‘They leave the honking to geese and old-fashioned car horns.’
It makes us both laugh again and I realise I’ve gone from panicking when I picked up the phone to relaxing with his company. He really is easy to talk to, and now I don’t think he’s about to do anything stupid, I’m just enjoying the chat.
‘You can hang up, you know,’ he says. ‘I feel like I’ve wasted your time tonight.’
‘Are you kidding? I’ve really enjoyed it. I didn’t think anyone understood half the things I’ve said to you tonight. You made me feel more normal too, you know.’
I hear him swallow.
‘And I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re okay.’
‘Okay, okay.’ His chuckle gives way to a grunt and a series of groans as I hear him moving. ‘God, I’ve sat there for too long. I think I need oiling. Got any WD40 handy?’
I smile but his attempt at humour is not going to deter me from what’s really important here. ‘How’re you feeling?’
‘I don’t know. I’m so cold that I can’t feel anything from the neck down.’
I wish I’d taken him a coat or something. I should’ve just gone as soon as I knew where he was. Anonymity be damned.
‘I’m okay,’ he says before I have a chance to push him any further. ‘Really. I’m not going to do anything stupid. I feel better just for having let it all out. I don’t think I’ve ever cried that much in my life, and I watched Titanic fourteen times when it came out on video. How can one set of sinuses hold so much snot?’ He does an exaggerated sniff as a demonstration.
It makes me smile. ‘When you get home, do me a favour and take care of yourself, okay? Apart from cold and wet, you must be drained. You’ve been through something traumatic tonight.’
‘Ah, I wouldn’t call talking to you traumatic.’
‘Make light of it all you want. Do whatever you need to cope. But you and I both know that trying to brush things under the carpet is how you ended up on that bridge in the first place.’
I think he’s going to say something else sarcastic, but he swallows. ‘I know.’
‘So take care of yourself. When you get in, have a long hot shower or bath. A long cry is draining, so drink a really big glass of water and get something to eat. I don’t care if it’s healthy or something made of chocolate, but make yourself a cup of tea and eat some biscuits, and snuggle up into bed with a book or a movie or something. Please? You deserve some TLC too.’
‘“Waterfalls” or “No Scrubs”?’
‘Oh, ha ha,’ I say, even though it does make me want to laugh. There’s never a bad time for a Nineties music reference.
‘Hot shower, warm pyjamas, drink of water, bed, book, tea and biscuits. The Great British cure for everything.’ I can hear that he’s smiling as he repeats my instructions. ‘I wish I knew your name so I could thank you properly, but at the same time, I kind of like not knowing it. So thank you, mysterious stranger, for saving my life. And for the interesting mental images of mannequins wrestling naked in chocolate. Or something. That is what you were doing when I called, right?’
I giggle. ‘Thank you for a night I’ll never forget.’
‘Even the rain’s stopping,’ he says. I can hear him walking now, the wet flop of something against his phone. Maybe his hair? ‘What a wonderful night.’
I smile because in a weird way, it was.
I’ve never spoken to someone who understands me the way he seems to. It feels kind of magical to speak to someone who you can never speak to again, a connection with a stranger I’ll never meet, on a night I’ll always remember.
‘Thank you for everything,’ he whispers, his voice catching again. It makes me want to hug him even more than I wanted to hug him anyway which was already immeasurable on the wanting-to-hug-someone scale. ‘Goodnight, lovely.’
The phone clicks off and I sit back on my knees, staring at the handset in shock.
Lovely. That’s what Leo from It’s A Wonderful Latte up the road calls me. I mean, I’m sure it’s what he calls every customer but it still makes my heart beat faster every time he says it.
The thought that it could’ve been him flits across my mind but I dismiss it instantly. There must be millions of guys who use endearments like that …
It couldn’t be, could it?
No way.
No way could someone be suffering so much on the inside and hide it so well on the outside. Leo is the happiest person I know. He’s the one bright spot on a dull winter day. He’s the reason I buy a coffee every morning on the way to work. His smile makes every overpriced cup worthwhile. He’s the brightest, happiest, smiliest, most cheerful guy in town.
No way in a million years would he be considering taking his own life.
No way was the guy on the other end of that phone Leo.
A Letter from the Author
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading The Little Vintage Carousel by the Sea. I hope you loved reading about Ness, Nathan, and the carousel, and enjoyed a summer escape to Pearlholme as much as I did, and hopefully fell in love with Nathan like I did while I was writing – of all my book characters, he’s definitely the one I most wish was real!
I’d been thinking about this story for a long while, but something just wasn’t working with it – I could never figure out what Nathan would be doing in Pearlholme. My friend has been telling me to watch the musical Carousel for years, and I’ve always been convinced it would be old and boring, and appeased him by saying I’d watch it if it was ever on TV, hoping it never would be. Over Christmas last year, it was on TV, and I had no choice but to watch it! Turns out, it’s a lovely old film, and the opening scenes on the carousel, with the nostalgic music and decadent romance was the final puzzle piece for this story – by the time the film ended, I knew what Nathan’s job would be, and the idea I’d been turning over in my head for months became The Little Vintage Carousel by the Sea!
If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. It only has to be a line or two, and it makes such a difference to helping other readers decide whether to pick up the book or not, and it would mean so much to me to know what you think! Did it make you smile, laugh, or cry? I couldn’t help giggling a few times while I was writing it!
Thank you again for reading. If you want to get in touch, you can find me on Twitter – usually when I should be writing – @be_the_spark. I would love to hear from you!
Hope to see you again soon in a future book!
Lots of love,
Jaimie
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this book – we hope you enjoyed it! If you did, we’d be so appreciative if you left a review.
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