‘Oh, my ladies will look after me.’ Ben smiled as he looked beyond Ellie to see the group of female residents returning. To Ellie they looked just as they had done a few moments ago. One of them carried a clear plastic tub containing a large fruit cake and the other had a tray with a teapot.
‘Here they come,’ Patrick said to Ellie in a low voice, ‘Charlie’s Angels…’
Ellie bit back a grin and smoothed her face into a professional smile.
‘All sorted?’
One of the women, with wild white hair, nodded vigorously. ‘Are you putting us in the story too?’
‘If you’d like to be,’ Ellie said.
They all murmured their enthusiastic agreement.
Ellie whipped a spiral-bound notepad and a pen from her satchel. ‘I’ll start by taking your names…’
White haired lady spoke first. ‘Annette Shufflebotham,’ she announced. ‘I called you yesterday,’ she added with obvious pride.
‘Thank you Annette, we do appreciate it,’ Ellie said amiably.
‘Sonia,’ a taller woman in her forties, with a bob so smooth you could almost mistake it for a crash-helmet put in. ‘Sonia Hurd – H-U-R-D. I live next door to Annette and I saw him out of the window too. I just didn’t phone the paper quite as quickly as she did.’
Ellie detected the faintest hint of competition as Sonia glanced across at her neighbour. Ellie looked inquiringly at the other two.
‘Janet Smith.’ She had a long, gaunt face and fluffy blonde hair pulled into a huge pony-tail – Sonia’s worst hair nightmare, Ellie imagined. Which just left a lady with a mousey, short-back-and-sides that any fifties barber would have been proud of.
‘Lena… I know, just like the singer,’ she laughed.
Ellie frowned and looked to Ben and Patrick for help but they seemed as lost as she was.
‘Never mind,’ Lena sighed. ‘Surname is Smith too… but Janet and I are not related in case you were wondering.’
‘Great,’ Ellie said as she scribbled the last name down. ‘Not great that you’re not related,’ she added quickly, looking up. ‘I mean that we have all that down.’ She turned her attention to Patrick. ‘Have you got to rush off anywhere? I could do the interviews after you’ve taken photos if you like?’
Patrick grinned a bit too enthusiastically for Ellie’s liking. ‘No, no, I have nowhere to be. I’ll just listen in if that’s alright with you.’ This was Patrick-speak for: I’m going to let you deal with these nutters and then laugh hysterically as soon as I get to the car.
Ellie tactfully avoided a reply and went back to her questioning. ‘So…’ she said to the assembled women, ‘what made you want to get involved? You saw Ben outside and what went through your minds?’
‘At first I wondered whether he was in some sort of trouble,’ Annette said. ‘You know, homeless or on drugs or something. But then I came out to see if he needed any of the emergency services and he told me that he didn’t want to move from the corner in case Gemma came back for him.’ She seemed to flush slightly at the memory. ‘It was such a lovely thing for a young man to do. Especially these days when the world is full of churlish unemployed thugs in their damned hooded sweaters.’
‘Technically I’m sort of unemployed now,’ Ben put in tentatively. ‘At least I don’t imagine my job will be there now as I haven’t turned in for my shifts.’
‘He does his best not to be churlish and thuggish though…’ Patrick grinned.
‘But you’re not the same,’ Annette said to Ben in a soothing tone. ‘You lost your job through no fault of your own.’
Ellie silently wondered whether his employers would agree with Annette’s view of the situation but she kept her opinions to herself.
‘I saw Ben through my window too, like I said before,’ Sonia put in. ‘Then Annette told me why he was there and, naturally, I wanted to help. It was me who drafted in Lena and Janet.’
The two women in question murmured agreement.
‘Why would you do this for a complete stranger?’ Ellie asked. Her professional curiosity was beginning to give way to something much more personal. She glanced at Ben as he watched the exchange with a placid and amiable expression. There was something undeniably attractive about him. Perhaps it was that little bit of the dreamer in her that recognised a fellow dreamer in him, the bit of her that she had always tried to stamp out for fear it would distract her from pursuing her career goals if she let it get a firm hold. He was good-looking, charming and likeable – she could see why a bunch of older women who looked to be settled into a rigid domestic routine might view him as a wildly exciting and romantic figure. Ellie was beginning to feel the attraction herself, but pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind. They were far too dangerous to think about for more than a second.
