pulled on his boxer shorts. ‘Are we really going to do this again?’ he snapped.
‘Do what?’
He twisted round to face me. ‘Have an argument about going out. Because, if that’s what you want, I’m leaving.’
I stared at him for a moment, my heart thumping. What did that mean? Leaving the flat or leaving me? All I wanted to do was have a conversation about the future. All of my previous relationships had been short-term, so we’d never got to the future part, but Tony and I were heading towards a year together. This was long-term. I knew he was divorced, but I had no idea whether he wanted to marry again. I knew he had no children, but
I had no idea whether he wanted any. As to where I featured – girlfriend, wife, mother – I genuinely had no idea. And I didn’t like being in the dark.
Looking at his raised eyebrows and set jaw, it was clear that tonight wasn’t the night for that conversation, but it would have to happen at some point because we couldn’t keep drifting like this. I did want to marry, I did want to have children, and I was reasonably sure I wanted Tony to be the one to give me those things. But if he didn’t want to be the one…
Pushing aside my anxieties, I crawled across the bed and wrapped my arms around his back and kissed his neck. ‘I don’t want an argument and I don’t want you to leave. Will you come back to bed? I’ll give you a massage.’
His stiff shoulders dropped a bit and I knew I’d got his interest. ‘A long one? With oils and everything?’
‘Yes.’
‘And I won’t have to give you one in return?’
As I massaged his back, it struck me that I’d placated him too quickly and he hadn’t actually answered my question about what we were doing together. I was still in the dark and I couldn’t stay there forever.
Tony stayed the night but left at six in the morning. ‘By the way,’ he said as he sat on the edge of the bed to kiss me goodbye, ‘the purchase of Bay View is back on the cards. I’ll be looking round at some point in the next few weeks and would be very interested in checking out that laundry room again.’
‘Have any of the other care homes you’re looking at got such amazing laundry rooms?’
‘Oh yes, but the tour guides don’t compare. They’re not young, sexy, and bursting out of their uniforms like you.’
I frowned. ‘I don’t burst out of my uniform.’
Tony laughed. ‘Have you not looked at yourself in the mirror lately?’
I self-consciously pulled the duvet over my exposed breasts. ‘Are you saying my uniform’s too tight?’
‘Yes. But I like it like that. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on you the minute I met you.’ He kissed me again, pulling away when it started to get a bit heated. ‘Still can’t resist you. But I’ve got to go. Long drive. I’ll see you later.’
I curled up under the duvet, stomach churning, as I listened to Tony moving around the living area then closing the front door. Had he just summed up what our relationship was really all about? Had I been kidding myself all along that we were heading anywhere other than the bedroom?
‘Rhys is coming tonight,’ whispered Ruby, startling me as I watered the plants in the residents’ lounge the following morning.
‘Are you sure?’
‘It’s Friday, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but…’
‘Then he’s coming tonight. He promised.’
The She-Devil passed the doorway and stopped and stared at me, eyebrows raised. I felt guilty every time she did that, even though I was usually doing nothing wrong.
‘Sorry, Ruby,’ I muttered as I moved onto the next plant, then the next. When I was certain the coast was clear, I lowered the watering can. ‘I’m delighted for you, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up. You know how upset you were last time he didn’t show.’
‘It was my mistake. I’d misread his text message. Rhys would never deliberately let me down.’
‘Carolyn!’ Damn! The She-Devil was back.
‘Yes?’
‘Shouldn’t you be finished with those plants by now?’
‘I’m on my last one.’
‘Hurry up. You’re paid to work, not to gossip with the residents.’
‘Sorry,’ hissed Ruby. ‘I’m always getting you into trouble.’
‘Don’t worry about it. If it wasn’t you, it would be something else.’ I picked up the small bottle of plant feed and the leaf sprayer. ‘Actually, Ruby, can I ask you a question? Do you think my uniform’s too tight?’
Ruby stepped back and looked me up and down. ‘I’d say it fits your curves. If you want to know about tight uniforms, you should have seen some of the outfits I had to wear when I worked in Paris…’
‘Do you think my uniform’s too tight?’ I asked Maria in the staffroom later that morning.
She shook her head. ‘It looks fine. Mine’s too tight, though. I’ve put on a stone since I quit smoking last month. How’s that supposed to be good for your health?’
I zoned out as she talked about reaching for snacks when she’d normally have lit-up. It was no good. Tony’s comments had really thrown me and I was going to have to ask the She-Devil if I could order some larger tunics.
I crept along the corridor that afternoon whilst the residents were taking afternoon tea. It was only a request for a new uniform. Surely she couldn’t tell me off for it. As I got closer to her office, I heard raised voices. Or rather one raised voice: hers.
