The Red Dress chapter thirty one

    









      Lisa sat on the bed, dry-eyed, staring straight ahead. Now she believed it was over. There was no doubt in her mind that Alan was back with Carla.
 
     She thought he was a coward letting her find out this way, but at least now she knew. Lisa thought desperately about how she was going to fill the huge void she felt inside. She could think of nothing. 'Nobody' she had replied to Carla. She was a nobody with nothing to look forward to, and her heart was in that horrible place where you don’t know whether to cry or laugh at your own stupidity.
 
     She wanted to do something to signify the end of their love, rip up a picture, tear up a letter, delete an email, anything that had bound them together, but there wasn't anything to link them. There had only been their love.
 
     The only evidence of their short love affair was the return ticket to Chelmsford, which she took out of her bag and ripped in two, but even then she couldn't throw it away because it was her only proof of them ever having been together. She thought of the bottle of Jean Paul Gautier perfume he had given her, and remembered how she had left it under the duvet on her side of his bed, hoping he would find it and be reminded of her on their first night apart.
 
     All that remained was the two halves of a train ticket, which lay on the bed like her heart. ripped in two.
 
 
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     Carla was annoyed by the phone call. She tried to retrieve the number, but it must have been ex-directory because Alan’s mobile didn't have the number stored. It was the same with the missed call while she was in the bath. She put the phone back on Alan's dressing table, and exhaustedly climbed into bed.
 
 
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     Lisa's new friends spent the weekend trying to cheer her up. They believed that her sadness was all in some way connected to Nick and the letter. Even although they’d decided to contact Nick, they were still unsure of how they could do it without disclosing how they’d found out his number.
 
     As they spent the weekend trying to come up with a plan, Lisa slipped deeper and deeper into her depression. She still, in her heart of hearts, couldn't believe it was over. She still couldn’t accept that Alan didn't love her, even though the evidence was apparently staring her in the face. She had been so sure that he did. The thought of living without him was more than she could possibly bear. For the first time since she’d left Dunoon, she appreciated what Nick must have gone through when she ran off, and she felt the weight of guilt at having treated him so badly sit heavily on her shoulders. If he had felt half as bad as she did now, he must have gone through hell. In exactly the same way as Alan had cut her off without a word, so she had done to Nick, selfishly believing that her love for Alan was more important than anything else.
 
     Lisa decided that it was only right that she should suffer now in a similar way. It was obviously some kind of divine retribution that she should. She started to wish she hadn't ripped up his letter. It was a callous and uncaring thing to do…
 
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     Teddy had phoned her brother who was a reporter with the Daily Mail, and he'd confirmed that there was a guy in the Isle of Man called Nick Corday, who was not only in his early thirties and very well off, but very newsworthy too.
 
     “What's the story, Teddy? I could do with some inside information on this guy. In fact, I'm desperate for anything you can tell me. His company is mentioned a lot in press just now. Apparently it's about to go public, and he's one of the youngest multi-millionaires in The Isle of Man. Everyone's trying to dig up his past, but he doesn't appear to have one- so if you can tell me anything about him, you would be giving me a great story.”
 
Teddy laughed at her brother's enthusiasm.
 
     “Hold your horses, Dan! We don't even know if this is definitely the guy yet. I'll get back to you if it turns out that it is.”
 
Dan pointed out that there couldn't be more than one Nick in their early thirties who lived in the Isle of Man and was stinking rich. Teddy agreed, but she couldn't discuss anything with her brother until she had spoken to the others. She promised to get back to him as soon as she could.
 
     Yet again, Amy was picked to try and get more information out of Lisa, including Nick's surname. She'd tried bringing the subject up several times, but she seemed to be getting nowhere. The more she saw Lisa, the more concerned she became about her. She had lost a lot of weight since she'd arrived two weeks before, and she was beginning to look ill. She had dark circles under her eyes which proved that not only was she not eating, but she wasn’t sleeping either.
 
     Amy got the others together to update them and see what they thought. Chloe suggested that she might be bulimic because she'd heard her being sick two mornings in a row, but Linda said that was rubbish.
 
     “You have to eat something first to make yourself sick if you're bulimic. Lisa's hardly been down to breakfast since she arrived.”
 
