Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (16 page)

The rest of my shift was uneventful. It was quiet as usual, and I even managed time to go through my work emails and call Maggie.

‘Suky’s got one more week of treatment,’ I said. ‘I’d like to stay until it’s finished if that’s OK?’

‘Do whatever you have to do,’ said Maggie. There were some advantages to never having had a day off until now.

With that weight lifted, I’d shut up my laptop, put my phone away, and gone back to worrying about what to do if the people in Claddach turned against us.

Just before closing time, as I was writing down some PR ideas (well, they were more like bribes, really) – free coffee at weekends, free wifi, free cakes with every cup of tea, free cakes generally – Jamie came in.

He gave me the half-smile I was getting used to.

‘Latte please,’ he said. ‘To go.’

I made the coffee, knowing I had to apologise for what had happened all those years ago.

‘On the house,’ I said, handing him the cup.

‘Oh no,’ he said. ‘You don’t have to do that…’

‘Just take the damn coffee,’ I snapped. Jamie looked alarmed.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Listen, can we sit down for a minute.’

Jamie checked his watch.

‘I’ve got five minutes,’ he said. ‘What’s up?’

‘I just wanted to tell you something,’ I said. ‘When I left, you know, back then…’

Jamie’s expression changed from mildly interested to stony.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘It was a long time ago. It’s over. I just never understood what I did wrong. One minute you were there, the next you were gone.’

‘You didn’t do anything, Jamie. It was all me,’

He gave me a wry smile that had absolutely no humour in it.

‘It’s not you, it’s me?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But not like that.’

The conversation was not going at all how I wanted it to go.

‘I can’t explain,’ I said. ‘I just know it was the right thing to do.’

‘For you, perhaps,’ he said. ‘I was a mess when you left.’

I felt guilty all over again.

‘I had to go away,’ I said.

‘You could have given me some warning. I didn’t even have time to get used to the idea.’ Jamie ran his fingers through his hair and made it stick up.

‘I thought you would have wanted to change my mind about leaving,’ I said, knowing it was no excuse at all for going without saying goodbye.

‘So you didn’t even give me a chance to try? That wasn’t fair, Esme.’

‘I meant to,’ I said softly. ‘The whole time I was planning to leave, I meant to tell you. But when the time came I just couldn’t face you.’

‘Coward,’ said Jamie. The ice in his voice made me wince.

‘I didn’t want to make things harder. It was much easier to go.’ I rubbed my nose.

‘I want to explain,’ I said, talking quickly so he couldn’t interrupt. ‘It’s just I thought Mum had done something that made you want to be with me, so I had to go because I was cross and embarrassed and I thought you should find yourself a girlfriend that you
really wanted to be with…’

I trailed off as I realised he was staring at me in confusion.

‘You thought your mum had done something?’ he repeated. ‘Like what?’

I was at a loss. I couldn’t tell him I’d thought it was a love spell.

‘Like a bribe?’ he carried on. ‘Did you think she’d paid me?’

‘Yes!’ I said. ‘Exactly that. I thought she’d paid you to go out with me.’

Jamie shook his head.

‘Bloody hell, Ez,’ he said. ‘Is that what you think of me?’

Then he chuckled.

‘Is that what you think of yourself? That your mum has to pay men to go out with you?’

I scratched at a bump on the table.

‘Well, not now,’ I said defensively. ‘Now I get my own boyfriends.’

‘Good for you,’ he said. He gave me a strange look. ‘So you’ve got a boyfriend, have you?’

‘I have actually.’ I said. But as I was saying it, I realised I didn’t want him to know about Dom. Not if it made him think less of me – as if that was even possible – and not if it made him think I was off the market. Stupid Esme, talking first without thinking of the consequences.

‘Good for you,’ he said again. ‘I’ve got to go.’ He stood up. ‘Thanks for explaining,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I’ll see you around.’

As he left, I felt deflated. My apology had gone as well as I could have hoped. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected. Did I want Jamie to fall into my arms and say he still loved me? No. After all, I didn’t have any feelings for him, did I? Or did I? I thought about how his eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled and his slightly crooked teeth, and his broad shoulders and narrow waist. I thought about how he’d kissed me all those years ago and told me we were meant to be together. I thought about Chloé saying we had unfinished business and suddenly I realised she was right. Seeing Jamie again had stirred up feelings I thought had been buried long ago and I had no idea what to do about them.