‘I don’t want you to do that… There’s really no need…’ The roller blind was pulled down but it fitted badly and I could see through a gap on one side. She was on her mobile, pacing up and down. I decided to loiter for a short while and tried my hardest not to listen. but her voice was far too loud. ‘You’re not listening to me… Yes I do… Don’t be like that. It’s not… Why would you say that? That’s not fair… Don’t hang up on me… Don’t… Shit!’ I jumped as she emitted an angry squeal followed by more expletives.
It probably wasn’t a good time to ask about my uniform. I took one more quick glance through the gap and jumped again as the She-Devil sobbed loudly. She slumped into her desk chair and dropped her head onto her hands. I held my breath for a moment, watching her shoulders shaking. My natural instinct was to rush into the office and comfort her, but this was the She-Devil. And I was meant to be helping with afternoon tea. If she knew I was skiving as well as witnessing a rare moment of weakness, it would end badly for me.
I didn’t see the She-Devil for the rest of the day. As if what I’d seen in her office wasn’t worrying enough, I ended my shift to the sight of Ruby, yet again, dressed up to the nines waiting for her grandson, staring towards the door, eyes lighting up every time it opened and shoulders slumping every time it wasn’t him. If he was real and he ever did turn up, I’d be having serious words with him for upsetting a wonderful old lady.
6
‘I’m worried about the She-Devil,’ I said to Maria. She was round at my flat for a pizza and film night a couple of weeks later; something we tried to do every couple of weeks. ‘Something’s definitely wrong with her.’
Maria helped herself to another slice of pizza. ‘Pete says Mr She-Devil has left her. Fact. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.’
‘How does Pete know?’
‘His boyfriend works with Mr She-Devil’s best mate or something like that.’
‘That would explain the mood swings.’ Some days she yelled at anyone and everyone. Other days, she looked like too much milk in her tea would cause an emotional breakdown. I thought about the phone call I’d overheard. It would definitely have fitted with her asking her husband not to move out.
I took a swig of my lager. ‘I feel sorry for her.’
‘What for? She’s horrible to you.’
‘I know. It’s just…’ I shrugged. ‘I get really upset when I’ve had a row with Tony but a marriage breakdown must be a million times more stressful.’
Maria nodded. ‘I’m sure it is. The difference is that you park the personal stuff while you’re at work and she takes it out on her staff. You really shouldn’t feel sorry for that woman. Do you think she’d give a damn if the tables were turned?’
She was right. The She-Devil was a bully and I was her favourite target but I still had a sliver of empathy for her, especially when I pictured her in The Lobster Pot all alone or having a meltdown in her office. I hadn’t told Maria, Pete, or anyone else about those incidents and I wasn’t going to, but they did suggest that the dragon we saw at work might really be an unhappy, lonely woman.
‘How’s it going with Tony?’ Maria asked as I cleared the pizza boxes away a little later. ‘Ditched him yet for
having too many man-strops?’
I sighed as I plonked myself back down on the sofa. ‘I’ve only seen him twice in the past fortnight and only for an hour each time. Do you think I’m wasting my time with him?’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘Do you think you are?’
‘I don’t know. We’ve been together for nearly a year so I asked him where the relationship was heading and he evaded the question.’
‘Where do you want it to head?’ Maria asked.
‘I’m not sure. I was thinking marriage and kids, but…’
The shocked expression on Maria’s face said it all.
‘… but you don’t think Tony would be up for that.’
She grimaced. ‘If you’re after marriage and kids, I’m not sure Tony Sinclair’s your man. And do you really want him to be? You’re always bickering and you’ve had a couple of huge bust-ups.’
‘We’re not always bickering.’
‘You are. Nearly every time you see him, you come into work the next day moaning about something he’s said or done.’
I slumped back on the sofa, shaking my head. She was absolutely right.
‘I assumed you only put up with it because it wasn’t serious,’ she continued. ‘But if you’re looking for a serious relationship…’ She shook her head. ‘Have you talked to Tony about this?’
‘No. I don’t know how to broach it.’
‘If the relationship was right for you, would you even have to broach it? Wouldn’t things have just evolved naturally?’
I sipped my drink, a nervous knot forming in my stomach. She’d hit the nail on the head. Our relationship had certainly started out as a bit of fun and I’d been happy with that but, when he told me he loved me, I’d assumed that meant things were getting serious. Perhaps I had been really naïve there because nothing had evolved and nothing was natural. We definitely needed to have a conversation – soon.
Making Wishes at Bay View Page 3
