‘Listen, I’m a bit useless at dealing with emotional stuff…’
‘Me too,’ she blurted, attempting to smile, despite the red-rimmed eyes and the exhausted pallor.
‘I’m really sorry about your mum, though. And your dad. Jesus, that was a shocker – although, in hindsight, so much makes sense now.’
‘In what way?’ she asked.
‘Och, just all stupid stuff. None of it matters. If you want to put your seat back and get some sleep, or just close your eyes and ignore me until we get to Aberdeen, I promise I won’t be offended.’
She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t sleep, and if I just sit here, the time will drag by, so to be honest, I’d rather talk stupid stuff with you,’ she said, before tagging on, ‘No offence! Sorry, I’ve just realised how that sounded.’
‘You’re fine,’ he laughed. ‘I’m actually well known for my skill in talking absolute bollocks, so you’re in good hands.’
That made her smile again. There was a natural lull in the conversation. ‘Do you mind if I just give the hotel a call?’ She asked.
‘Of course not.’
She pressed redial on a number on her phone’s call list. ‘Good evening, this is the Hilton, Glasgow, how can I help you?’
Caro explained that she had a room, but wouldn’t make it back tonight because she’d been called home on a family emergency. She asked them to collect her things and store them for her, then told them to charge the credit card they hadon file. Only after the call was finished did she resume the conversation.
‘So…’ she began, ‘what did you mean about things making sense?’
He thought about it for a moment. ‘I guess there was just always something off about his relationship with Lila.’
That seemed to surprise her. ‘But on her social media pages she was always going on about how wonderful he was and how much she loved him. I thought they were really close.’
Cammy kept his eyes on the road as he answered. ‘There was a lot of stuff on Lila’s Facebook that wasn’t quite what it seemed. Sometimes I wondered if I was living with someone completely different. The stuff that went up there was the airbrushed version of her life, where everything was wonderful. Don’t get me wrong – most of the time it was. But it didn’t tell the whole truth. I always figured she needed to do it to fill a hole somewhere. Weird that I’m only realising that now.…’
‘Thought you were no good at the emotional stuff?’ she said. ‘That seems pretty perceptive to me.’
‘Maybe I have hidden depths,’ he joked. ‘Or maybe, my pal Val, who is a kind of surrogate aunt, and one of the smartest people I know, told me that once and it stuck with me.’
‘Sounds pretty smart to me,’ Caro agreed.
‘Yep. For what it’s worth, Val and my other surrogate aunt, Josie, also told me not to propose to Lila because apparently she’s completely wrong for me. I guess I should have listened. My bad.’
‘Are you dreading telling them?’
‘Nope. I’m focussing on the fact that after the first hundred or so “I told you so’s”, it’ll make them so happy. Every cloud…’
His phone buzzed for the tenth time since they had got in the car.
‘Is that who keeps texting you?’ she asked.
‘Yes,’ he smiled. ‘They’ll be going out of their minds with nosiness. Josie threatened to storm the restaurant and smuggle me out earlier.’
‘Look at all the fun you’d have missed,’ Caro said, with sadness more than sarcasm.
Cammy nodded, before going back and picking up the other strand of the conversation. ‘But anyway, her dad…’ He thought about the best way to put it. ‘I thought she always seemed like she was trying to get his attention. His approval, even. He never gave it. I’ve only known them for six months, and they don’t seem close at all. In fact, I think there’s a bit of her that resents the fact that he’s hijacked her mum. Lila never actually said as much, but she did go on about how she and her mum spent all their time together before he moved back full time and now her mum is pretty much with her dad twenty-four seven. I think it bugged her.’
‘I can see how that would be the case. It’s weird, I’ve got such mixed feelings about her. I hope that’s okay to say, given, you know… you were her boyfriend until half an hour ago.’
‘It’s fine. Really,’ Cammy replied, surprised to realise that he meant it. A few hours ago, he was contemplating spending his life with her, yet now he knew with absolute certainty that it was over. And he was… fine. It was beyond surreal. Maybe he was in shock and would experience some kind of delayed reaction later, but he very much doubted it. Right now it felt like this was the first time he’d been thinking clearly in months.
Caro went on, ‘I think in a lot of ways I was jealous. It seemed like she had everything… the carefree life, the loving parents, the brilliant job, the glamorous existence, the boyfriend…’
‘Did you say incredibly handsome and smart boyfriend?’ he asked, hoping it was okay to joke with her when she was right in the middle of such a terrible time.
