Laurie shook her head. Pat Morrison, with her arm pointing north, looked not unlike John Travolta about to launch into ‘Night Fever’.
‘It will. Look out for it,’ said Pat. One of her convenient get-out phrases usually, but here it was genuine, even if she didn’t have a clue what it meant.
At the door, Pat shook the young woman’s hand. If she was Welsh, Pat was a Spice Girl.
‘All I’ll say to you as a parting shot – and I’m feeling this very strongly – is that someone from the spirit world wants you to be happy,’ said Pat Morrison, who was suddenly filled with a sensation of love, as if injected with it. It lasted as long as a finger click but it was strong and powerful – and lovely.
‘Is . . . this person happy in the spirit world?’ asked Laurie, with a gulp.
‘He’s in paradise,’ said Pat.
Chapter 45
15 October
Alan Robertson had told her once that his great gran, God rest her soul, had taught him that sometimes saying nothing said far more than saying something, so Laurie beat back every burning desire to text or ring Pete, hoping he’d wonder why she hadn’t answered his last message. She wished hard that her silence would move him to contact her, but it hadn’t. Five days had now passed since she received it. If the text message had been a letter, it would have worn thin for the amount of times she had opened it up, looked at it, tried to read some meaning into it that left her with possibility. Every time she failed, saw only dismissal and end.
The night after she saw Pat, she drove straight from work over to the Blue Duck, a new gastropub which had opened in Maltstone, where she’d agreed to meet Bella although she didn’t feel in the slightest bit hungry, and hadn’t since Pete’s text landed on her phone. At the traffic lights a red fire engine pulled up in the next lane and her heart left its post and jumped into her mouth. She kept her head forward but the temptation to turn it to the side was hard to resist. She felt the sting of tears behind her eyes and was cross that she’d opened her heart a little to let someone in who ransacked what was left of it and then ran out.
Bella had already arrived and was chewing some complimentary bread when she walked in to the pub.
‘Starving,’ she explained, spluttering through a mouthful of seeded plait, getting up to give Laurie a hug of greeting. Bella grinned expectantly. ‘So? I was waiting for you to send me texts full of lurid details about your date and I got zilch.’
‘I didn’t want to butt into your holiday.’
As Laurie sat down opposite to her, Bella took in her friend’s thin frame and her unsmiling demeanour and her grin faded.
‘How was your holiday?’ asked Laurie. ‘You look tanned.’
‘Surprisingly hot for the time of year,’ said Bella. ‘How are you?’
‘Oh, I’m fine.’
‘Let’s choose then chat,’ suggested Bella. ‘Although I’ve chosen. I’m having the Chicken Milanese with parmesan and truffle chips.’
‘I’ll have the fish cake I think,’ said Laurie, scanning the menu for something that sounded small. They gave the waiter their order for food and drink and then Bella asked, ‘Okay, so what’s happened because something has. Please don’t tell me that Meredith and—’
‘It’s nothing to do with them,’ replied Laurie. ‘I’ve been dumped.’
Bella blinked rapidly. ‘What do you mean, dumped? Not by the fireman . . .?’
‘Yep,’ said Laurie.
‘What the actual fu—’
‘He sent me a text saying that he’d made a mistake and that he didn’t want to see me again.’
‘Eh?’ Bella didn’t know whether to be angry or gobsmacked first. Her features formed a hybrid of both. ‘Start from the beginning.’
‘We went to Firenze. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was, lovely, romantic, perfect. He drove me home . . .’ She left a pause that spoke volumes and Bella’s eyes rounded. ‘It just happened and it all felt so right. He said he couldn’t wait to see me again, after his dad’s birthday last Wednesday and then I got this text message on Thursday.’ She pulled it up on her phone and handed it to Bella to read. Bella studied it, handed the phone back.
‘Nothing since?’
‘No,’ said Laurie. ‘I didn’t reply. I didn’t know if I should or not.’
‘Absolutely not. He doesn’t deserve one. I have no words,’ said Bella, despite then digging up plenty. ‘The wanker. The absolute tosspot. How bloody dare he! I can’t get my head around it. Screwed-up arsehole.’
‘C’est la vie,’ said Laurie flatly.
‘Well better you found out now before you’d got in any deeper, is the only positive thing I can say.’
‘Maybe he thinks I’m a slag because I slept with him on the first date.’
‘He slept with you on the first date too don’t forget. If he thinks you’re a slag but he’s not, then he’s a sexist pig and you’re better off without him.’
But Laurie knew it wasn’t that. It had meant something to them both. She’d felt it; he said he had too.
‘My compass is obviously off,’ she said, then had a sudden flashback to Pat Morrison standing with her hand pointing north. She’d got it mixed up with south.
Their drinks arrived, then the food straight after.
‘We decided on holiday that Stu would move in with me – we more or less live together anyway.’
‘That’s nice, I’m happy for you,’ said Laurie. And she was. Bella had had her fair share of bad relationships and Stu was steady and kind.
‘We thought that we’d have a party to christen the new phase. Bonfire night. I was hoping to invite you both – you and him – but you come by yourself. We’ll pick you up and you can get a taxi home, or stay the night. But you are coming. You’re going to have a few wines and some good food with us. No buts, it’s happening. The bastard. How could he do that to you after all you’ve been through?’
‘He’s been through it too. Maybe he’s still screwed up and scared.’
‘It’s not an excuse. You’re screwed up and scared. Would you have done that to him?’
That put it in horrible perspective. Laurie didn’t want to talk about him any more. She had to put him out of her mind. Checking her phone every ten minutes to see if he had texted had done her no good at all over the past few days. She changed the subject.
‘Meredith came round to the house while you were away. She stayed for a cup of tea.’
‘You invited her into your house?’ said Bella, incredulously. ‘Please tell me you’re joking. You never invite witches over your threshold.’
‘She came to bring me back the cheque that I’d given to her for Naomi’s wedding present.’
‘Bloody hell,’ said Bella. ‘There is a decent bone in her body then.’
‘She told me she’d been to see a solicitor about suing me for half the house.’
‘I take it back, there isn’t a decent bone in her body, the . . .’ Bella seemed to have run out of fresh expletives.