“Yes. I hoped you would.” When I looked at him, surprised, his face was pink. “To be honest, I thought we might get together sometime.” He must have seen my confusion. “You and me.”
I felt a moment of utter panic. I’d never thought of Oliver as anything more than a friend, but if I rejected him now, I’d be left with no one.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never thought about it.”
“We get on really well, Ruby. We could take things slowly. See how it goes.”
He leaned toward me and I thought he was going to kiss me. Just then my phone beeped. Automatically I glanced over at it.
“Okay,” he said. “I get it.” He jumped up. “Are you still hoping Harry will come back to you? You’re wasting your time.” He got into his car and drove off without another word. I stared after him. He had now joined that growing band of people to avoid.
I looked down at my phone. It was a message from Sarah.
Thanks very much for that, Ruby. Harry has told me there isn’t a future for me at Sheridan’s.
Immediately I was hot with anger. I replied, Don’t blame me! You lied to me. You said you’d given him my letter.
Within seconds another message appeared. You think he wanted your stupid letter? I told you, he read it and threw it in the bin.
I smarted at the thought of this and knew I’d never know the truth. Was Sarah lying to me, to hurt me? Or had Harry read the letter and just discarded it now that I wasn’t any use to him?
Sarah must have been really fired up because another message came through.
And who do you think fired you? Eleanor? Really? Harry’s her boss; she couldn’t just fire his PA. Eleanor told me yesterday that as soon as he found out Emma was pregnant, he told her to terminate your contract. He told her that you hadn’t worked there long enough to have any rights and when she said you could sue, he said he knew you wouldn’t do that. Don’t you get it? He doesn’t want you, Ruby.
CHAPTER 62
Ruby
For a moment I thought my heart had stopped, then it banged hard in my chest and I made a noise as though the air had been knocked out of me. I felt so ashamed then, so humiliated. I went back to my flat, my eyes lowered and my shoulders hunched. I didn’t want to meet anyone’s eye, to talk to anyone. I needed to be alone, to lick my wounds in private.
Harry had never said a word to me about firing me. He’d sat there in the café, and yes, I’d noticed he was pale when I told him I was fired, but I thought that was because he was angry. Was his response guilt instead? Or fear?
Had he told me in the e-mail he’d sent that evening that I’d have to leave my job, or had he left it to Eleanor to deal with? Had he thought of me that Monday morning, turning up at work only to be fired? I found it so hard to reconcile that with the way he was with me. There had been no apology from him in the café. No excuses. He must have been so relieved that I’d been stupid enough to think Eleanor had done that herself. I’d always known I was a good liar, that I could fake reactions, keep an impassive face. I hadn’t realized that Harry was the same.
I wanted to get away. I couldn’t cope. I was just about to phone my dad in Australia, to plead with him to let me stay in his house for a while, just to get away from here, when I heard a bang on the front door. I leaped to my feet.
I ran to the top of the stairs and looked down, expecting yet another envelope through my door. There was nothing there. I looked out of the kitchen window, which was above the front door, and saw a small white van parked by the side of the road. A man dressed in overalls was standing beside it, looking up at my flat. When I went down, he introduced himself as Sean.
“Gill’s asked me to call round,” he said. “You want a bolt for your front door?”
“Yes, yes. Thank you. Could you change the locks while you’re here?”
“Lost your keys? I’ll have to charge for that.”
“No,” I said. “I think someone’s been coming into my flat.”
“That’s odd. I change the locks after every tenant leaves so that they can’t get back in. I was here just a few weeks ago. Is that when you moved in?”
“Yes. I’ve not been here long.”
“Phone Gill while I put the lock on,” he said. “If she agrees, I’ll do it and won’t charge.”
“My phone’s upstairs,” I said. “Won’t be a minute.”
I called Gill from my bedroom. “Sean’s here to put a bolt on the front door,” I said. “Thanks for sending him over. I’ve asked him to change the locks as well but he said I had to check with you. I’m happy to pay.”
“Has something happened?” she asked. “First it was a bolt, now the locks. Are you okay?”
“I thought someone was in my flat on Wednesday night. I woke up and heard the front door click.”
She took a deep breath. “Oh my God, that’s my worst nightmare. Of course you can get the locks changed.”
“Thanks. It’s hard, living on my own. If there’s someone with you, you’ve got backup. It’s terrifying when you’re on your own.”
“Wasn’t your boyfriend there then?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“But you said . . .” She sounded confused. “You asked for a spare key for your boyfriend.”
“What?”
“You e-mailed me. Hold on, let me check.” She was quiet for a few moments. “Here it is. On June twenty-seventh. Wasn’t that the day you moved in? You sent an e-mail asking for a spare key for your boyfriend.”
I remembered that day. It was the day I’d gone to Manchester on that wild-goose chase and come home to find my dresses hanging up.
“Are you there?” she said. “Ruby, are you still there?”
I tried to pull myself together. “I didn’t send that e-mail. Did you see the person who picked up the key?”
“No, I wasn’t here then. I’ll have to ask around.” She sounded panicky now, exactly how I felt. “I’m really sorry, Ruby. The message was sent from your e-mail address. I had no reason to believe it wasn’t from you.”
“I know. Don’t worry.” I just wanted to get her off the phone now. “I’ll sort it out.”
“Was anything taken?” she asked. “Have you noticed anything’s missing?”
“I don’t know.” But as I spoke my eyes rested on my bed, on the pillows. The scarf I’d been holding that night, that I’d put on the pillow beside me before I slept, had gone.