Me. Her. Him - Chapter 53

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 2022

The world around me seems to drift in slow motion. There’s a sharp ringing in my ear as I come back to my senses. I have a weird sense I’m floating. Perhaps I’ve left my body, and it’s all over. At least I won’t have to face watching my life fall apart around me, because of the mistakes I made in my twenties.

Then it dawns on me what’s happened. The lamp post ahead of me is now bent and crooked. My car is still thrumming around me as the engine continues to grumble, like a wounded rhinoceros.

I shift in my seat, wincing at the pain in my neck. I look in my mirrors. No one is running to assist me. If an ambulance and the police are called, the police may want to breathalyse me. I know I’ve only had one glass of wine, that shouldn’t make me over the limit, but I don’t want to have to face the prospect of dealing with the law. Not now.

The rain is still crashing down. It seems to fizz as it hits the bonnet of my car, like bubbles rising in a glass of champagne. How am I going to explain this to Paul? I try to see if there are any CCTV cameras nearby, any that might have captured what happened. I don’t want to have to get out. I’m already thinking about what this is going to do to the insurance. Bloody hell, I’ve never had an accident on the road before. I’m always so careful.

I need to get going, before anyone sees me. There’s an image in my head now of William stepping out of the pub, and then spotting my car. He might recognise it from the car park at work. Surely he would’ve watched and waited to see which vehicle I got into. That’s enough to compel me to reverse back out onto the road. The car makes a creaking noise as I do. At least the road is quiet. People are going to notice my car as I drive back to mine. They’ll see the gash in the bonnet.

I drive at what seems like a snail’s pace. The water is running down our road like a river. It always does now whenever it rains hard. I’m not far from home now. Perhaps I can tuck the car out of sight on the driveway, so Paul doesn’t notice what’s happened, but there’s no way I can keep this from him. I’m going to have to look at getting the damage repaired. I shouldn’t have gone out in the first place, it was stupid of me. If I’d stayed at home this wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have seen William at the pub.

I’m shaking as I walk up the drive to the front door. Images are racing through my mind of what could have happened. A person could’ve been standing there by the lamppost, on the phone, unaware I’d lost control. I could’ve killed someone. I want to scream. I fumble with my keys, and then shove the door open with my shoulder, once I’ve got them in the lock.

Paul and Rebecca are both in the kitchen. The smell of curry hits me in the face. I slam the front door shut. Actually I could murder an onion bhaji right now.

‘Mum,’ Rebecca says. ‘We weren’t expecting you home until later.’

‘I . . .’ I don’t know how to string the words together. ‘I’m sorry, but I had a bit of an accident.’

Paul gets down from his seat and rushes over to me. I hear his knife, or fork, clatter to the floor.

‘What happened?’ he says, his eyes looking me up and down. He’s searching for any sign I’m hurt.

‘It’s just . . . I’m fine, just a bit of pain in my neck, but I skidded off the road in the rain and hit a lamppost. No one else was involved.’

Paul pulls me in for a hug and I allow him to hold me tight.

‘Did no one else stop to see if you were okay?’ he asks anger in his voice. I know in his head he’ll be thinking that there were people nearby, who ignored me.

Rebecca’s standing in the hallway now, squeezing her hands together. Her forehead is creased.

‘No . . . the road was quiet. It was just a stupid mistake on my part.’

I’m not going to tell them I was already on my way back from the pub. They’ll want to know why I didn’t stay.

‘I can run you to A & E,’ Rebecca says, panic still in her voice. ‘You should see someone, Mum. You could be suffering from whiplash.’

‘No, I don’t fancy sitting for hours at the hospital. I’ll put an ice pack on the back of my neck, and I’ll be fine. It’s the car that’s worse off than me.’

‘I’ll go and take a look at it,’ Paul says.

I shake my head. ‘No leave it till the morning, it’s hammering out there. You’ll get soaked.’

He ignores me and heads straight to the door, but one look at the rain heaving down outside, and he closes it.

‘Yeah, perhaps you’re right. It can wait until the morning. Well, you can help yourself to some of my Indian. You need to eat something, you must be in shock,’ Paul says, holding his hand up to his forehead.

‘I don’t think I can stomach anything if I’m honest,’ I say, but I follow him in to the kitchen. ‘Well, I might pick at something in a minute.’

It’s the sofa I need. I collapse onto it, clutching the back of my neck.

William will still be in the pub with Kirsty. She has no idea. She has no idea what he’s really like, and she’s falling for him like I did all those years ago. I can’t let her repeat my mistakes.

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Character List:

Angela Watkins - Protagonist 

Paul Watkins - Angela's husband

Rebecca Watkins - Angela's daughter 

Michelle Blake - Angela's former best friend 

Kirsty - Receptionist (Angela's friend) 

Olivia - Angela's boss

William Harris - Angela's former friend 

Caroline (Caz) - Angela's friend 

Hayley - Angela's former friend

Lauren - Angela's former friend