She wouldn’t have changed that then, not her limited edition special.
‘You’ll have to let me in later. I can’t be bothered to look for them now. It’s not as if you’ll be going anywhere.’ She nodded towards the swathe of bandages around my arm. ‘How did you get on? Daniel said the cut wasn’t too bad after all.’
Thanks for the sympathy.
‘Actually, it wasn’t the best evening of my life. They’ve Steri-Stripped it. Luckily I didn’t need any stitches. I was—’
‘It wasn’t much fun here, either.’ She glanced over her shoulder down the hall to the bathroom where Daniel was taking a shower. ‘I was terrified. I think Peter threw that brick. Who else could it have been? It must have been him on Tottenham Court Road yesterday. Do you think he followed us home?’
‘No,’ I said, rubbing my eyes. ‘You’ve been watching too many films.’
That sort of thing didn’t happen in real life.
Now in broad daylight, fear had receded and my imagination was back under control. As if anyone was going to chuck something through a window just because someone wouldn’t go out with them! That wasCoronation Streetnot Earlsfield Road. That brick was just a random act of vandalism.
‘What if it was Peter?’ asked Emily, her words running into each other she spoke so quickly.
‘It can’t have been,’ I said, shaking my head with a confidence I didn’t feel.
‘Even so, he’s still odd. You should tell your cousin that one of his hand-picked candidates is a bit dodgy. Did you get hold of him?’
‘Yes, he said he’d vetted him.’ I crossed my fingers under the sleeping bag, not wanting to go into the detail of my conversation with my cousin. ‘But I’ll speak to him again.’ Although what was I going to say? Again, I had no proof that Peter was behind the incident.
* * *
‘See you later,’ trilled Emily, as she sailed through the lounge. ‘Come on, Daniel. Have you seen the time?’
Her tone had changed considerably since our earlier conversation about Peter.
Daniel came into the lounge. ‘Feeling better?’ he asked, with a diffident, almost shy smile, looking quickly at his watch before pulling a pristine white cuff back over his wrist, the crisp cotton emphasising his slight tan and the blonde hairs on his arm. My stomach lurched with longing.
‘Thanks, Daniel. For looking after me. You must be shattered.’
‘Yes,’ he said, making no move to leave and suddenly finding his shoes of great interest.
‘I... em, really appreciate you taking me to Casualty and waiting and... you know everything...’ God, I sounded a complete idiot. My tongue was well and truly tied in knots. ‘I don’t know what I’d... have done, if em ... you hadn’t been, you know... here.’
‘Phoned an ambulance?’
Did I detect a trace of amusement?
‘You might have picked up a paramedic,’ he quipped, although from his tone I don’t think he was trying to be funny.
I decided to follow his lead. ‘What, covered in blood and wearing my best bunny slippers? I don’t think so.’
His face creased into a broad smile. I felt a small, golden glow inside, as if the sun had come out.
‘You have no idea what those bunnies do to a man,’ he mocked.
A little voice inside me was dying to say, ‘No tell me’.
‘Right then . . .’ I said awkwardly.
‘Yes . . . I, um, need to get going.’
In my head The Three Degrees had burst into song with a rousing rendition ofWhen Will I See You Again?
I got up, took a tentative step forward and laid my hand on his arm, about to kiss him on the cheek. Just to say thanks, of course.
