The Foretelling (Charlotte Bloom #1) (16 page)

"The truck should be here soon," Helen explained.

"It’s about twenty minutes in to town. I figured we could stop by the computer store, and then we would have some free time to run some errands." George smiled, and then gestured to the plume of dust coming towards us. For such a rainy country, you would think dirt roads would be mud roads, but no. "Here he comes."

I watched as a dirty, old pickup truck stopped in front of us. The dust stood all around for a minute, and I chuckled when I imagined Tommy driving such a large vehicle. He was small for a man, large around the middle, but not that much taller than me, which said a lot. Suddenly, Alec emerged. He was wearing a tight black long sleeve shirt and some khakis that he’d rolled up a bit over his work boots.

"Shall we?" Alec nodded to me, and then went to open the passenger door.

"Charlotte, you go in the middle, next to Alec. George and I will squeeze in beside you."

"Where’s Tommy?" I asked casually, while I hoisted myself into the truck. I felt Alec take my hand, helping me inside. I shivered at his touch. Then I remembered that I was mad at him and that we weren't friends. I withdrew my hand immediately.

"Tommy came down with the stomach flu this morning. I only just found out. Alec was kind enough to offer to take us instead." Helen beamed at him.

"Can we all fit?" I asked. "Maybe we should go another day, when Tommy is feeling better," I suggested.

"Don’t be silly, dear. We all fit, see?" Helen said, pointing to George as he shut the door against him.

She was right. We were all lined up comfortably, four people up front. There were no seat belts. Also, my legs were touching Alec’s, which made me slightly uncomfortable.

Helen, who was on my left (because they drove on the right here, like in England), patted my thigh. We backed out of the driveway. Alec put his arm behind me on the seat, facing me as he slowly backed down. I looked straight ahead, trying to distract myself. Alec got on to the road, and we were on our way. I kept shifting uncomfortably as our legs touched.

"Lovely day," George said loudly, to break the awkward silence.

None of us replied. I was too busy trying to shift away from Alec, and Helen was tapping her fingers on her legs like a nervous child. I hadn’t realized I’d be in such close proximity to Alec, and I smoothed my hair casually. I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. My heart stopped when Alec’s eyes met mine.
Busted.
I looked away quickly and cleared my throat.

"Music?" Helen chimed, trying to break the silence unsuccessfully.

I saw Alec reach for a small, leather case. He handed it to me. I was confused until I realized it was a case of CDs. It was something I’d had in high school, one almost exactly like it. I laughed as I flipped through the options, all of which were amazing in my opinion. He was a jerk, but we had similar taste in music. He was an alternative rock guy, like me.

"What’s so funny?" Alec was looking over at me as I sifted through the choices.

"Nothing. I just haven’t seen a case full of CDs since I was eighteen. It brings back memories."

"We can’t all be as sophisticated as you, Charlotte." He smiled at me.

My heart did a little flutter. He’d never said my name out loud before, and it was nice. I liked the way he said it, and I felt relieved that he was making a joke. Perhaps there was a human in there somewhere. Most likely, he just didn’t remember last night.

"Well, she better be sophisticated. Because I have no bloody idea what I’m doing with this computer that we’re about to purchase," George laughed.

"How long are you planning on staying, then?" Alec inquired.

I looked at him and tried to gauge his tone. Was he being sincere? Or did he want to know when he would be rid of me? I couldn’t tell. I knew from last night that he apparently didn’t trust me. Luckily, Helen answered.

"Hopefully, for a while…" She looked over at me and smiled. I smiled back, and George gave me a thumbs up.

"A few weeks, maybe a few months. It just depends," I explained, with no emotion.

"On what? Don’t you have some hot shot job back in L.A.?" Alec’s tone was definitely irritated. He wasn’t curious. He wanted to know how long he’d have to put up with me. He went from playful to annoyed so quickly. How was that possible?

"Alec, please! Be polite," Helen scolded.

