Chasing Clouds

by Annabelle Knight

  “Well you’ll just have to tell him, I guess,” Elodie said, thoughtfully picking up the remaining glass from the side and filling it to the brim. “Tell him it’s not him, it’s you.”

  “But it is him,” Carla said.

  “I know that, you know that, but do you really want him to know that?”

  Carla grabbed the glass straight from Elodie’s hands and drank deeply. She handed it back with about an inch left in the bottom.

  “Thanks,” Elodie said sarcastically. Carla took out her phone from her back pocket and began to scroll. “You’re not texting him are you?”

  “God, no. I’m going to leave a message, he’ll be on the tube now so it’ll be safe to call. You watch, it’ll go straight to voicemail.”

  Elodie marvelled at Carla’s practised hand. Chris wasn’t the first bloke Carla had kicked to the kerb and she doubted very much that he would be the last.

  Chris had left Carla’s flat feeling on top of the world; he had intended on going straight home but on his way to the tube station he passed a lovely little flower shop. He popped in, just to have a look and ended up buying an extravagant and expensive bunch of flowers, which he decided to drop off to her straightaway and, flowers in hand, strolled back the way he came and towards Carla’s flat. His phone rang in his pocket; switching the flowers to his other hand, he delved into his pocket and retrieved his phone. Carla’s name and a picture of her sleeping that she didn’t know had been taken, flashed up on his screen. Chris smiled; evidently she was as smitten with him as he was with her. He struggled to set the flowers down and in his laboured attempt to relieve himself of them left it too long to answer the call. He tried phoning back but it was engaged. ‘She must be leaving me a voicemail,’ he mused, excited to listen to it. Sure enough, a notification popped up: one new voicemail. He listened, his face contorting as each second ticked by. Chris had heard these lines before: “It’s not you, it’s me,” “You’re a great guy,” “Anyone would be lucky to have you.” He hung up and looked from his phone to the flowers and back again.

  “Here you go mate, for the special lady in your life,” Chris pushed the flowers into the hands of an unsuspecting passerby. The guy looked at Chris then the flowers and finally back up again, but it was too late. Chris had spun on his heel and marched off in the opposite direction, his tail firmly between his legs.

  Carla let out a long groan and ran her fingers through her unruly hair.

  “I need a drink,” she said in a matter- of- fact way.

  Elodie went to pour her another glass of bubbles.

  “No, a proper drink, a cocktail or something. Somewhere different, though, I don’t want to see a single person I know. Oh, come on… let’s go and put the ‘sin’ in ‘single’ for the night.”

  Elodie wanted to correct her, to tell her that she wasn’t exactly single but thought better of it. Elodie scratched head her head for a moment, trying to think of the perfect place to take her.

  “I know just the place.” She said confidently. Aaron had shown her a gorgeous- looking cocktail bar on their date, it wasn’t too far and considering Elodie had had no idea that it existed until Aaron pointed it out thought the chances of bumping into someone Carla knew to be very remote.

  “OK, let’s go,” Elodie said, handing Carla her cake. “Sustenance for the journey,” she added jokingly.

  Aaron had decided that he was in desperate need of a drink. He couldn’t fathom what had gone wrong between him and Elodie; he was mad about her and despite his best efforts to make amends she still wasn’t giving him the time of day. Usually, when he was at odds with the world he took himself off to take pictures, he had tried this tactic today but to no avail. Every image he shot was either out of focus, over- exposed or just plain boring. No, he had decided that for some problems in life only hard liquor would do.

  He turned the corner towards his favourite bar and quickened his pace as in front of him stood an angry- looking guy, well over six feet in height and extremely well built. The only thing that softened his appearance was the presence of a giant bunch of flowers, which judging by the way he was looking at them had wronged him in some way. Aaron lowered his gaze and tried to make his way past without making eye contact. Before he knew it the guy had mumbled something about a special lady and had pushed the flowers at him. Aaron had been so shocked he hadn’t reacted straight away and when he did finally gather his wits the guy had gone, leaving Aaron with a massive bunch of flowers that he’d got no clue what to do with. He decided not to waste them: after all, he did have one special lady in his life who would love a bouquet like this one. She would have to wait until the next day, though. Aaron smiled as he looked at the flowers: she was going to love them.

