‘No.’
‘Does the owner know you have it?’
‘Er… yes, he does, actually. He saw me drive off. He does know that I’m currently in possession of his campervan… but he might not knowwhereit is, exactly.’
Reece watches me like he’s trying to read between the lines and hear what isn’t being said. ‘Did he give you express permission to take it?’
‘Ah. Well, that’s where the lines blur just a little…’ And somehow, as I clean his wound and apply more antiseptic and a new wound pad, the whole sorry story comes tumbling out.
At the end of my tale, I expect Reece to be horrified, but instead, he’s looking at me with that same endearing smile. ‘Well, someone’s a silly sausage.’
I don’t intend to laugh, but it’s such an unexpected childlike term that it catches me off-guard. ‘Yes, I am. I am, indeed, a silly sausage. The silliest of all sausages, some might say.’
I didn’t expect him to still be grinning at me, and I’m suddenly acutely aware of how small the van feels with both of us in it. It’s not just the physical space, but the way he fills every inch of it with relentless good cheer that I’m increasingly certain is covering something much deeper.
‘I noticed that had gone walkabouts after you left earlier.’ Instead of the angry outburst I expected, he reaches a long arm out and his fingers stretch towards the roll of tape where I’ve left it beside the door. ‘You didn’t have to steal my electrical tape. I would happily have let you have it.’
‘How could you possibly notice—’ I stop myself from asking how he could know it was missing in the chaos of tools everywhere.Heis not the one who’s done something wrong here. ‘I was going to put it back. I… Ugh!’
I make a noise of frustration and hide my face behind my hands. ‘You’re right. I’ve become a monster. I’m so sorry. If I’d asked, you’d have wanted to know why, and I didn’t want to lie to you. Please don’t call the police.’
‘About a borrowed roll of electrical tape? I’ll try to contain myself. They’veprobablygot more pressing things to deal with.’ His cheeky smile suggests he’s deliberately winding me up.
‘No, I mean… about everything. I just need time to figure out what I’m going to do. Without the campervan, I have nowhere to live. I have no job. I don’t know where to go or what to?—’
He interrupts gently, like he can tell I’m about to go down a panic spiral and knows it won’t do any good. ‘I’m not going to call the police. God, Dolly, this is brilliant.Youare brilliant. This is the best kind of revenge. It fulfils that vindictive “you deserve something horrible to happen to you” feeling, but no one actually gets hurt.’
I make an indignant noise and gesture towards his leg, and he rolls his eyes. ‘Oh, not in that way. I just mean… I’ve been cheated on, and it’s a special kind of pain. The kind that gets inside your veins and tears you apart from the inside out and makes you question everything you thought you knew. This victimless revenge is the perfect antidote.’
He meets my eyes and I feel my cheeks going red for no reason.
‘I’m sorry you’ve been cheated on too.’ I wrap a bandage around his leg with more care than is strictly necessary, but it’s the first time he’s shared anything remotely personal, and maybe it’s a part of where his kindness and understanding comes from, and I can’t help wanting to know more.
‘Oh, think nothing of it. The circumstances were different and… complicated. But at least it was with a stranger. I can’t imagine how much the hurt is amplified when the other person involved is a friend too.’
‘Yeah, it’s, er, not fun.’ I’ve been trying not to think about it because I don’t want to go down the emotional rabbit hole of questions about when it began and how I didn’t notice, and how I let myself get so lost in the daydreams of our future business that I missed what was happening right in front of my eyes and how, if I really think about it, it’s Vickie that hurts the most. Things with Jared hadn’t been great, I know that, but Vickie was the best friend I’d ever had and I trusted her with every secret, including my fears about the distance between me and Jared, and how lonely I felt sometimes, and now I can’t work out if she took advantage of that or if it wasbecauseof her in the first place.
‘Maybe you did exactly what you needed to do,’ Reece says softly, like he can tell exactly where my mind has gone.
His voice is full of empathy, and it makes my nose burn like I’m about to burst into tears, and I focus intently on doing up the bandage and securing it around his leg.
‘All done.’ I pat his knee and let my hand linger there for a moment, and his fingers drift across mine and give them a quick scrunch, and his lips mouth a thank you.
We hold each other’s gaze until the silence feels unnatural, especially when I lean over to pull his trouser leg back down and he leans forwards to do the same thing at the exact same moment, and our foreheads nearly collide and our fingers waggle awkwardly against each other’s.
‘Tea!’ I declare, letting him pull his own trouser leg down, mainly because it’s an excuse to stop him leaving when that’s the last thing I want him to do, and if this gets any more uncomfortable, he might.
‘I could go for that.’ He puts his other leg up on the table as well and settles back, stretching out and taking up the entire seating area with his long legs and lanky body.
The campervan’s tiny kitchen is becoming increasingly familiar now and rather than feeling cramped, it’s starting to feel like just the right size. Everything has its place, and I have everything I need at my fingertips.
I can feel Reece’s eyes on me as the noise of the boiling kettle reverberates through the van and I get two plates out of their holders in a cupboard and open a packet of biscuits I bought this morning.
When I glance at him, he’s got a small smile on his face, and it quickly turns into a big one when we catch each other’s eyes and I tell myself it’s the warmth from the kettle that’s making me feel overheated.
‘You can stay here as long as you need to.’ He grins again when I lean over his legs to put the plate of chocolate digestives on the other side of the table where we’ll both be able to reach it, and then turn around to pick up his mug and hand it to him.
‘Because of the tea and biscuits?’
