Me. Her. Him - Chapter 25

Background: Angela is shocked when William, an old friend from her past, who she hoped never to see again, comes back into her life, after he applies for a role at her work and successfully secures the job. William’s sudden reappearance puts Angela on edge. She’s terrified he’s discovered her secret, which she needs to protect her family from. William’s convinced Angela knows what happened to his former girlfriend, Caz, who hasn't been seen for twenty years, and that something terrible happened to her. The only person, who can help Angela, is her once best friend, Michelle, but Angela hasn’t seen Michelle for more than a decade. Faced with the threat of William’s return, they know they’ll need to work together to save their future, even if this does mean reopening old wounds, and revisiting a past they'd rather keep buried.

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September 1998

It’s Michelle’s ponytail that makes me realise it’s her, standing at the end of the street. The ponytail’s always been her signature look. I can’t imagine her without it. Her eyes are focused on the open space, in the middle of Warrick Square to her left, where there are a few benches. It’s a quaint spot; it’s the picture of London most Americans must think of when they come to visit.

We’re just a five minute walk from the flower shop. We sometimes meet here for lunch. I love walking up and down the road, and marvelling at the gleaming white, posh houses, imagining the different people who live there, and the conversations that must go on inside. It would be amazing to be able to have a peek inside. Whenever I see a property here up for sale, I’m tempted to ring the estate agent just to make an appointment to look. I’m sure if the estate agent saw me turning up, there’s no way on earth they’d believe I was seriously interested in buying. It was best to stick to the images I had in my mind of what they must be like; my private fantasy.

‘Decided to go old school did you with the message?’ I grin.         

She turns around, pushing her glasses up her nose. She only gives me a faint smile. So she’s still sulking. She must want to make amends; otherwise she wouldn’t have left me the note at work, and there wasn’t any animosity in her message. Or did I not read it right?

‘Oh, yes, well, you were sound asleep when I left this morning. You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to wake you. What’ve you got?’

I peer into my bag. Lauren makes up all the packed lunches. I’m not sure why, it’s just something she decided she’d take over the role of doing, saying she wanted to feel useful while she was still searching for a job. Hayley’s recently got a job at a local restaurant, although I’m not sure it’s her thing. She keeps complaining about the unsociable working hours, and the rubbish pay. She’s more suited to an office, perhaps something in marketing. She’d be good at doing something like that. She’ll have no problem in getting her ideas heard. 

‘Ham and cheese,’ I say, punching the air with my fist.

‘Egg mayonnaise,’ Michelle says, and this time she smiles properly for the first time in days.

I link arms with her and we walk along the pavement in search of the nearest bench.

‘I am sorry about what happened the other night, with Caz,’ I say. I know it’s better to get this out of the way as soon as I can. I don’t want to have what happened on Saturday hanging over us any longer. ‘I think she was just as surprised as us to find out she’d stayed. Our heads really weren’t with it that night. It was wrong of us to bring a stranger back without asking you first.’

‘It’s fine, it’s all forgotten about,’ Michelle says, her voice tight which makes me think there’s no way she’s forgotten what happened.

‘She mentioned though how much she enjoyed hanging out with us,’ I say, taking out my sandwich, and taking a bite.

‘Angela,’ Michelle says, pulling her arm away from mine. ‘You’re not planning on seeing her again, are you?’

I chew slowly. The bitterness is there in her voice. She barely spoke to Caz on Saturday night. She couldn’t have made up her mind about her without, at the very least, speaking to her. She didn’t even say anything to her on the Sunday morning.

‘I might do, depends, she was good fun,’ I say. I’m not going to lie to Michelle just to please her.

Michelle shakes her head. ‘Angela, I was watching her the entire night while we were in the club. She was on her own the whole time we were there, and she was watching us.’

Had Michelle really been watching Caz or has she just made that up? It’s true she would’ve been more alert than the rest of us, as she’d only had a couple of glasses of wine, but could she really have spotted Caz, given how busy it was? There’s no way I would’ve spotted Caz on her own in the club, if I’d been paying attention to what was going on around me.

I remember what I thought about Caz, when she first introduced herself to me. I thought she’d been with her friends and that they’d abandoned her, even though she didn’t seem to mind being out on her own. My face would be pinched tight with anger, if my friends decided to go off and leave me on a night out. I wouldn’t want to speak to them ever again. But perhaps she’d decided to stay. Had she been watching us the entire evening and then, when she saw me make my way out on my own, decide to make her move? The thought’s ridiculous.

‘I think you’re reading too much into this, Michelle. She probably just saw us having a good time, and then decided to see if she could make friends with us, it’s not too abnormal.’

Michelle turns her face away from me. I thought having lunch with her today was going to mend the friction that had been there between us. She’s been waiting for the right time to talk about what she supposedly saw. There’s no way she would’ve wanted to talk about this in front of Hayley and Lauren. I shouldn’t have mentioned anything about Caz. I shouldn’t have said I’d be up for seeing her again.  

‘But why was she out on her own, all this way out in London? That doesn’t make sense to me,’ she says.

I’ve lost my appetite and place my sandwich back into my bag, which crackles when the sandwich hits the bottom. Caz mentioned she had a boyfriend. Perhaps they’d had some sort of argument, and she’d decided to go out on her own for the evening. I’d gone out a couple of times on my own at uni, when no one else could be bothered, and I ended up having a good time. There was normally someone from my course out and about and they invited me to join them. But we weren’t at university now.

‘Well, if I see her again, I can ask her,’ I say, my voice coming out snappier than I intended. ‘But I doubt we will, we didn’t exchange contact details or anything like that, so there’s no way she’ll be able to reach us. I wouldn’t worry too much Michelle about the prospect of us seeing her again.’

Michelle stops walking. She’s looking at me as though I’m about to snatch her lunch from her hands.

‘I’m . . . I’m only thinking of you, Angela,’ Michelle says. There’s panic in her voice and I instantly feel guilty for raising my voice. ‘I’m thinking of all of us. Don’t see this girl again. I don’t like it.’

I don’t give her a response.

We spend the next half an hour in silence, walking around the perimeter of the park. Michelle keeps opening her mouth as if to start up a conversation, but then she closes it again.

Michelle’s not going to stop me from seeing Caz if that’s what I want to do, and I’m pretty sure Caz will be up for seeing me again. There’s something about her. I want to get to know her. I don’t know why, but every time I think about her, it gives me a tingling sensation at the bottom of my spine.

If she does end up being trouble, like Michelle thinks she will be, I’ll be the first to tell her not to bother me again.

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