  “El, this place is great. How come we’ve never been here before?” Carla asked as they stepped into The Cocktail Club. It was a relaxed sort of bar, lots of soft furnishings, ambient lighting and comfy seating. They found a small, private booth at the back of the bar and sat down. The waiter signalled to them that he would be over in a minute.

  “Oooh, what to have? Everything looks so good.” Elodie cooed as she opened the menu. She remembered Aaron telling her that one specific cocktail was the best in town but couldn’t for the life of her remember which cocktail it was.

  “I’m having an Old Fashioned,” Carla said decisively. The waiter came over and took their order as Elodie found herself a little overwhelmed by all the cocktails, so she opted for a Pinot Grigio Blush. She thought she saw a side- eye of judgement from the waiter so changed her order to a Cosmopolitan instead. She didn’t want to come across as ignorant to the ways of the very exclusive cocktail club.

  The two friends sat there for a while, sipping their drinks and entertaining one another with tales of their failed relationships. They laughed a lot, so much so that Elodie didn’t notice that a familiar face had slipped in through the front door. They drank drink after drink and before long Elodie found herself to be quite tipsy and in need of the toilet. She excused herself and made her way to the bathroom. The moment before Elodie put her hand on the door to the ladies’ room she noticed him, sat at the bar alone with an utterly huge bouquet of flowers. He was obviously waiting for someone. She felt herself physically stammer: she was trapped. She dived into the ladies’ room with such a clamour that she made a woman towelling off her hands jump. Elodie apologised with a weak smile and locked herself in the nearest cubicle, her heart racing. Within a few moments, she had gone from panicked little girl to angry grown woman. Aaron was clearly on a date and all of this ‘Please hear me out’ bullshit was just that… bullshit. Elodie’s stomach roiled as the realisation that Grace would be joining him any moment and that she, Elodie, would have to navigate the gauntlet that was the bar, in order to get past them. The thought of that made her palms sweat. What would Grace think? That she had followed Aaron here? Or worse, that he had met her beforehand? At least she had Carla for backup. Elodie washed her hands and gave herself a good long look in the mirror. Steeling herself for battle, she took a deep breath and went back to join Carla.

  “Why do you look like that? Someone push you out of the way of the hand drier?” Carla giggled. She had ordered another round of drinks and slid Elodie’s towards her. “Here, get this down you, it should cheer you up a bit.”

  Elodie pushed the glass back and pointed over her shoulder. Carla peered behind her and, with a puzzled expression mouthed ‘What?’ at her.

  “That right there is Aaron, you see the guy with the massive bunch of flowers. He’s clearly on a date, probably with Grace and if we don’t make a move now it’ll be so horrible. Please, can we just go? I’ll pay you back for the drinks.”

  “You won’t need to. Come on, down in one for a bit of courage,” said Carla.

  Elodie looked at Carla and shook her head. “I don’t need courage, I need to get home.”

  They collected their belongings in the mo
st inconspicuous way that two tipsy people can and made their way to leave, Carla in front and Elodie bringing up the rear. They had just passed the halfway point when Elodie felt her phone go off. She paused, unable to resist the pull of an unanswered message. In that split- second, as if Aaron could sense she was behind him, he turned around. Their eyes met and Elodie felt like right now would be the perfect time for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

  “Elodie?” Aaron said, looking around. “What are you doing here?”

  Elodie couldn’t look at him; her gaze was fixed on the flowers. She needed to leave and she needed to leave now.

  “I’m sorry…” was all she could manage, although quite what she was sorry for she couldn’t say.

  “Have a drink with me?” Aaron asked. Elodie looked at him unsure as to whether this was a joke or not.

