by Julie Caplin
‘No, which is a shame because she’s an absolute doll.’
‘Really? Formidable was my impression.’
‘Yeah but in a good way. She thought I’d been leading her baby on.’
Sophie spluttered on her coffee at the thought of the strapping Wes being described as a baby.
‘She dotes on him … except when he’s being an idiot.’
‘And what did he say about her coming to see you?’
Bella’s eyes sparkled with sudden glee. ‘I haven’t seen him for the last week or so. Deliberately. I had the girls on the counter on early-warning system. Every time he’s been in, I’ve sneaked out the back. Dessie suggested that I’ve been making it too easy for him. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.’
‘Interesting strategy,’ said Sophie, immediately thinking about James. Absence had given her a much clearer head.
‘Always brings them to their knees,’ said Bella with strident confidence. ‘Or at least that’s what Dessie says. And she should know. She’s a marriage counsellor, at least that’s what she told me. I could have sworn Wes said a while back his mother was a teacher. Maybe I got that wrong.’
Bella’s iPhone suddenly beeped.
‘Oh … sh—’
‘Looks like you can ask him yourself,’ said Sophie, amused by the panic-stricken expression on her friend’s face.
‘No. Oh. I don’t want …’ Bella’s confidence had vanished and she’d paled. ‘What do I say to him? He’s going to be furious I talked to his mother.’
‘Bellllaaa.’
She sank into her seat. Sophie rose. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
Back in the kitchen, Sophie carried on working on the cake and wondering how Todd was getting on. He’d promised to text her later but her phone remained resolutely silent. When she reached a point where she could do no more without Bella, she realised that an hour had elapsed. When she went back into the café, there was no sign of her.
‘She went out with Wes,’ explained one of the girls serving coffee. ‘Said she’d be back later.’
In the end, Sophie heard from Bella long before Todd, a brief text apologising for running out on her. At an unexpected loose end, Sophie had taken her laundry for a service wash, scooping up Todd’s clothes that had amassed during the week, which he’d tossed into her basket. There hadn’t been any awkwardness about those domestic details. Since the first week he’d stayed over when he’d brought his toothbrush and shaving kit over, they’d taken up residence in the bathroom with seamless ease, even though every night he asked if it was OK if he stayed over.
As she wandered through the bustling neighbourhood, she marvelled at how at home she felt now compared to when she’d first arrived. A couple of faces were even familiar.
She decided to head for Union Street to an interesting supermarket she’d passed a couple of times on her morning run with Todd, enjoying the Saturday-afternoon buzz of people going about their business. After loading up her groceries, wishing that Todd was with her to help carry them home, she headed back towards the apartment. Tonight, she’d cook him one of the pasta recipes that Mario had given her. It was still too hot to be cooking Yorkshire puddings, despite his daily request every time she asked him what he fancied eating.
When she arrived home, unloading the shopping, she checked her phone again. Still no word from Todd. She sent him a quick text.
For the rest of the afternoon she sat out on the deck with a book, her phone beside her. When she heard the knock at the door, it was a relief and she raced to the door, but it wasn’t Todd.
‘Hi, can I come in?’ asked Bella.
‘Sure, how’s Wes? You ran out on me.’ Bella followed her into the apartment.
‘He wanted to talk.’
‘Absence made the heart grow fonder?’ Sophie opened the fridge.
‘After being thoroughly pissed, yes,’ said Bella with a triumphant smirk.
‘And? Do you want a cold drink?’
‘Progress. We’re going on a proper date on Friday. I’d love a glass of water.’
Bella stayed a while, thanking her for helping with the cake. ‘If you can spare any time tomorrow, that would be cool. I need to deliver it next week but if I know it’s finished this week, it’ll take off the pressure.’
‘And Cinders can go out on Friday,’ teased Sophie.
‘Well, there is that.’ Bella winked. ‘Although, I’m starting to get nervous already. What the heck am I going to wear?’
‘Clothes?’
‘Very funny. You heard from Todd? How’s Marty?’
‘No word yet.’