‘Men aren’t like Ben anymore,’ sighed Sonia as she looked fondly at him. Clearly she didn’t share any of Ellie’s concerns and was pondering the possibility of installing Ben at home in place of her own husband.
‘I know,’ agreed Annette with equal longing in her voice. ‘I can’t imagine my Geoff standing on a street corner waiting for me. If I left he’d be straight down the pub drinking himself stupid with the housekeeping.’
‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ Ben said modestly. ‘Loads of blokes would do this for the girl of their dreams.’
The collective sigh from the four women as they gazed at him with almost comically soppy expressions was loud enough to be heard in the next street.
‘Gemma’s a very lucky girl,’ Ellie commented, ignoring the lovelorn musings and trying hard to keep the cynicism and dislike for a girl she had never met out of her voice.
‘I think so too,’ Lena said. ‘I can’t believe she hasn’t come running already.’
‘We need to make more of a splash,’ Janet said with such conviction in her tone that it seemed she had never been more certain of anything in her entire life.
‘You mean more publicity?’ Lena asked.
Janet nodded vigorously, her ponytail flailing madly behind her.
‘We’re running another piece in the paper tomorrow,’ Ellie reminded her.
‘No offence, love, but we need something much bigger than the Echo for this story.’
Ellie frowned. ‘Are you suggesting it could go national?’ she asked doubtfully.
‘Of course it could! It’s nearly Valentine’s Day and this is a perfect story.’ Janet rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, I thought you were a reporter.’
Ellie bit back the offended retort that sprang into her mouth. ‘I am a reporter,’ she replied coldly. But perhaps going national wasn’t such a bad idea, she thought, as long as she could keep ownership of the scoop. The last thing she wanted was some slimy City tabloid boy claiming it. She began to wonder why the idea hadn’t occurred to her before. This was exactly the sort of story to set the internet on fire and get the big boys running to Millrise, as well as increasing her own profile. It couldn’t hurt to try.
Four
‘Full page, early right – you have been a busy girl.’ Ange tossed the first edition of the day’s Echo across the office to Ellie.
Ellie opened the paper and flicked through. ‘Page five. Brilliant.’ Her gaze ran quickly down the text and over the accompanying photos – one of Ben in an earnest, beseeching pose down on one knee holding his notice board, one with him, grinning, surrounded by his bevy of local guardians and another, smaller inset of the incomparable Gemma. Ellie was particularly proud of the headline:
THE MAN WHO CAN’T BE MOVED
‘Patrick’s photos are fab,’ Ellie commented graciously.
‘As always,’ Ange replied. ‘He’s wasted here.’
Ellie looked up. ‘Roll your tongue in; you’re drooling again. And Patrick is happily married.’
Ange grinned. ‘Just because you’re on a diet, it doesn’t mean you can’t look at the cakes.’
‘Look at the cake any harder and you’ll melt it into a pool of icing and mush.’
Ange let out a huge laugh as Ellie spread the paper across her desk to get a better look.
‘Ange…’ she began slowly as she read the page.
‘Ellie…’
‘Do you know anyone on the nationals who might be interested in this story?’
Ange appraised her colleague thoughtfully for a moment. ‘As your scoop?’
Ellie nodded.
‘I’m not sure. Vernon would, I expect.’
‘I think this story has some real mileage in it.’
Ange swung idly from side to side on her chair. ‘As long as the lovely Gemma doesn’t make a premature appearance and take him back to her bosom.’
Ellie glanced back at the paper. ‘That’s one hell of a bosom,’ she mused as she gazed at the photo of Ben’s ex-girlfriend. ‘You’d need a sturdy crowbar to prise him free from those.’
‘Fake, I’ll bet,’ Ange said as she ambled across to look over Ellie’s shoulder. ‘She obviously likes to show them off though – it’s a wonder she doesn’t get pneumonia in that top.’
