The Look of Love (40 page)

“Keep your
voice down!” he demanded. “They’ll hear!”

Chrissy didn’t
give up so easily. She pushed back, and they ended up pushing and
shoving one another around the table.

“They know
anyway!” she shouted at him. “What do you think they are?
Stupid?”

“They don’t
know anything!”

“They know
you’re a liar!”

“Keep your
voice down!” Scott wanted to keep her quiet, but all the time,
Chrissy kept ranting at him.

“Why are you
lying to protect him?”

“I’m not
lying!”

“Tell the
truth!”

“Max didn’t do
anything!”

“Liar!” Chrissy
almost screamed. “You know it’s Max! Why don’t you tell the
truth?”

“Because he
didn’t mean it!” Scott screamed back. He shook her then, he shook
her and then suddenly let go, a look of horror on his face.

There was
momentary silence. Only the sound of their heavy breathing filled
the room. Chrissy stared at Scott as he backed away and turned
towards the wall. He was almost in tears. He leaned against the
wall and shook his head sadly.

“He didn’t mean
it,” he repeated in a weak voice. “He just wanted to walk her home,
that’s all. She was with another boy. Max saw him off. He just
wanted to walk Jo home. She didn’t want him to. She said he wasn’t
her boyfriend anymore and they argued. He shook her, that was all.
He shook her and she fell down.”

All the time
Scott spoke he kept his face to the wall. Chrissy just stood and
stared at his back. She couldn’t say anything. She had gone
rigid.

Scott swallowed
and shook his head. “When Max came home he was in such a state. He
kept crying about Jo. He told me what had happened. He kept telling
me how he didn’t mean it. And he kept crying and crying. He loved
Jo. I know he didn’t mean to do it. He was so sorry. He begged me
to help. What was I supposed to do?”

Scott suddenly
turned round and faced Chrissy. There were tears in his eyes and on
his face.

“He’s my
brother! What was I supposed to do?” he repeated.

Chrissy found
her voice. “Tell the truth,” she whispered.

“Oh, what the
hell would you know about it?” Scott said derisively. “You don’t
have to look out for your brother. You only think about yourself!”
Scott took a step towards her. He smacked himself on the chest and
he spoke emotionally. “I have Max! He’s younger than me! I looked
out for him at school, and when he was older he stood by me! We’ve
always stuck together! We’ve always been together! And I’m not
going to ditch him now! He can’t go to prison! He’s terrified! It
would kill him!”

Chrissy
suddenly understood. Scott was right; she had never had to look out
for her brother. They were never that close, and he always seemed
to manage alright. To her shame, she had to admit that she never
really worried about him. But with good reason. With his headphones
on, her brother could walk through the eye of a hurricane and not
notice. Scott’s relationship with Max was obviously very different.
And from what he had said, Chrissy now knew that Scott’s intentions
for lying were just as obvious.

“And what if
they charge you? Will you go to prison instead of him?”

“Yes! If I have
to!”

Chrissy was
horrified. “You’re a fool, Scott! You’re going to throw your life
away for nothing! Lying isn’t going to help Max; he’s still going
to know what he did! And now he’ll have the extra guilt of knowing
you’re in jail instead of him! You have to tell the truth!”

Scott was
having none of it. “Jo’s dead, and I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can
do about that now. But if you think I’m going to kill my brother
just to satisfy your sense of justice you can think again!”

“Always the big
brother, aren’t you, Scott?” Chrissy said in disgust. “Even for
murder.”

Scott walked
right up to her. “It wasn’t murder! He didn’t mean it!” he
shouted.

Chrissy stood
her ground and shouted back, “Of course he meant it! Jo’s dead,
isn’t she!”

They were
almost nose to nose in the middle of the room. Scott’s expression
was almost a snarl.

Shawcroft
opened the door behind them. “Time’s up,” he said.

Chrissy backed
away, keeping her eyes on Scott.

“You always
told me you were a realist,” she said. “Remember how you told me
that you knew what you could get out of life and that you had
accepted it? Well, I know now that that was a lie, because you’re
going to throw even that away. You’re a fool, Scott, but I don’t
hate you. But I can’t love you either. You’re not the person I
thought you were. In fact, you were never that person. You were
just a lie.”