There was no word for the rest of the day. Eventually, having watched wall-to-wall rubbish on the television all evening, constantly checking her phone, Sophie went to bed.
Chapter 26
‘Great job, Sophie.’ Trudy nodded down the table as they wrapped up the meeting for the January edition. How had that happened? Suddenly her time here was racing by. It was September this week.
As soon as she left the meeting room, she spotted Todd at his desk, lounging back in his chair, his feet on the desktop, talking into the phone. Her stomach clenched at the sight of him as a sudden punch of longing hit her. Ridiculous. How could she miss him after two nights? She hadn’t heard a word from him since Saturday morning and almost hadn’t expected to see him at work this morning. Things must have been bad at his parents’, but she was dying to know if Marty was alright.
‘That would be great, Amy. What time? Eight? Why don’t we do six-thirty Amy, then we could do dinner afterwards.’ Cradling the phone under his chin, he looked up and gave her a casual wave. ‘Now Amy, don’t go putting ideas in my head.’ He laughed, not looking at Sophie.
With a flicker of anger she approached her desk, suddenly aware that her hands had tightened into fists. It wasn’t jealousy, she told herself. Flirting was like breathing to him. She narrowed her eyes, no she wasn’t jealous but she was mildly pissed off that he hadn’t let her know what had happened with Marty and his parents. Perhaps he was too upset to talk about it. She studied his face. Yes, there were tiny lines around his eyes. He looked tired. Strained.
‘Cheers Amy. See you later.’ He put the phone down. ‘Hey English, how are you?’
She raised an eyebrow, not taken in for a minute by the studied casualness. ‘I’m fine, how are you?’
‘I’m good.’
‘Good. Great … And Amy. Good to see you haven’t forgotten her name.’
Todd’s mouth straightened in a mutinous line. Did she sound like a jealous girlfriend? He hadn’t made any promises but over the last few weeks, the calls had dried up. Determined to be pleasant, she asked, ‘And Marty?’
He frowned and slid his shoes from the desk, pulling his laptop towards him.
‘Todd?’ Sophie wasn’t about to let go.
‘Just leave it, Sophie.’
‘Leave it?’ Now she was puzzled.
‘I’ve got a lot of work to get done today. I need to get my head down.’
She took a step back, feeling as if he’d punched her. ‘Right.’
Clearly the weekend had been far worse than he wanted to let on. Knowing how close he was to Marty, she turned on her laptop and engrossed herself in work as best she could.
At lunchtime she looked up. Todd had been working hard, typing away. He caught her eye.
‘I’m going for some lunch. Fancy coming?’
With an offhand shrug he shook his head. ‘Bit too much to do. You carry on.’
‘No Todd, today?’ asked Mario as she toyed with a solitary cup of espresso. She’d given up drinking tea since she’d been in New York. Too often it either had a slight taint of coffee or was made with hot water instead of boiling, while the coffee was always good. With coffee shops on every street, it seemed as though the city was powered on caffeine.
‘He’s busy,’ she said, ignoring the dart of hurt at his sudden seeming indifference.
‘You should take him back
a slice of my lasagne or some of my wife’s cannoli.’
Todd did love his food, maybe that would cheer him up. She put her cup down in the tiny saucer with a clatter, as a spurt of shame hit her. She of all people knew the effect his parents had on him, witnessed it first hand, and here she was, focusing on her hurt feelings when he needed some support. ‘I’ll take some cannoli.’
Mario bustled off, pleased with his suggestion, and she checked her phone to catch up with her Facebook and WhatsApp messages. She’d been posting much more regularly of late, putting up pictures of the places she’d visited and making contributions to FoodLovers, one of the groups she belonged to. Her recent post on the Lebanese restaurant along with a recipe she’d blagged from the owner, a lovely plump balding Egyptian who was delighted in her interest, had garnered a record number of likes and shares. As she was scrolling through the many comments, she sat upright. Damn, she’d forgotten James’s company had an account following food bloggers and groups.