Ellie laughed as she folded the paper up. ‘I’ll ask Vernon when he gets in… where is he this morning anyway?’
‘Football scandal. Some local player was discovered with the tube of a vacuum cleaner stuck in an orifice where vacuum cleaner tubes don’t belong. Vernon’s gone to see if he can get the player’s side of the story.’
Ellie winced. ‘That’s not going to end well, is it?’
‘Nope. I keep telling him that he doesn’t need to go out on stories now he’s editor but you know, once a journo, always a journo. Last time he went out on a job like this he came back with a black eye.’ Ange grinned. ‘I’ve already been out to Tesco and picked up some steak, a tub of Vaseline and a bottle of whiskey so we’re covered for any eventuality.’
‘And that’s why you’re such a great colleague,’ Ellie laughed.
Ange nodded with mock solemnity. ‘Every office should have a me.’
‘I suppose I should check that Gemma Fox hasn’t stolen my scoop away in the night, shouldn’t I?’ Ellie said, reaching for her satchel. ‘I’m guessing Vernon will be missing for some time yet so I might as well nip out.’
‘You might as well, my dear. If Romeo is still out there, give his pert bottom a squeeze from me, won’t you?’
‘You’re so disgusting,’ Ellie laughed.
‘I know. But when you get to my age you stop caring about it.’
Ellie flung her satchel onto the passenger seat of her car and climbed in. As she always did, she fished around and pulled out her mobile phone, leaving it on the seat for ease of access. Ellie couldn’t bear to miss a single call, even whilst driving – after all, that call might be the story that would change her career. Besides which, with the way her aunt was fading daily and her mum increasingly unable to cope, Ellie needed to be on standby for them too.
She was just about to start the engine when her phone screen flashed up a name.
KASUMI
Ellie snatched it back from the seat. ‘Hey, Kas! Long time no hear. I thought that boyfriend of yours had locked you in a dungeon somewhere.’
There was a musical laugh from the other end of the line. ‘He tried but we lost the gimp suit and it all seemed so pointless after that.’
Ellie grinned. ‘Still enjoying life in the Big Smoke?’
‘It’s unbelievable here,’ Kasumi replied in a dreamy voice. ‘There’s so much going on and so many opportunities… you should move down, it’s not too late, you know. I’m sure I could put in a word at the station. You go on about how much you love the newspaper, but TV is where it’s at, my lovely little friend. Anyway, Jethro says you’re coming down to see us soon.’
‘Not just yet. But as soon as I can.’ Ellie’s mind flitted briefly to the hundreds of reasons why she couldn’t leave Millrise in the immediate future and all of them seemed to be problems without resolution.
‘That’s good, because the station is sending me to Florida on location next week so I won’t be around.’
‘Ooh! Sounds gorgeous.’
‘It’s for a travel programme on the kids’ channel. I have to fly out with a load of brats, though, so there is a price to pay for this glamorous life.’
Ellie checked her watch. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be at work?’
‘Catherine just left the office to go on a location scout and I was bored.’
‘Honestly, I don’t know how you get away with it.’
‘Charm, my dear,’ Kasumi purred. ‘Pure and simple.’
‘Sadly, I am bereft of the kind of charm that lets me run circles around my boss, and I have a story to get to so, fun as this has been, I really need to get on. Shall I call you later? You can tell me all about which type of waxing you’ve had done for Florida.’
‘Perfect. See ya, sexy.’
Ellie couldn’t help grinning down the phone. She could just picture her friend’s perfectly formed lips in a mocking pout, her dark, almond shaped eyes – keen and fiercely intelligent – shining with mischief. At university, Kasumi was the girl whom every boy wanted to date (including Jethro, Ellie suspected, though he knew better than to try) but her proud beauty and razor sharp wit somehow made her too terrifying to ask. Once she had arrived in London where beauty like hers was on every street corner, it became diluted to something less remarkable. But to Ellie she would always be Kas, the girl who loved nothing better than to get drunk with her on Stella Artois and play pointless board games until they both fell asleep across one another. Life had seemed so much simpler then.