Turning quickly
she walked out of the interview room. Shawcroft held the door open
for her, and once she had gone through he said with satisfaction,
“Your brother has confessed, Scott. It’s over.” Then he closed the
door behind her.

Scott was left
on his own. His expression turned quickly from one of anger to one
of sadness, and he burst into tears. He slumped down on the chair,
dropped his head down on the table and sobbed.

Chrissy wore
white jeans and a red sleeveless top. Both items fitted her
delightfully well. She also wore her jacket from Friday night, but
now it was clean and pressed.

Adam smiled at
her as she closed the front door behind her. “You look lovely,” he
said.

“Thank you,”
Chrissy replied and kissed him on the cheek. “You look smart
yourself!”

Adam sighed.
“It is rare that I wear anything else but a suit and tie. I fear it
has become a habit.”

Chrissy linked
arms with him and they walked down the path to the car. “You
probably wear a tie with your pyjamas!” she remarked.

“Is that not
normal?”

“Shut up!”

As Adam opened
the car door for her, Chrissy noticed the car was un-occupied and
so quickly asked, “Where’s Charles tonight?”

“I have
obtained my revenge for his aid to you during our game by
despatching him to Equatorial Guinea to study their financial
institutions.”

“You pig!”
Chrissy laughed and got inside.

Adam closed the
door and walked round the car. When he was inside and was starting
the engine, Chrissy asked, “You didn’t really send him to
Equatorial Guinea, did you?”

“Would I joke
about a thing like that?”

Chrissy’s eyes
narrowed. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

Adam was
dismissive. “Enough about Charles! Now, my dear, where do you wish
to go?”

Chrissy put on
a haughty voice. “Salford Quays, and be quick about it, my man!”
She waved him on, and Adam drove the car off.

There was a
wide choice of films at the cinema. Adam and Chrissy stood together
outside, staring at all the posters and times. Chrissy held a large
bucket of popcorn that Adam had bought for her inside. She was
already dipping into it as she tried to make up her mind about
which film to see.

Adam pointed at
one of the posters. “What about this one?” he suggested. “You could
cry on my shoulder and I could console you all night.”

“City of
Angels?” Chrissy shook her head. “Too sad.”

“Alright.” Adam
looked again. “What about The Horse Whisperer?”

“Too
horsy.”

“Sliding
Doors?”

“Too
repetitive.”

“Titanic?”

“Too wet. I’ll
be wanting to go for a wee all the time. Anyway, they’re all
romantic films, Adam. I want to see something more exciting,
something to take my mind off things.”

Adam pointed
less enthusiastically at the next poster. “How about this one?” It
was Godzilla.

“Too big.”
Chrissy pointed at another one of the posters. “I fancy this
one.”

Adam stared at
the poster. “Starship Troopers?” he asked in dismay.

Chrissy nodded
brightly. Adam sighed and took her hand, and together they went
inside.

After the film
was over, and the bucket of popcorn had long since been consumed,
Chrissy was exhilarated. She dragged Adam out of the cinema at a
trot.

“Wasn’t that
great?” she said, as they burst into the night air.

“Unusual,” Adam
replied with less enthusiasm.

“Unusual? Is
that all you can say? What about the special effects?”

“Bloody.”

Chrissy
laughed. “Well, after all that blood and carnage, I need a burger!
Come on! I’ll take you to Starvin’ Marvin’s! My treat!”

Starvin’
Marvin’s was an American style diner on Trafford Road. It even had
a chrome finish exterior. Inside, Chrissy and Adam sat in one of
the booths. They had a burger each, but Chrissy also had large
fries and a strawberry milkshake. Adam soon finished his burger,
but Chrissy took longer in eating. She was much too busy still
talking about the film. She hadn’t stopped talking about it all the
way from the cinema. Adam was surprised by her excitement.

“Do films with
blood and guts always have this effect on you?” he asked.

Chrissy nodded
as she chewed on her burger. “There’s nothing like a good
disembowelment to make you feel hungry!”

Adam laughed.
“In that case, remind me to feed Charles to an over-sized
grasshopper the next time you visit.”