"I’m sorry, I just have a hard time believing that a beautiful woman would want to stay here voluntarily, when she probably has so much going for her back home. There has to be a reason." He was being feisty. I turned red at the word “beautiful”, but it was essentially used to insult me, so my blush quickly faded into slight anger. Well, if he wanted feisty, I would give him feisty. I turned to face him.

"For your information, I absolutely love it here, and I’ve loved it from the moment I arrived. I consider myself lucky to be here. And no, I don’t have a job to go back to in L.A., which is probably a good thing, because I’m now realizing it was a really shitty job to begin with. I’m glad to be done with it." I purposely left out the Harry situation; that could be explained later, if he was lucky enough to get to know me, that is. At this point, I wasn’t sure if he deserved to get to know me.

Everyone fell silent, and Alec nodded slowly. Helen looked at George, and I could tell what they were thinking. Tommy had told them the full story. I mean, not the
full
story, but I’d told Tommy that my husband had left me and, in reality, that was the truth; the only truth about why I was here. We all rode the rest of the way in silence. I’d never picked out a CD, so the road against the tires gave us the only soundtrack for our trip into town.

The road started to accumulate more cars, and the scenery became less rural. I started to see chain grocery stores and hotels. I guessed this was Welsh suburbia. We drove further into Swansea. I started to see small villages with restaurants, and pretty soon we were in traffic. Tremendously light traffic by Los Angeles standards, but nevertheless, we were at a standstill. I realized I had no idea where Helen and George were from.

"Are you from Swansea?" I asked them, facing Helen so as to block out Alec. If he was going to be rude, he had no business being a part of the conversation. George answered.

"Oh no, we’re actually both from Cardiff. But we’ve been running the Parc for twenty-nine years, since we were married. My uncle Thomas, who was born and raised in Swansea like my father, heard about an opening here, so he got me a position as part of the kitchen staff. You see, back then it was much busier. We had over fifty guests some nights! I worked my way up, and Helen helped with various tasks. The owner passed twenty years ago and naturally we took over."

"Our three daughters were raised here, in the house we own down the street from the Parc," Helen explained. George had mentioned his oldest daughter last night.

"Where are your daughters now?" I wondered if they were still around.

"Oh, they flew the coop as soon as they turned eighteen!" Helen chuckled. "Diana is our oldest. She’s actually in New York City. She works for various magazines as a freelance writer. She’s twenty-seven. Catharine is twenty-five, and she’s currently in France as an au pair. And our youngest, Grace, is studying history in York, England."

"We raised three very independent women," George chirped, like any proud papa would. I smiled. I could tell they both loved their daughters very much.

"Do you see them often?"

"We see Grace and Catharine more than Diana, because they’re in Europe.

"We certainly don’t see them enough," Helen sniffed. "I would’ve loved it if they had stayed in Swansea, but I also understand the need to find your place in this world. They certainly have the travel bug."

"I get that," I offered. "I’d love to meet them one day."

We drove onto a main street where shops lined the one-lane road. I saw teahouses, hardware stores, restaurants, inns, clothing stores, art stores, pubs, and anything else one could need in town. Alec kept going, past where I thought we would need to be stopping. I looked back, thinking maybe he missed a pull-off, but I quickly realized the computer store was on the outskirts of town, on the other side. Another few minutes went by before we pulled up to a huge electronics store called Maplin. It was as big as a Best Buy or Wal-Mart.

We hopped out. Alec tried to take my hand to help me out, but I refused. We walked towards the entrance. I looked around, and there was almost nothing around except for a Burger King. I felt a blast of air as we walked inside, and I was greeted with such bright lights I almost had to shield my eyes. A store employee greeted us.

"Hello, welcome to Maplin Electronics. What can I help you to find today?" The store associate was redheaded and freckly. I sympathized.

"We need to purchase a computer," George answered.

The store associate waited for George to continue. I guessed people were usually more specific.