  “What? So I can get into even more trouble with Grace, or one of the other girls you’ve been seeing behind her back?” she said, suddenly finding that any air of apology had gone from her voice.

  “You’re so stubborn and hot- headed,” Aaron said, sighing and sitting back down. “I’m not with Grace, never have been. I don’t know about any other girls. I’m as single as you can get and I thought you were too.”

  “I was single,” Elodie replied haughtily. “It’s not my fault someone else showed an interest after you messed me about.” She had no idea how, but for some reason Aaron was managing to turn this all back on her.

  “Why won’t you listen to me? I’m not with anyone! Hell, up until you I hadn’t been interested in a girl for years. You’re special, Elodie. I don’t know where you’ve got all this from, but it’s simply not true. Please, even if it’s too late for us, you’ve got to believe me. I know you felt it too… that night in the park… that was something else.”

  Elodie looked at him. ‘Oh, he’s good,’ she thought to herself.

  “I’ve been told by someone who knows you, who knows both of you, I don’t understand why you just can’t admit it. We had one date, one mediocre date.” The lie hurt her a little but not enough to feel bad about it even when she saw the look of dismay on Aaron’s face. He ran his fingers through his sandy coloured hair and let out a low sigh.

  “Who?” he asked bluntly, “If I’m going to be painted as a cheat then I want to know who’s holding the brush.”

  “Chase,” Elodie said curtly. “He told me, said it was not so much of a girlfriend situation, more like girlfriends.” Aaron looked at her blankly.

  “Chase?” he sputtered. “I… honestly, I genuinely don’t know the guy. We’ve never even spoken. That’s not to say I don’t know who he is, or what he is, for that matter. Look, Elodie you’ve got it all wrong…”

  Elodie had heard enough. Chase seemed to be a good guy who had been nothing but nice to her. He’d made time for her even when his schedule was busy, he’d missed her when he hadn’t been able to see her and, more than anything, Elodie had a gut feeling that told her he was a good guy; maybe a little damaged, but a good guy nonetheless.

  “Everything alright?” Carla said, reappearing from outside. Elodie nodded. For some reason, she felt hot tears threaten to spill and wanted to get out as quickly as she could. She gave Aaron a hurt, crestfallen look and allowed Carla to take her by the arm and escort her gently out.

  “He’s such a liar,” Elodie managed when they were out on the street. Carla gave her an understanding nod.

  “Don’t worry, El, he’s not worth it. Come on, let’s go home, unless you want to go somewhere else?” Elodie shook her head, the idea of carrying on their evening in high spirits seemed impossible now. All she wanted to do was to go.

  When she arrived home Steph was on the doorstep. Carla had clearly called for backup.

  “Are you alright?” Steph asked, as Carla opened the door to let them in.

  Elodie nodded then relayed the entire story again. Carla, who had sat through the actual event and then listened to a blow- by- blow account in the taxi on the way home, could do nothing but sit through the saga again. Steph listened intently and then, when Elodie was finished, said something that Elodie did not expect.

  “Are you sure you don’t like him? You seem to get so wound up by him, yet you can’t just forget about it. Maybe you like him more than you’ll allow yourself to believe?”

  Elodie protested: she most certainly did not like Aaron. He was a lying, two- timing scumbag who, if Elodie had her own way, would leave her alone for good now. Elodie managed to divert the conversation momentarily by opening up a bottle of wine in an effort to tempt Carla and Steph away from asking awkward questions about Chase. Each and every time anything the subject came back up, Elodie would take a drink and by the end of the night, as she put herself to bed, she realised that she was really rather drunk.

  Elodie lifted one heavy- lidded eye and peered towards her phone. Thank God it was a Sunday and thank God she didn’t need to go to work. She had never been much of a drinker, but somehow the single life went hand in hand with a glass of wine, or four. Elodie had managed to put away a fair amount of booze the previous evening, so much so that she had almost forgotten her exchange with Aaron… almost.

