Love Returns

by Ronni Meyrick

  “I ran to the kitchen and got the fire extinguisher from the cupboard, and went back to put the fire out. Yet again another, call to the police was made. Thomas was obviously hell bent on carrying out his threat. I called Stephanie and asked her to pick the girls up and, have them for the night. Until the police actually caught Thomas, I didn’t feel they’d be safe in the house.”

  Felicity looked like she might burst into tears. DCI Jones asked again if they should take a break. But truthfully, all Felicity wanted to do was to get the hell out of this tiny room. She was starting to feel a little claustrophobic. She wanted to get her girls, and just get out of Cardiff. Which meant she had to finish the rest of the interview now. Then she could start arranging for their departure.

  “Around about 11:00 p.m. on Friday night I heard a loud ruckus in the street. I looked out of my window to see Thomas brandishing a baseball bat. He was shouting out calling me a slut, a bitch, a cock-sucking whore and he even called me the C word. I’m sorry but I can’t stand the word, so I’m not going to say it. He was telling all my neighbours that I was a prostitute, and that I was running a brothel in the house. It was also being used to supply drugs and grow cannabis. How I was an unfit Mother, to be bringing my children up in that environment.”

  “He reckoned the girls had witnessed me, giving a blowjob to a client, and they were constantly stoned, with the fumes coming off the plants. That if any of them had any sense, they would run me out of town and start treating me like the whore I was. Then suddenly he jumped the garden gate and ran towards the living room window. He raised the baseball bat and struck the window until it smashed. I phoned 999 as soon as he started trying to break the window, and was told a unit was being sent straight away. I then locked myself in my bedroom. ”

  “It took him all of three minutes to get inside the house. He came up the stairs and kicked the bedroom door down. He stood there with an evil smile on his face. He punched me and grabbed my hair, then pulled me down the stairs. Once in the living room he forced me to my knees, he made me kneel in the glass that had come from the window. He told me I was going to pay, for breaking things off with him. I shut my eyes as I saw him raise the bat. Just as he was about to hit me, I heard a loud voice and then a strange noise. I looked up, to see the forks of a taser gun in him. I scrambled to my feet and ran, to one of the Officers climbing through the window. Thomas was arrested. I was sent to hospital as I needed to have my nose, feet and legs looked at.”

  She sat back in the chair, glad that the interview was over, well at least from her perspective it was. She had given them the information that was required, and now she wanted to leave. DCI Jones had other ideas, and asked her a few other questions, which she answered as best she could. After being in the room for an hour and a half he finally said.

  “If you could just sign these papers, Ms Bromwell, then you’re free to leave. I understand that you have a new mobile phone number, if you could please write that down. The restraining order is in place, Mr James is not to come within five hundred metres of you or your Daughters,” he watched as she signed everything, and then wrote her number on a separate piece of paper, before asking, “Where are you staying at the moment?”

  “With a friend, I managed to get hold of a painter and decorator, and a double glazing team on Saturday. The house is being put back to how it was. I’m heading over to speak to an estate agent after this, and then I’m packing our stuff and getting the hell out of dodge. I’m heading back to the bright lights of London, where I grew up.

  Felicity left the Police Station and headed into town. She stopped off at the estate agents, and arranged for them to view the house tomorrow morning. She then went and bought a paper, and headed into Gino’s coffee shop. He was pleased to see her, and gave her a lengthy hug. Once seated with her coffee she began to read the paper. She got to the back where a job advertisement caught her eye. McDougal and Cohen of London were looking for an Accounts Handler. She wrote all the details down and, sat back and thought about everything. The girls would be unhappy about starting at another school, but she had to make sure they were safe. The two most precious things in her world, and she had to protect them. Finding a new home shouldn’t be a problem, she wouldn’t have to wait for the house here to sell, she had made some very good investments in the past, and had a nice little nest egg set by.

  When she left Gino’s it was nearly time to pick the girls up. She phoned her friend Steph, and informed her she would collect the girls and, head straight to her place. She pulled up in front of the school gates. The girls appeared and she got out of the car and waved them over. She hadn’t thought to tell them, they were getting a hire car until hers could be repaired. I must remember to ask them, to deliver my car to the house in London she thought to herself. The girls ran to their Mum and hugged her, Felicity hugged back and the girls started to protest at the tightness of it.

  “I have some news girls,” she said. “We’re going to be moving in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to London.”

  “But why, Mum?” asked Chelsea.

  “I’ll miss all my friends here, Mum!” shouted Annabelle.

  Felicity was not about to go into details, in the middle of the street.

  “Why don’t we go pick up Auntie Steph and then go out for dinner, just the four of us? Then we can discuss everything there.”

  “Yeah!” the girls chorused as they climbed into the car.

  ###

  Much later after the meal had been eaten, and they were all tucking into desserts, Felicity said. “I know you two are going to miss your friends here, but we’ve got to move so that Thomas won’t be able to do anything silly. How about you go to school tomorrow, and tell your friends you’re leaving on Friday, and then you can each invite three friends, out to dinner as a good bye meal?”