"Ok… Do you need a desktop? Laptop? PC, or Mac?"

George looked at him helplessly. I stepped in.

"Probably a desktop PC, nothing too fancy. We don’t need a lot of memory or RAM, just something they can use for Twitter and email."

"Got it." He led us to the computer section, and pointed to a few different desktops. They all looked the same to me, but each one had different features. I could tell he was trying to sell us one of the more expensive models.

"Look, we don’t need all of that. We just need something easy, cheap and simple."

He then reluctantly took us over to the "university" section, most commonly used by poor students. I found the cheapest desktop they had, and pretty soon we were all checking out. Helen and George guffawed at each other when he totaled up the price, and they handed over their card reluctantly. I smiled, reassuring them that I knew what I was doing. If I was good at anything, it was shopping for good deals.

We walked back out and into the sunny parking lot. Alec opened up his truck and we piled in, this time with a big box on the floor beneath our feet.

"Charlotte, you were great in there," Helen mused. "We obviously have no idea what we’re doing!" She and George chuckled, and patted the box on the floor. "This is the most exciting purchase we’ve ever made! Thank you, thank you so much!" She hugged me as we drove off, and I felt all warm and tingly inside. I was so glad they were happy. I realized that seeing them happy made me happy too, and anything I could do to make them happy would suit me just fine.

"So… we're headed into town, right?" Alec had stayed silent the entire time in the store, only looking around nervously and sticking his hands in his pants pockets.

"I think so. Helen and I have some errands to run, and I believe Charlotte needed a coat and proper boots," George said, gesturing to my “impractical” brown booties. They weren’t heeled – I couldn’t do heels except for special occasions – but these were suede and they definitely were not practical for the wet weather here. "Alec, why don’t you show Charlotte where the shopping is, and Helen and I will meet up with you two afterwards, unless you have errands to run as well…" George trailed off. I saw a twinkle in his eye. That scoundrel; I knew exactly what he was up to. He smiled at us both before taking Helen’s hand and kissing it. They were a sickeningly cute couple.

"I need to run by the feed store to pick up some things for the horses. But other than that, I can show her around, I guess." Alec looked over at me with annoyance. I couldn’t believe his audacity. He was truly not holding back. I felt as though a "gentleman," as he so kindly referred to himself last night, should hide his feelings, but he did not. It was all out there in the open.

"I’m sure I can find my own way, but thank you for your
kind
offer," I added, derisively. I didn’t need his help anyhow. I was really good with directions. I could find my way around.

"No, dear, I insist Alec show you around. These streets can get kind of tricky. It’s best to go with a local," Helen quipped.

I sat there like a petulant child whose parents were fighting over me. On the one hand, Alec didn’t seem to want to take me, but Helen and George insisted. I felt like I was about to be forced into a play date I didn’t want to go on. I had no choice, though. I’d be stuck with Alec for a good couple of hours.

We pulled into a small parking lot in the center of town, and the white noise of a busy street echoed all around me. It felt nice to be in a highly populated area again, after being in such a rural area. Helen and George quickly scampered off before we could protest our arrangement. I looked over at Alec, who had his hands in his pockets, and I walked ahead of him towards the shops on the busy street. He could follow me if he wanted. I stopped in front of a shoe store and peered in.
This might be OK
, I thought, as I spotted some wellies in the window.

"Mind if I stop in here for a minute?" I asked just to be courteous, but continued on into the store before he replied. He seemed to be OK with it because he followed me in and sat on a chair with a couple of other men. I was checking out the rubber wellies when one of the store employees approached me.

"Can I help you, miss?"

"Yes, you can actually. Thank you. I’ve arrived in Wales totally unprepared, and I need a good outdoor shoe. It will have to be versatile, as I’m on a budget. I need something that is waterproof and also something I can clean easily because of the mud. I’m not doing any kind of hiking, so it doesn’t have to be fancy."