  “Ugh,” she groaned as a drink- induced headache thudded behind her eyes. Elodie was eternally grateful not to have downed that last drink. She reached for her phone, which she had forgotten to put on charge. She had less than three per cent battery left, two missed calls and one text message, all from Chase. In spite of her fragile state, her heart soared: she’d known all along that it wouldn’t be long before he was back in touch. He hadn’t left her a voicemail and his text message simply read.

  Are you alright? Call me. X

  Absentmindedly chewing a piece of buttered toast and staring at her phone screen, her thumb hovered above the call button as her mind wandered, wondering exactly what it was that Chase would say to her. She had a good feeling about this, but she wanted to make sure she had all her faculties in order before she phoned him back. After several long minutes and a little pep talk to herself, she pressed call and brought the phone up to her ear.

  “Elodie, what’s going on?” he said, answering on the fourth ring. His voice seemed tense.

  “Nothing, just returning your call,” she replied.

  “You rang me in the dead of night four times and left an incoherent voice message. I thought something had happened,” Chase said, annoyance creeping into his voice.

  It was at that precise moment that Elodie remembered, well kind of. She had a vague recollection of dialling his number, several times. She didn’t remember leaving a voicemail, but she must have done. She felt foolish but also strangely happy, Chase had called her back, and more to the point had been worried. That had to mean something.

  “I’m so sorry,” Elodie managed. “I hope I didn’t worry you.”

  “It’s fine, as long as you’re alright.”

  Elodie told him that she was and that she had been out with Carla, she didn’t know why but she found that she was relaying the story of what had happened with Aaron. Chase didn’t say an awful lot. ‘He’s such a great listener,’ Elodie thought to herself.

  “So, when can I see you again?” Elodie asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant voice.

  “Ahh, I’m sorry babe, my schedule’s packed. I’ve only got Saturday evening free and I said I’d meet some friends for dinner.”

  “I’m free, I could come with you? It’d be nice to meet your friends,” Elodie said, the words slipping from her lips as though she had no control over them.

  She was met with silence. Chase breathed heavily down the phone before finally adding:

  “Sure, that’d be good. We’re meeting at Noho. The table’s booked for eight pm.” Once the conversation was over. She hung up feeling pretty good about herself; thinking that maybe on the odd occasion drunk- dialling was a good thing. Not only had they got a
date fixed in the diary, she was being introduced to his friends too. To say she was excited would be an understatement.

  Chapter 16

  Elodie’s phone buzzed, and a message popped up telling her that her car was only a few minutes away. She had wanted to arrive in style, so had booked one of the cars through work. She studied her reflection in the mirror. She had gone for an understated look for Chase’s friends, hoping that it exuded maturity beyond her years. She wore a loose- fitting dress, low- slung heels and her hair in a relaxed ponytail. She knew that they were older than her and she didn’t want to come across as immature for him, so it was important to get everything right, even down to what she wore. Fingers shaking slightly, she zipped up her overnight bag; she figured that if she were important enough to meet his friends, she’d almost certainly be asked to stay the night. She didn’t want to be ill- prepared for that eventuality.

  Elodie was happy to see that it was Mr Bosford who was behind the wheel of the black Mercedes waiting outside the flat.

  “I didn’t expect to see you,” Elodie said questioningly, giving him a warm smile.

  “Well, when they put the call out how could I refuse?” he replied.

  Elodie got in and fastened her seatbelt.

  “Thanks,” she replied gratefully.

  “So you and the pilot, then: a proper thing?” Mr Bosford said, with fatherly concern.

  Elodie looked at him, a little stunned. She didn’t know if she really wanted to have this conversation with Mr Bosford, of all people.

  “Errr… I guess so,” Elodie began. “I mean, yeah, I’m meeting his friends tonight.”

  “Excited?” he asked, not taking his eyes from the road ahead.

  “Anxious more like, I want them to like me,” she replied, twisting a lock of hair around her finger nervously.

  “Course they will, you’re a lovely lass. Just be yourself and relax. You can’t do more than that now, can you?”