Good to see you on here Sophie. James x
Frantically she checked her post. OK, it was obvious she was in New York, but one restaurant was hardly a giveaway. Quickly, she tried to remember what else she’d posted recently as she scrolled through her updates. Pictures of the July Fourth cakes she’d iced in a Bella’s Bakery branded box. Pictures of wedding cakes she’d researched when she was trying to help Bella design the cake. Most of it was fairly innocuous stuff and then she paused, her finger over the screen as she came across one conversation with another food writer, who asked where she was. In black and white, she’d said she was in New York on a job swap for six months. Would James have searched for any other mentions? And did it matter if he knew where she was? By the time she got back, hopefully he’d have forgotten about her. The desperate attempts to contact her on messenger had died away two months ago. He wouldn’t come knocking when she came back, and if he did, she’d be ready to face him.
Todd was leaning against Madison’s desk, juggling with a couple of branded stress balls as the young intern laughed up at him. Sophie walked past them and neither gave her a second look. Too busy? He didn’t look that busy to her.
Hurt or not, that didn’t give him the right to be rude to her. Ignoring the sudden sour taste in her mouth, she walked calmly over to her desk and dropped the brown paper bag on it as she stowed her handbag beside her chair. The smell of cannoli teased the air. With pursed lips, she dumped the bag in the bin that stood between her and Todd’s desks. OK, she got that he was upset. Got that with bells on, but he didn’t need to take it out on her.
Thank goodness she had a photo shoot to supervise in the test kitchen. She didn’t think she could stomach watching him flirt with Madison for the rest of the afternoon. The photo shoot took up the rest of the day.
‘Just a bit more melted chocolate,’ said Sophie to the food stylist. Getting the right shine on the gravy was an exercise in frustration, involving careful alchemy and the addition of the right amount of chocolate to make the liquid look unctuous, smooth and glossy without taking on a darker hue.
‘Are you sure? If you add too much, it won’t look the right colour.’
‘Well, it will have to be dark gravy,’ snapped Sophie. They were running out of time before the chocolate/gravy mix started to thicken. It would lose the desired shiny appearance. ‘Hurry up, otherwise we’ll have to start again.’ There was a shocked silence and Sophie’s face burned with embarrassment. ‘Oh my goodness, I’m sorry. I’m a bit stressed.’ She looked into the surprised faces surrounding her. ‘I do apologise.’
‘Hey Soph, it’s fine,’ said the stylist. ‘I’ve heard far worse. Jeez, you should hear Brandi. Every other word would have been an F-word.’
‘But I … gosh, I am sorry.’ One of the other girls patted her on the arm.
‘I think we deserve a glass of something after this. It’s two for one on champagne at Flute. Why don’t we go?’
Sophie nodded. Why the hell not? She’d spent too much time with Todd, she ought to branch out, spend some time with her co-workers.
For the rest of the afternoon, she was careful to keep herself in check even though inside she was cross that she’d let herself down. This was a timely reminder. She’d become too used to Todd being around. Perhaps a bit of space was needed. It was difficult to believe that she was two thirds of the way through her stay.
She had to remember that above everything, he’d been a good friend to her and that when whatever was between them had run its course, she was grown-up enough to focus on all the positives. If it weren’t for him, she’d never have gone to the Hamptons, or the baseball. Never cycled in Prospect Park, gone running around the lake. Never had wild, uninhibited sex in the kitchen, the shower or on the deck at midnight.
Damn, she was definitely going out with the girls.
One glass of champagne turned into three or four and a round of tapas. Sophie had forgotten how good it was to go out with a bunch of girls. Since her Danish trip, she’d become good friends with Kate and they regularly met up with two other people she’d met in Copenhagen – Avril, a TV presenter, and Eva, who was Kate’s business partner. She missed their prosecco-fuelled fests where Avril regaled them with tales of celebrities she’d interviewed on breakfast television. With a cosy warm glow, she boarded the subway and travelled most of the way home with one of the other girls, who was planning a trip to London and spent the whole journey picking Sophie’s slightly addled brains about the best places to eat in the city and whether she should visit Scotland to try proper haggis.