  Chelsea was amazed at her Mum’s generosity. She wasn’t as young as Annabelle was, and knew that something was wrong. She looked at her Mother and met her eyes head on. “Okay, Mum, but we’re going to talk when we get home, I’m not six years old anymore. I’m fourteen. I can tell when something isn’t right.”

  Felicity was perplexed at her daughter’s perceptiveness, and agreed to this little chat with her. Oh what fun this’ll be, Felicity thought to herself.

  Chapter Three

  Since leaving Cardiff in mid July, the time had certainly flown by. It was now late August, and Felicity was finally happy with the house that she’d bought in Greenwich. The girls had started to settle into their new schools. The only thing that remained lacking was a job.

  She had spent all her time sorting schools out for the girls, and decorating the house to their liking. She had managed to find a school in the local area, which had primary and secondary aged children, all in one place. At least the girls would still be together.

  She had however, managed to send her CV off to the job advertised at McDougal & Cohen. She had carried out a little research on the company, after she received an email inviting her to an interview, on the 5th September at 10:00 a.m. The hours that were advertised would be a bit of a problem with the girls, but if she got the position she’d be able to afford a childminder for a couple of hours, before and after school. That had been a fun conversation with Chelsea. She had screamed and shouted that, she was fourteen and didn’t need a childminder. Felicity had soon put her in her place. There was no way she was going to have a fourteen year old dictating to her, what she was and wasn’t going to do. Annabelle on the other hand was happy. She would like to make another friend in the childminder.

  Felicity glanced around her new front room, and wondered why she hadn’t done this sooner. She had told herself, that this thing she had for choosing the bad guys, when it came to boyfriends was over. It wasn’t intentional. They seemed completely lovely, charming and ’normal’ to begin with. But then after time they’d reveal, their true selves, and either end up being complete players, who were only interested in her for one thing or, they would turn into psyc
hos. Well no more. Felicity was going to concentrate on her career, and the girls from now.

  ###

  Well thanks to Mark Stand, everything to do with hiring a new Accounts Handler was, going very smoothly. Alison hadn’t seen any applicant CV’s and, was more than happy for Mark to handle the whole situation. This meant she was actually able, to catch up with her mountainous amount of work. She was finally able to enjoy a social life, instead of working all the hours in a day. So when Charlie called on Friday, she agreed to go out for the night. She hadn’t been out in what seemed like forever.

  “You’re quiet,” Charlie announced. “You haven’t been out with me in ages, and now you’re going to sit there and be boring.”

  Alison sighed and smiled at her best friend, who was forever trying to set her up with everyone, and dragging her to the most outrageous places in London.

  “Well I have news for you, my friend,” Charlie said. “I’m going to get you blindly drunk on VAT’s (vodka and tonics), and then we’re going to party our arse’s off until 4:00 a.m. or until one of us pulls some cute babe.”

  She had to laugh at this, as Charlie always brought out the rebel in her. Charlie was nothing like her. She was short with blonde spiky hair, and a little on the portly side. Whereas Alison was five-foot-ten with, brown hair styled into a nice short cut, and was not fat or skinny. She was just right in her opinion.

  Alison looked at her friend and said. “Well I guess I should go to the bar, and we should get started on that VAT thing.”

  “Abso-bloody-lutely. It’s nice to have my partner in crime back. Now no falling for a girl, marrying her, having babies and leaving me, okay?”

  Alison shook with laughter. “No worries, my cute little friend, nobody would put up with my work hours and pattern. You’re a saint for doing it. Now do you want a VAT or something else to drink?” Charlie normally turned into this wild party animal, whenever she drank vodka. Alison didn’t have the strength to keep up with her tonight. “I’ll get us a couple of beers. I’m not really in the mood for an all-nighter, tonight.”

  Alison went to the bar and ordered the drinks. As she was waiting, she spotted a very cute redhead staring at her, from the other end of the bar. She smiled then looked away. She paid for her drinks, and went back to the table where Charlie waited.

  Charlie noticed the redhead giving Alison the eye and said. “Found something for dinner already, babe?”

  “Yes, a very nice…” but Alison was cut off mid sentence, by a feather like touch to her arm. She turned and was greeted by, a slow sexy smile from the redhead.

  “Would you like to dance?” the redhead asked.

  Alison was too shocked by her light brown eyes, to do anything but nod her agreement. The redhead took Alison by the hand, and led her out onto the dance floor. It must have been fate. The DJ was just announcing a five in a row, slow dance for everyone in love in the bar. The redhead turned to Alison, and pulled her close slowly sliding her arms around her neck. Alison’s hands went to the redheads hips, where she lightly held her as they circled around the dance floor. She was startled when the redhead spoke to her.

  “Please tell me your name.”

  “Alison...and you are?”

  “Christi.”

  “Nice name.”

  They circled the floor until all five songs had finished. Alison thanked Christi for the dance, and wandered back to the table. For some reason she wasn’t interested in flirting with Christi, or trying to pick her up. She thought of Charlie. She had neglected her friend for long enough, they would go on a mini pub-crawl and party until closing time, then get a curry on the way back to Alison’s. Perhaps they could spend the day together tomorrow.