Chapter 30

I closed up the café, it took no time at all now I used witchcraft instead of elbow grease, and walked up the hill towards home. The weather was getting worse every day. Halloween was just around the corner, and autumn was on its way out – winter was definitely knocking on Claddach’s door. Wet leaves whipped round my ankles and though it wasn’t raining, there was a chilly dampness in the air that left my hair frizzy and my nose red.

When I got home, Harry was sitting at the kitchen table. She had spread paperwork out in front of her but she wasn’t reading it; instead she had her head in her hands. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and she was wearing jeans and a soft grey jumper. She looked human for once – and very upset. I took a step towards her.

‘Harry?’ I said, putting a hand on her shoulder (ooh, cashmere. Nice).

‘Is everything OK?’

Harry jumped and started shuffling papers together.

‘I was just catching up on paperwork.’ She grabbed a letter that was on top of a pile and started folding it up, but she wasn’t quick enough to stop me spotting a law firm’s headed notepaper. I snatched it from her manicured hand.

‘What’s this?’ I said.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then gave in. She sunk into her chair and her eyes filled with tears.

‘I’m being sued,’ she admitted. ‘I’m scared it’s going to ruin my reputation and all my plans for the spa. What if I lose everything?’

I leaned over her shoulder and scanned the letter. It was threatening, I had to admit, and if I’d been Harry I’d have been terrified. But to a finely-honed legal brain like mine (or, in fact, to anyone who had so much as law A-level) it was less scary.

‘So this client came to you for aura cleansing,’ I said. Harry nodded woefully.

‘But she says since then she’s had terrible bad luck and that means her aura is…’ I swallowed a giggle, Harry didn’t take kindly to people mocking her profession.

‘It means her aura is dirty.’

Harry nodded again.

‘She’s suing for loss of earnings, for medical bills, nutrition advice – even a new haircut,’ she said. ‘It could be thousands of pounds. But it’s the damage to my reputation that will be worse. I can never get that back.’ She ran her fingers through her hair in despair and I felt sorry for her. This was the last thing she needed when Suky was so ill.

‘I can help,’ I said, hoping I wouldn’t regret it. ‘I’ll tell you a secret about lawyers. We’ll write a scary letter to pretty much anyone about pretty much anything, if we’re being paid. This letter means nothing.’

Harry looked slightly less frightened.

‘I’ll write an equally threatening response,’ I continued. ‘And I reckon that’s the last you’ll hear about it all.’

Harry relaxed noticeably. She leaned her head back so it was resting on my tummy as I stood behind her. It was such an intimate gesture that I felt immediately awkward. Stiffly I patted her head.

‘It’ll be OK,’ I said. ‘In fact, I’m going to do it now, while I’m in the mood.’

Filled with warmth for doing such a good deed, I booted up my laptop once more. Then I drafted a threatening-yet-meaningless legal letter and presented it triumphantly to Harry, who was thrilled.

‘You have a knack for this stuff,’ she said in surprise. ‘Who knew?’

‘I knew,’ I said, crossly. ‘And all my clients. Thank you very much.’

‘So you reckon I’ll send this and she’ll back off,’ she said.

‘I do,’ I said. ‘She’s just trying her luck.’

Harry relaxed back into the chair.

‘Was that the problem at work?’ I asked.

‘One of them,’ she said. ‘It’s just all a bit much on my own, you know.’

‘Is Natalie not helping?’

‘She’s gone back to the States,’ Harry said, her lips so pursed I could hardly see them. ‘I’m not sure when she’ll be back.’

There was a pause. ‘I’m not sure she’s going to come back at all, actually.’

I was shocked.

‘What’s happened?’

Harry smiled ruefully.

‘Oh we’ve grown apart, we met too young, blah blah blah,’ she said. ‘She wanted to go back to the States and I wanted to stay here. Pick your reason.’

I put my arm round her.

‘Sorry, H,’ I said. ‘Things will get better soon.’

‘Yeah well they’d better,’ she said. She turned to look at me. ‘Enough about my sorry old love life. What about yours?’

‘Nothing to report,’ I said, thinking about Jamie. ‘Nothing at all.’

‘What about your married man?’

‘Oh him.’ I hadn’t even considered she’d mean Dom. That wasn’t a good sign. ‘Nothing to report.’

‘So you haven’t done anything about it?’

‘Nope.’

‘Shall we do it?’ Her face lit up.

‘Nope,’ I said again.