‘See you later, Kas,’ she replied, barely able to keep the wistful sigh at bay.
When Ellie arrived at Constance Street she was relieved to find Ben still in what had now become his spot, flanked by his four angels.
He greeted Ellie with a broad smile.
‘Here she is, my favourite reporter.’
‘How many do you know?’ Ellie asked with a wry smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
‘Just you,’ Ben said airily. ‘But if I knew any more, you’d still be my favourite.’
Lena whipped out a coffee pot, seemingly from nowhere, and held it up to Ellie.
‘I’ve just made coffee if you’d like one.’
Ellie dragged a hand through her hair. ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘That sounds lovely.’
As Lena turned her attention to a makeshift little kitchen set up on the pavement, Ben shot Ellie a quick glance and mouthed something that she couldn’t quite make out, holding his own mug slightly aloft. Before Ellie could make sense of it, Lena had presented her with a steaming drink.
‘Thanks.’ Ellie took the mug and sipped. It was warm and comforting in her hands, but as soon as she tasted it she realised that Ben’s signal had been a warning. It was undoubtedly the foulest cup of coffee Ellie had ever had the misfortune to be handed, and now she would have to drink it if she wasn’t going to offend Lena. With a barely perceptible grimace, she placed the mug on the ground and hoped that if she kept everyone talking long enough they might not notice she had left without finishing it.
‘No sign of Gemma then?’ Ellie asked.
Ben shook his head, the carefree charm he usually wore so well replaced with the look of melancholy that the mention of Gemma’s absence always seemed to elicit in him. He put down his own mug and folded his arms across his chest, as if he was trying to hug his heart. The gesture showed a vulnerability that pulled at some deep emotion in Ellie, something so hidden she had yet to name it. She felt the strangest urge to throw her own arms around him as if, perhaps, their combined power could somehow mend what he could not do alone.
‘Have you considered that she won’t come back to you, no matter what you do?’ Ellie asked gently.
‘Of course she will,’ a voice cut in.
Ellie spun around to see that Sonia was red-faced and her nostrils were flaring in a vaguely disturbing manner. ‘What kind of idiot woman would leave him sitting here forever?’
Ellie privately thought that Ben was as much of an idiot for thinking that sitting on a street corner would bring Gemma running, but she resisted the impulse to say so to Sonia.
‘Someone has to be practical.’
‘You just cover the story, lovie, and we’ll worry about whether Gemma comes back,’ Sonia said.
Lena bent down to retrieve Ellie’s cup and clasped her hands around it. ‘It’s already getting cold – best to drink it up,’ she interrupted in an effort to soothe the conversation.
Ellie tried to give a grateful smile as she took the mug and gulped back as much as she could manage in one go. ‘What did you think of today’s spread?’ she asked, glancing at each of the group in turn.
‘Not big enough,’ Janet said.
Ellie raised her eyebrows.
‘It did have some lovely photos,’ Lena added. ‘I offered to go to Gemma’s house and take a copy of the paper but Ben didn’t want me to.’
‘I didn’t think it would be such a good idea,’ Ben said. ‘The plan is to stay here and wait for her to come. If Lena had gone there Gemma would have shut the door in her face and refused to listen.’
Ellie frowned. She had never heard such misguided logic in her entire life. ‘She’s really that stubborn?’
‘No… well, yes. I just don’t think she would have appreciated a strange woman turning up on my behalf.’
‘But if Lena had come directly from you…’ Ellie frowned.
Ben sighed. ‘I’m not really explaining myself very well.’
‘I’m afraid you’re not,’ Ellie replied before swigging back the rest of her coffee and handing the cup to Lena with a forced smile.
‘I took Gemma for granted,’ Ben said patiently. ‘That’s why she left me. If I’m going to show her that I can change, then I have to make amends in a way that shows her just how much I care. Like I said before, if it’s not tough, then it’s no proof at all. So I can’t have a third party going to fetch her on my behalf. I have to wait and she has to come – it’s that simple.’
Worth Waiting For: A heart-warming and feel-good romantic comedy Page 5