  She looked back towards Christi, and thought what the hell. “We’re just about to leave and I was wondering if I could get your number.”

  Christi pulled a pen out of her bag, and then grabbed a napkin to scrawl on. She handed the napkin to Alison, but as she turned to leave Christi pulled her back towards her. Christi pulled her head down into a heated searing kiss, which lasted a couple of minutes. She then pushed her away and said. “It was lovely to meet you Alison, thank you for the dance; I hope to hear from you soon.”

  Alison walked away from Christi and out into the night air. She thought she might sizzle, from the cool air against her heated skin. Christi was obviously interested, and if the kiss were anything to go by, then she would be taken places she hadn’t been for a long time.

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket. It wouldn’t hurt to send Christi a text.

  Chapter Four

  Alison had been at work since 7:00 a.m. She was restless at home. September had arrived and she was feeling a little melancholy, over her lack of a love life. Christi had proven to be a brilliant lover over the last couple of weeks. But Alison had decided that they were two very different people. They had nothing in common and after three dates, had run out of topics to discuss. So they ended up cutting the chatter, and going straight to bed whenever together.

  She was not sexually frustrated, so much as emotionally. She wanted to settle down. She was fed up with always choosing women, who couldn’t even hold a reasonably intelligent conversation. They only wanted to have sex. Yes okay, that was a good thing, but it would be nice to have a decent conversation about the news or world events. None of the women she had been with knew anything about her job. They never asked questions about what she did for a living, or how her day had gone. Perhaps she could find someone in the finance industry, who would at least be interested in her profession.

  She noticed it was 9 a.m. Charlie would be up for work and she decided to call, and let her know that she was ending things with Christi. Not that there was really a lot to end. She dialled the number and waited. It took Charlie forever to answer the phone.

  “What?” came the quiet response?

  Alison realised that she had woken Charlie up. “I’m so sorry, babe, I didn’t mean to wake you. But as it’s nine o’clock, I took a chance you would be up.”

  “Oh, my god! My arse is toast when I get to work.” Charlie was now in panic mode.

  Alison could hear her friend scrambling around, the bedroom to collect her clothes. “I just wanted to let you know, that I’m going to finish things with Christi.”

  “I thought it was coming. Listen sweetie, can you call me back on my mobile in five minutes, I need to get out the door.”

  “No worries.”

  Alison put the phone down and stared out the window. She had made the decision to end things with Christi, but now she had to actually do the deed. She reached into her suit pocket, and pulled out her mobile. She searched the numbers and stopped on Christi’s. She pressed the call button and waited for her to answer.

  “Morning Ali,” Christi purred in her ear.

  Alison looked skyward, and felt like a complete bitch for doing this.

  ###

  Felicity pulled on her suit jacket, and looked at herself in the full-length mirror. She had decided to wear a skirt instead of trousers. The weather helped with that decision, it was uncommonly warm for the start of September. She gave herself one last look, before leaving her room. She was pleased with her appearance. The dark red shirt she had chosen to wear was a good choice, her brown hair really stood out.

  She headed downstairs, careful not to trip over the roller blades Chelsea had left there. She grabbed her coffee from the counter and checked her watch, oh God she needed to leave now. It was 9:10 a.m. and she had to catch the train into the city. She reached for her mobile and put it in her jacket pocket. Her brief case and bag were by the front door, so she didn’t forget to pick them up, she grabbed her keys as she left. She bounded down the steps at the front of the house, and had a feeling that today was going to be a great day. She hummed all the way to the city.

  ###

  Alison closed her mobile and felt, a little better than when she’d started the call. Apparently Christi had been thinking the same thing as her. She
agreed that the physical part was fantastic, but they just didn’t connect on any other level. They laughed and joked for a little while before Christi asked.

  “Would you have any objections to me asking Charlie out?”

  Taken back a little, Alison cleared her throat before she spoke. “No, that would be fine, as of five minutes ago you are a free agent.”

  “Thanks, Alison, I hope we can still be friends though, especially if I’m going to be dating Charlie.”

  “Yeah me too.”

  Alison disconnected before Christi could say anything more, she looked at her mobile and noticed that Charlie was calling. “Hey you’ve got an admirer,” Alison said.

  “What the hell, who...and how do you know?”

  “It appears that Christi wants to ask you out, she thinks you’re hot. I’ve just spoken to her, and we broke things off. It turns out she was thinking the same thing I was. I’ll give you her number, and you can call her if you like.”

  Charlie was obviously thinking things over. “I’m stunned she actually wants to go out with me, she’s gorgeous.”

  “You’re no ugly duckling, babe.”

  Alison gave Charlie the number and told her to get her arse to work. She then decided to go outside and have a breath of fresh air. She rode the lift to reception, and walked across the lobby and through the glass revolving doors. The bench that sat just to the right of the doors was empty, so she parked herself on it. Alison loved to people watch. She noticed that it was 9:40 a.m. As she looked away from her watch a red glint caught her eye. She turned to see an absolutely beautiful brunette, walking up the steps to enter the building. She was stunning, she didn’t walk she floated. Alison continued to stare at the woman, until she entered the building.