Harry’s shoulders slumped.

‘Aw Ez, go on. Let’s do something.’

I was tempted, I couldn’t deny it. I really didn’t want to go back to London without having some sort of resolution to my relationship with Dom.

‘Oh go on then,’ I said. ‘What shall we do?’

‘We need to know what he’s really thinking,’ Harry said. ‘That’s easy to do when someone’s here – unless they’re Brent of course.’ Her inability to read Brent was really bothering her.

‘Oh get over it, H,’ I said. ‘What do we do if someone isn’t here?’

She thought for a moment, brows furrowed. Then her face cleared.

‘Is he on Skype?’

I nodded.

‘We all are – we often use it for video conferences.’

‘Let’s try that,’ she said. ‘Ring him and tell him you want to see him.’

‘Then what?’

‘We’ll get him on Skype and I’ll do my thing.’

‘Do you think it’ll work?’

‘It’s worth a try,’ she said. ‘You want to know, don’t you?’

I nodded slowly. I did want to know. Was there any future in my relationship with Dom or not?

I picked up my phone and scrolled to his number. Hopefully he would be working late and able to talk.

He answered straight away and I put him on speakerphone.

‘I was just about to call you,’ he said. He sounded flustered. ‘I miss you.’

I melted. Harry frowned at me and pointed to the laptop.

‘I miss you too,’ I said. ‘Can we Skype?’

‘Brilliant plan,’ said Dom. ‘Can we do it naked?’

Harry made a mock shocked expression.

‘My cousin is here with me,’ I said primly. ‘I thought you might want to meet her.’

‘The evil one?’

Swiftly I took the phone off speaker as Harry glowered at me.

‘Nooo, not that one’ I said. ‘A completely different cousin. I’m going to Skype you now.’

I hung up, not wanting to look at Harry but she laughed.

‘He’d better do what I want him to do,’ she said, as I connected to Skype. ‘Or he’ll see how evil I can really be.’

It was strange to see Dom sitting at his desk. I introduced him to Harry and saw his womaniser radar light up when he clocked how gorgeous she was.

‘It is really nice to meet you, Harry,’ he said smoothly.

‘Oh for God’s sake, put your tongue away,’ I snapped at him.

‘Woah, Ez,’ he said. ‘I was just being polite.’ He held up his hand as if to hold me back
and the light glinted off his wedding ring.

Dom filled me in on a bit of work stuff, and I glanced at Harry. She was sitting very still, eyes half closed, and the air around her was shimmering.

‘So, Dom,’ she said, interrupting him as he told me something about Maggie. ‘Tell me about your wife.’

The air around the kitchen table shimmered and – I leant towards the laptop screen, just to check I wasn’t imagining it – the air around Dom was shimmering too. Harry was so good at this.

‘Rebecca’s great,’ Dom sighed. ‘She’s beautiful and funny and she knows me inside out. We’ve been together since we were eighteen.’

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I did not want to hear this. Through the screen, Harry stared right into Dom’s eyes. He stared back, transfixed.

‘So what are you doing with my Esme?’ she asked.

Dom breathed in deeply.

‘Rebecca’s just – you know?’

‘What?’ I said harshly. ‘What is she?’

‘She’s too grown up,’ Dom admitted. ‘She wants to have a baby.’ The word hung over the table and lodged in a dark part of my heart. I stared at him.

‘A baby?’ I repeated.

‘Makes sense,’ said Harry lightly. ‘You’ve been together for years. It’s the next step.’

‘I’m too young to be tied down.’ Dom looked at Harry for approval. ‘I’m only thirty-five.’

Harry nodded.

‘You want to sow some wild oats, hedge your bets…’

Dom smiled, obviously relieved that Harry understood. I was not happy.

‘Esme’s a bit of fun,’ he said, looking into the distance and obviously remembering how much fun we’d had. I blushed but Harry wasn’t paying any attention to me.

‘Rebecca’s the same age as me, and it’s different for women, isn’t it?’ Dom said. ‘Her clock’s ticking.’

Harry –who was a year older – narrowed her eyes at him.

‘I think we’ve heard enough,’ she said, looking at me.

Dom rubbed his eyes, as though he’d just woken up. Which, in a way, he had.

‘What was I saying?’ he said. ‘I’ve lost my train of thought.’

I was feeling prickly. I was cross with Dom for revealing himself to be such an idiot, cross with Harry for making him admit it and grudgingly grateful that she had.