‘I suppose.’ Ros thoughtfully sipped her coffee, her calmness in complete contrast to Darla’s anxious state.
‘What do I do?’ asked Darla, almost bumping into Ros as she paced.
‘Stop walking for a start – you’re making me dizzy.’
Darla halted abruptly in front of Ros. ‘But seriously, what should I do?’
‘Delete the message and block his number,’ said Ros.
‘You’re right. I know you’re right. But I’d quite like to give him a piece of my mind. After what he’s put me through.’
‘Or you could avoid him putting you through anything further by ignoring the message.’
Darla bit her lip. ‘But what if he means what he said in the text, that he’s sorry and he wants to put things right? Apart from the whole secretly amassed debts he was quite a nice guy. And if he’s got some of the money he owes me that would be useful. I could repay things quicker and get on with my life and properly focus on my new business, although I still don’t know what that would be, but that’s not the point. What do you think?’
‘Once a con man, always a con man,’ said Ros.
‘Blimey you are blunt sometimes. You don’t think there’s even the smallest possibility that he’s realised he needs to make amends and—’
‘I’m sorry, Darla, but that’s very unlikely.’
‘I am curious though. And before all this happened, I had really liked Patrick. We’d had fun together until it all unravelled. I find it hard to believe he is a completely bad person, and surely his message shows that he isn’t.’
‘I thought you wanted to, and I quote, “Batter him senseless and then batter him again to balance things up.”’
Darla flopped into a chair with an oof. ‘I don’t know. I was angry. I guess I thought I’d never hear from him again and now he’s back in touch. Shouldn’t I at least hear him out?’
‘Considering he ignored all the desperate messages you sent him when he left you to sort out the unholy mess he made, I don’t think you owe him anything at all.’
‘True. I know he doesn’t deserve a second chance but—’
‘I think a second chance would be extremely unwise,’ said Ros.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t let him swindle me again. How about I call him now and we both listen to what he has to say? What harm could that do?’ Ros was quiet. ‘Are you risk-assessing all the options and the level of harm Patrick is capable of?’ asked Darla.
Ros didn’t respond, she simply gave her a look. Even-tually she replied, ‘As long as you don’t provide him with any personal details and don’t agree to anything other than him returning what he owes, I think it might be okay.’
‘Great, let’s call him,’ said Darla, whipping out her phone. She paused. ‘For all the times I’ve had this conversation in my head I should know exactly what I want to say to him, or shout at him, but right now my mind has gone blank.’
‘Have you changed your mind?’ Ros was looking hopefully at her.
Darla visibly steeled herself. ‘No, I need to do this.’ She pressed Patrick’s number and waited.
‘Hello?’ He sounded unsure to Ros.
Darla took a deep breath. ‘Patrick, it’s Darla. I got your message. Given you have wrecked my life, how do you propose to fix it?’
‘Baby, it is so good to hear your voice. These past few months I’ve been—’
Ros feared Darla would be easily won over so she began miming cutting her throat in the hope that Darla got the message. Darla looked slightly alarmed at the gesture.
‘I don’t really care what you’ve been doing,’ said Darla into the phone. ‘I’m only interested in what you’re going to do now to put things right.’
Ros gave her a thumbs up.
‘Baby, I get that you don’t understand why I had to leave without warning but these people were—’
‘Again, not interested,’ said Darla. ‘If you don’t have anything that’s going to help reduce the shitload of debt you left behind, then I’m hanging up and blocking your number.’