Chrissy also
laughed and took a drink from her milkshake. She stared at Adam
over the rim of her cup as she drank. Although he had laughed and
continued to smile at her, something in his eyes told her that he
was sad. When she put her cup down she said more seriously, “You
would have preferred to have seen one of those romantic films,
wouldn’t you?”

Adam shrugged.
“My taste in films is rather old fashioned. But I would have
thought that most girls your age would have shared my taste for
romance rather than mindless violence.”

Chrissy looked
momentarily annoyed. “I’m not most girls!” she snapped. “And don’t
go on about age!” Having admonished him, she brightened again.
“Anyway, there was romance in the film. The hero got his girl at
the end, didn’t he?”

Adam shook his
head. “No, he did not, and maybe that is what makes me sad.”

Chrissy looked
surprised. “But he did get the girl!” she protested. “They went off
together with their friend!”

“Ah! But it was
the wrong girl!” Adam replied. “The girl the hero should have ended
up with was the one that was killed, Dizzy. She truly loved him.
You could see it in her eyes when she looked at him at their last
school prom, and when she tried to dance with him. But he was blind
to her. He was transfixed by this other girl, Carmen. He followed
her into military service even as Dizzy followed him. In the end,
he was the loser.

“The girl he
was interested in was more concerned with flying and her career,
and she soon dumped him. And the girl who did love him was killed.
Only when she was dying in his arms did he see the truth, but by
then it was too late. From that moment on, the life of the hero was
condemned to be one of lonely service to the military. Even though
he and the other girl were together at the end of the film as you
say, he knew by then that with her he could never be more than just
a colleague. No, it was a sad film.”

Chrissy stared
at him. “You bugger!” she exclaimed. “You’ve just ruined the whole
film for me now!”

Adam laughed.
“I’m sorry! I take things far too seriously, don’t I? Please ignore
my sadness and my comments. Who knows, maybe they fell into one
another’s arms after the credits rolled, and even as we speak,
their house is filled with the sound of little troopers running
around!”

“Crap!” Chrissy
snapped, and stuck her tongue out at him. She took another bite
from her burger and followed it up with a handful of fries. Adam
continued to smile at her as she ate, but at least the sadness had
now gone from his eyes.

“I see that my
interpretation of the film hasn’t diminished your appetite,” he
remarked.

“Rotter!” she
mumbled with her mouth full.

Later, when
they had left Starvin’ Marvin’s and were walking back to the car,
Chrissy looked across at Adam and said in a soft voice, “I tried
the dress on last night.”

Adam looked
back at her but didn’t reply.

“It fits,”
Chrissy went on.

“I’m glad.”

“Is that all
you want to say?”

“What happened
to the young man? The one that was poorer than me, but more
handsome?”

His question
caught Chrissy by surprise. “You mean, Scott?” she blurted out.

“Is that his
name?”

“I don’t love
him,” she said quickly.

“Are you
sure?”

Chrissy nodded.
“I was like the hero in the film. I was blinded by appearances. No,
I don’t love him. I’ve spoken to him, and I understand him now, and
in time I will probably forgive him, but I don’t love him.”

Adam seemed to
be satisfied by her answer. They were silent for a little while
after that, walking along Trafford Road together, hand in hand.
Every so often, Chrissy would look at Adam, waiting for him to
speak, but he didn’t. He looked deep in thought, and Chrissy was
content to wait. Finally, Adam looked up at the night sky and
sighed.

“I always knew
that you would try it on,” he said. “The fact that it fits just
goes to prove that you were right in choosing it and that I was
right to give it to you. Now you must wear it when you marry.”

“I need someone
to ask me first.”

They stopped
walking and Adam turned to Chrissy. Her expression surprised him.
It was filled with expectation, and her eyes had such an intense
look, a look that he had seen before and recognised.

“Shouldn’t I be
the one pursuing you?” he asked.

Chrissy
laughed, but her expression became serious again when she
spoke.

“When we first
met, you told me that you were a bit long winded when it came to
women and that by the time you asked them, they were already
married with children. Well, I don’t want to waste any time waiting
for you to get around to it. I want to be the next Marchioness,
Adam. So hurry up and ask me!”