“Yes!” Megan claps her hands. “Stop being a moron. I don’t want to live in our house-share. There are crumbs everywhere. No wonder we have mice. I think some of those crumbs are from the year it was built.”
“It’s Victorian.” I roll my eyes. “And what happens if Tristan doesn’t want to go out with me anymore? What if he goes off me? When we move, we move our way.” “Elly, you are being ridiculous,” his gravelly voice cuts in.
“Stop antagonising me, Tristan!” I snap. “You do realise that Dave thinks you’re a sugar daddy? He’s looking at me like you’ve got whores holed up all over the city.”
His expression is stormy. “He thinks it now.”
I try to calm myself down. “Look, this is really sweet of you, but I can’t accept this. I’m not a charity case.”
“I’d thought you would be happy with this place,” Tristan says sullenly.
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” I continue. “But you can’t make decisions like this for me without consulting me. Bringing Megan along without asking me was unfair. Now look what’ll I’ll have to put up with.” I nod to Megan standing mournfully beside the window, already grieving her loss. “Imagine what our colleagues would say.”
“Excuse me?” Dave sneaks back in. “Will you be wanting the keys?” “No,” Tristan and I both say at the same time.
Dave looks devastated.
“I’ll be in contact,” Tristan says to Dave dully. “Let’s go, ladies.”
The elevator ride down is very different from the ride up. The longest elevator ride of my life. You could cut the awkwardness with a knife. Even Dave stands rigid in the corner, the sales fever sucked out of him by the wrath of Tristan, brooding in the other corner.
We walk out of the intelligent building and towards the car in silence, Tristan three strides ahead of Megan and me. I give her a warning look to be quiet.
Tristan jabs at the car fob opener, and the car beeps open. He gets into the car on the driver’s side and slams the door shut. I don’t know if the offer extends to Megan and I. Tentatively, I open the car door, and Megan crawls in the back.
Tristan turns on the ignition, it revs, but we don’t move. Instead, he stares straight ahead. Megan and I sit in silence, glancing at each other in the front mirror. I still my breathing so as not to disturb him. Is he going to flip? Are we about to see the full wrath of Tristan Kane?
His steely eyes turn to me. “So, I fucked up, huh?”
“A little,” I say. “It was a nice gesture but heavy-handed.”
He exhales heavily. “Sorry.”
“You made a mistake,” I say softly. “Since when are you afraid of making mistakes?” “When it comes to you, I am.” His hand reaches up to brush a strand of hair from my cheek.
“Tristan, if I have sex with you, can I stay?” Megan pipes up from the back seat.
24
Elly
Three missed calls from Mum instantly fills me with dread. Especially since it’s three calls in the space of twenty minutes. No one calls repeatedly just for a chat. Definitely not my mum on a Friday night; at this time in the evening she should be down at The Wee Donkey, the life and soul of the party. So I call her back, my heart starting to race. She answers on the first ring.
“Elly!” Something has happened. She’s panicked.
“Yes, Mum?” I spring up from Tristan’s sofa. “Is everything okay?”
Frowning, Tristan looks up from where he’s reading the newspaper on the sofa.
“There’s been a bit of trouble.” Her voice is breaking and breathy.
“What trouble?” I gasp. Now my heart is hammering in my chest.
Concerned, Tristan stands up.
“Someone put a brick through the front window,” she tells me.
“What?” My voice spikes upwards. “Why would someone do that?”
“Barry’s son.” She sniffs. “I called the police but I can’t prove it was Barry’s son.”
“What did Barry say?” I ask bewildered. I knew bloody Barry was trouble. “Why on earth would his son do this?”
She hesitates. “Barry and his wife hadn’t split up too long-”
“Mum, please tell me you weren’t having an affair.”
“No!” she says indignantly. “But the wife isn’t happy about the separation. There’s been a bit of talk in the village. You know what they’re like.” I do. That’s why I left.
“I’m coming home.” I check my watch, my head full of fog. I usually know the train times but I can’t think straight at the moment.
“No, love, don’t be silly. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“I’m coming,” I say firmly. “It’ll be close to midnight though. I gotta go. I’ll text you.” We say goodbye and I hang up. Tristan watches me intently.
“Did you hear all of that?” He nods. “Just about.”
“I have to go to Wales tonight,” I say, overwhelmed. One minute I’m going to spend the evening in Tristan’s jacuzzi bath after a long work week, the next minute I’m heading to Wales to deal with a brick-firing lunatic. “If I hurry I can get an eight o’clock train.” “No need. I’ll take you,” he says.
I pull back to stare at him. “Tristan, that’s so kind but you don’t need to do that. Anyway, it’s quicker to get the train than drive. I’ll be fine,” I reassure him.
“And it’s much quicker to take a helicopter than the train,” he counters, getting out his phone. I stare blankly at him. “What?” He doesn’t look like he’s joking.
“The helipad is thirty minutes from here. Then I can have you in Wales in under an hour,” he states, tapping at his phone.
“Don’t be silly. I can’t get a helicopter to Wales. I’ll get the train.” As I lift my phone to check train times, he grips my arm.
“I don’t want you getting off a train at midnight alone,” he replies, almost grumpy. “Look up somewhere for us to stay tonight while I notify air traffic control. I’ll ask Danny and Charlie if they fancy a trip too.”
I shake my head incredulously. So, he wasn’t being facetious when he said he would get me a helicopter to Wales the night he stayed at my place. “Are you telling me you have a helicopter on standby for whenever you need it?”
“Yes,” he says impatiently. “Now find us somewhere nice online nearby your mum’s. We need to get going.”
“But…” My protests trail off, he’s already on the phone citing helicopter jargon.
An hour later, we arrive at the heliport in Chelsea Harbour. Danny and Charlie decided that an impromptu road trip, or specifically, air trip, to Wales was a fantastic idea. I’m a bit nervous to be meeting them, I’ve met Danny twice now and only saw Charlie from afar at the Rosemont. All in ludicrous situations and this one isn’t any better.
A few helicopters circle and land as we arrive, and butterflies start swirling like rotor blades in my stomach. Damn, there’s no toilets on a helicopter. What’s a person with IBD supposed to do?
It’s dark now, like, really dark. Do helicopter pilots have owl vision? I reassure myself that Tristan only hires the best in the business.
I’m not a nervous flyer per se, but that’s on a commercial flight.
We walk across the helicopter parking lot and I try to calm myself down. I haven’t been in a helicopter before.
“Hi, Elly,” Charlie greets me with a big smile as Tristan and Danny head towards the reception. She looks like a sexy female version of Tristan, which is a little freaky.
“Nice to meet you, Charlie,” I say shyly. “I can’t believe you guys agreed to come last minute. I wish I could show you around but I’m going to have to go over to my mum’s and sort out a few things.”