It was nearly eight o’clock when she put her key in the front door. From outside she’d seen that Bella’s lights were on. Maybe she’d see if Bella fancied a drink. After enjoying such good company that evening, she wasn’t sure she fancied spending the rest of it alone.
Mounting the stairs, she heard a rustle and looked up in surprise. Todd rose to his feet, every inch of him looking weary and lost.
‘Todd! What are you doing here? What’s happened?’ Wasn’t he supposed to be with Amy?
‘I’m sorry.’ His voice vibrated with regret.
She stared. Crumpled shirt, ruffled hair and red-rimmed eyes. There was such a defeated droop to his wide-shouldered frame, Sophie wanted to wrap him in a big hug but she hung back, unsure. Spite didn’t come by nature to her, nor kicking a man when he was down, but today’s indifference had destroyed the easy comfort between them. It had hurt.
‘How long have you been here?’ She kept her voice expressionless and distant.
‘What time is it now?’
‘Ten to eight.’
‘Since six.’ The pleasant wooziness of the champagne and the cosy evening vanished instantaneously.
‘Six!’ She pushed past him to open the front door. The late sunshine filtered through the windows, casting a golden shadowy glow over the room. ‘You’d better come in.’
Dumping her handbag on the sofa, she tried to steel herself against his pull before turning to face him. The filtered sepia light had deepened the circles under his eyes and much as she wanted to hold him and rub away those strained lines around his mouth, she held back.
He stood alone, surrounded by dust motes dancing in the shaft of sunlight sliding in, looking lost and uncertain. Just looking at him almost caused her physical pain but everything melted when he stepped up to her and held out his arms. ‘Hold me, Sophie. I need you.’
How could she turn him away? Those haunted eyes tugged at her. When she slid her hands around his waist, stepping into the circle of his arms, he immediately drew her forward, burying his head in her neck, holding on with a touch of desperation. She kissed his cheek and hugged him, holding him tight. Despite everything, it felt like coming home.
‘They’ve …’ his voice broke and she felt him shudder in her arms with a quickly caught sob. ‘Marty … they’ve sent him away.’
‘Oh, Todd.’ Her heart melted at his distress. She held him for a while longer, feeling him trying to pull himself together
. When he’d calmed in her arms, she led him to the sofa, pushing him down like a rag doll before sitting beside him and taking his hand. They sat together, his head bowed, until he straightened and kissed her cheek.
‘Thanks, English,’ he whispered.
She squeezed his hand. ‘Can you tell me what happened?’
With a nod, he took a deep breath. ‘When I went round Dad and Mom were having a full-blown row, threatening to divorce each other in front of Marty. Blaming each other for his behaviour.’ Todd winced. ‘Saying what a disappointment to the family he was.’ He dropped his head in his hands. ‘It was awful. Dad said he was going to send Marty to military academy, saying it would teach him some discipline. There’d be no computers. No contact. They’d make a man out of him. Teach him the right values. I spent all day there and things finally calmed down. Poor kid was absolutely exhausted. Flaked out in his room. I stayed until he’d gone to sleep.’ Todd closed his eyes. ‘Then I confronted Dad. Lost it. Told him and Mom that their crappy marriage was responsible. As you can imagine, that didn’t go down well. Shit, it was fucking awful. I spent the night and all day Sunday. But when I left, I thought I’d persuaded Dad that military academy wasn’t the answer, that perhaps a shrink might help. Some counselling. They seemed to buy that.’ His mouth twisted bitterly. ‘Of course, they did. Having a shrink is part of the New York lifestyle. But I thought at least someone like that would identify the real problem and my folks might listen to a professional. The last thing Mom said was that she’d get some recommendations in the morning for a psychologist for Marty.’
He turned to her. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so angry with my Dad. Worried about Marty. He’s going to hate it. I let him down. I should have said something earlier to my parents. Made them realise.’
‘I don’t think you could have stopped this.’
‘No, maybe not … but I should have texted you, phoned, but I felt so wrung out, I couldn’t think straight.’
She rubbed her thumb along his knuckles and he gave her a grateful semblance of a smile.