“Matthew took Percy,” she explains to him while I wait. “Freya’s just got back to the London flat and Percy’s gone.” There’s a pause. “Come on, Percy! You know Percy! The plant!”
“Not just any plant,” I huff down the phone. “A large Swiss cheese plant that I bought and I cared for! That ismyplant! And he’s taken him!”
“You’re on speaker,” Ruby informs me.
“Hi, Freya,” Leo’s voice comes through tinnily.
“Leo, can you believe this?! How could he? He just took Percy!”
“Hang on,” Leo says cautiously, “didn’t you give him the plant as a gift?”
There’s a pause until Ruby snaps, “Oh shut up, Leo. What has that got to do with it?”
“I’m just saying,” Leo explains, sounding as though he’s beginning to regret getting involved in this conversation, “maybe Matthew thought Percy belonged to him because it was a gift for his birthday.”
“Yeah, well, I thought we were getting married because Matthew proposed to me,” I say grumpily. “Things change, Leo.”
“You know what? You’re right,” Leo croaks, no doubt receiving a thump on the arm from Ruby. “He should have left Percy. The plant clearly belongs to you.”
He quickly adds, “Matthew’s an arsehole,” just in case we weren’t sure.
“Thank you, Leo,” Ruby says curtly. “You just remember whose side you’re on.”
“Guys, what am I going to do?” I ask, devastated as I stare at the horrible empty space where Percy sat. “I need to get him back! But I can’t ring Matthew! I promised myself I wouldn’t contact him for a while after what happened last weekend.”
There’s a silence at the other end of the phone. I know that Leo is likely giving Ruby a pointed look. He still blames her for what happened, but in her defense, it really was all me. I didn’t plan on doing it. It just sort of… happened.
I don’t even have the excuse of alcohol, because I was sober.
Last Saturday night, we’d had dinner and Leo and Dad were in the sitting room, having a beer and discussing golf or something boring. Ruby and I were upstairs talking and I don’t know how, but we sort of riled each other up and decided it might be a good idea to get in the car and drive to Matthew’s parents’ house to demand an explanation.
I’m almost certain it was my idea in the first place and, while Ruby didn’t exactly do much to discourage me—“Let’s do it” were her exact words—it definitely came from me.
We snuck out to my car, because we knew that Leo and Dad would talk us out of it.
As Ruby had been drinking since the morning, I was the one driving while she was in charge of the music. The whole journey we listened to such hits as Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” blasting them out full volume, singing at the top of our lungs. So, by the time I pulled in to his parents’ drive, I waspumped.
“I can do this,” I announced, turning off the ignition.
“You can do this,” Ruby echoed.
I got out of the car and knocked on their door. They must have seen it was me through the window, because there was a noticeable pause in answering and when the door finally opened, Matthew was the one to emerge.
“What are you doing here, Freya?” he asked, giving me a sympathetic look. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Right off the bat, I’m furious. Because firstly, how dare he tell me what I should or should not be doing? And secondly, I don’t need his pitiful looks.I’m fine.
“I deserve an explanation!” I announced.
“What?”
“You need to tell me why this has happened!”
He sighed. “I’m going to call your dad and get him to come collect you.”
“I can drive myself home, thank you very much!”
“Okay, well then, I think you should go.”