The news about Lisa being sick in the morning made the rest of them jump to conclusions.
 
     “Christ, you don't think she's pregnant, do you?” suggested Linda, imagining the trouble Lisa would be in, if she was.
 
Amy shook her head and confirmed that she had seen an opened packet of Tampax in Lisa's bedroom the day before. She knew, because she had helped Lisa unpack, it had been unopened when she arrived. Everyone was relieved, and they all finally agreed that they were correct. Nick must definitely be the root of Lisa's problems. Yet again, Amy was given the impossible task of trying to get Lisa to talk.
 
     She went into her room the following Saturday and asked her if she wanted to go down to the local shop, but Lisa didn't want to come. Amy eventually lost her temper.
 
     “You know, you really are turning out to be a real pain in the ass, Lisa.” she snapped, ready to give up trying to help her.
 
Lisa looked back at her and felt hurt. Since she'd arrived at the school, Amy had always been so nice to her. The look on Amy's face proved that she'd had enough and was now seriously pissed off with her. Lisa realized she had been so preoccupied by her grief that she'd taken everyone's patience for granted. She looked back at Amy apologetically.
 
     “I'm sorry I've been so pathetic, Amy. It's hard to explain, but I've had a lot on my mind since I got here. I haven't felt that I can talk about it. It's really complicated...”
 
Amy looked at Lisa sympathetically, and put her arm around her. If nothing else, she sensed that Lisa needed to confide in someone. She just hoped it was her.
 
     “Try me.”
 
Lisa wanted to tell her about Alan, but what was the point? He had loved her, now he didn't.
 
      “I loved someone very much, but I've found out that he doesn't love me anymore- and I just can't get over him,” she said, as the tears started travelling down her cheeks again.
 
Amy automatically assumed Lisa was referring to Nick, and just wished that she'd read his letter.
 
     “How do you know this guy doesn't love you?” Amy asked.
 
Lisa laughed sarcastically.
 
     “Oh, believe me- I know!”
 
Amy pretended she didn't know who Lisa was referring to, still believing it was Nick.
 
    “But how do you know? Perhaps you’ve got it all wrong. Perhaps you're sitting here crying when he's desperately trying to get hold of you.”
 
Of course, Lisa immediately thought of Alan, and a sad smile came to her face with the thought. Seeing that what she had just said seemed to cheer Lisa up, Amy carried on.
 
     “What would you do if this guy suddenly turned up and told you how much he loved you?" She asked.
 
Lisa closed her eyes and imagined Alan holding her in his arms doing just that. “I would be the happiest person in the world, Amy. It would be the answer to all my prayers.”
 
Satisfied that she had got the answer she wanted, Amy stood up and told Lisa not to worry. Everything would work itself out…
  
     Amy couldn't wait to get back and tell the others. Everything was beginning to fit into place. Lisa obviously didn't know Nick had forgiven her for whatever had happened and was still madly in love with her. She must have ripped up the letter because she was convinced he wouldn't give her a second chance, and she couldn't cope with his rejection. Only they knew different, so their decision to contact Nick was definitely a good one. They were all amazed that such a wonderful love story was actually going on in their own school.
 
Veronique had been quiet up until then.
 
     “And how do we know that this Nick is not ugly?”
 
They all looked at her and told her to be quiet. They were sure Lisa wouldn't have got engaged to someone who was less than perfect. It didn't bear thinking about. Anyway, she had told Amy that he was good-looking.
 
Veronique still wasn't convinced.
 
     “Well, I am still nervous. This man must have something wrong with him, or why has Lisa not, how you say, engaged herself to him?”
 
Nobody was certain about the answer to that, but most of them were convinced it was because Lisa hardly knew him, and she didn't know how much he loved her. Veronique came up with another suggestion.
 
     “What if there is somebody else- we might have the wrong man.”
 
Amy said she had thought about that, and there had been loads of times Lisa could have mentioned it if there was.
 
     They were totally convinced that Nick was the reason for Lisa's unhappiness, and they all agreed to put their plan of action into place, naively thinking that they knew all the facts.
 
     As usual, being the one closest to Lisa, Amy was picked for the first part of the plan…