by Holly Martin
‘What should we do, should we try and capture him and bring him to shore to have his injuries looked at?’ Freya asked.
Rome shook his head. ‘He’s too big for us to be able to try and manhandle and we could stress him out.’
He was right; at nearly two metres Sammy would be much too heavy to lift and she couldn’t see him being compliant.
‘We can call the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Helford, near Lizard. They might come out and look for him. If they need to take him in, they can do it safely.’
Freya nodded and with Rome and the other fishermen’s fish now depleted, Sammy started to drift away.
Rome offered his hand and she took it and he helped her ashore.
‘Thank you all for helping,’ Freya said to Finn and the other fishermen. ‘I’m sorry you lost all your fish.’
They all shrugged, clearly not bothered. ‘We couldn’t leave Sammy to suffer,’ Finn said and they all nodded their agreement.
Finn handed her phone back to her. ‘Well done, love.’
Freya smiled and realised she was shaking, though she wasn’t sure if that was because she was wet.
‘Let’s get you back home,’ Rome said, his hand on her back searing against her skin. He escorted her back to the van. ‘Here, I’ll drive.’
Freya didn’t even argue, her hands were shaking too much to be any good. She got into the passenger side and Rome climbed into the driver’s seat, throwing the remains of the Chinese lantern into the back.
‘Well at least we know what the UFOs were now,’ Rome said as he started the engine and headed back towards the shop.
Freya stared at him. ‘Oh god, the golden lights. I didn’t even think of that. But the reports said there were several lights in the sky. That means there’s more of these bloody lanterns floating out there in the sea.’
‘We’ll get word out to the fishermen on the boats. Tell them to be on the lookout for them.’
A moment later Rome pulled up outside the shop and got out. Before she’d even reached for the door, he was already opening the door to her flat.
She climbed out the van and he ushered her inside and up the stairs. She felt so tired all of a sudden. The day had been so fun, with so many people taking an interest in the studio and for it to end like this was heartbreaking. That poor seal.
‘God, poor Sammy. The wire was dug into his flesh so deep. He must have been in so much pain,’ Freya said, tears forming in her eyes again as she thought about him.
‘And you saved him. Their skin is pretty thick, he’ll probably be OK,’ Rome said, pulling her into his arms and holding her tight.
It was such a surprising gesture from him that it took her mind a few moments to catch up and then she wrapped her arms round his back and leaned her head against his chest. Oh god, she needed this right now. After the disappointment and stress of the last few days, after finding Sammy like she had, she needed to be hugged by her best friend. And he had come. She had called him and he had dropped everything and ran to the opposite side of the island to come to help her. She was supposed to be falling out of love with him but right now she loved him a little bit more.
‘Thank you for being there,’ Freya said, against his chest.
He pulled back a little to look at her. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her on the forehead. ‘Always.’
This man was going to ruin her.
She realised she was still shaking and she knew it was only partly due to the cold.
‘You need to have a shower to warm up,’ Rome said.
She just managed to stop herself in time from suggesting that he joined her. She quickly rephrased it, leaving the ball in his court. ‘You need a shower too.’
He nodded. ‘Yes, I do. I’ll go home and get changed and I’ll see you back here in half hour.’
The ball dropped to the floor.
She nodded and he disentangled himself from her arms and left her alone. She stared after him as he disappeared down the stairs.
How was she ever going to get over him?
Chapter Twelve
Rome let himself back into Freya’s flat a while later, calling out to her as he climbed up the stairs. She appeared at the top of the stairs wrapped in her dressing gown.
‘I didn’t think you’d be coming back,’ Freya said, her eyes alighting on the large paper bag he was carrying.
‘I thought you deserved a treat after your heroic act today.’
Her eyes lit up. ‘Is that curry?’
‘From the Mulberry Bush. I know it’s your favourite.’ He frowned slightly, suddenly unsure if it was her favourite. Giving her a brooch based around her favourite flower certainly hadn’t worked out the way he had wanted. He hated that he was now second-guessing himself. He had never doubted what to do or say around Freya before but this whole episode had him doubting everything.
‘Oh thank you so much. God, I love their food. I was just thinking I couldn’t be bothered to cook. I feel so tired.’
‘I’m not surprised, the adrenaline rush of dealing with a traumatic event will always leave you feeling exhausted afterwards. I’ll… erm, join you if that’s OK?’
‘Of course. I’ll get some plates.’
She went through to the kitchen area and he followed her. Everything seemed back to normal between them but he couldn’t help feeling he was treading on eggshells around her. The row, if he could even call it that, seemed to have almost been forgotten, but although she had helped him out with the craft fair that day, she hadn’t made any mention of coming back to work for him permanently. He had already asked her to come back to him and she hadn’t given any indication whether she would but he wasn’t going to let her go without a fight.
‘I got the Goa Delight you love so much and I bought the Lamb Saffron for me, but we can share both if you like.’
‘Oh yes, I love their lamb.’
He lifted the containers out of the bags and Freya started sharing them out between the two plates, then they carried the food through to the dining table that sat in the tiny window overlooking Buttercup Beach.
‘I heard back from the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. They were able to find Sammy quite easily. They think he’s OK, but they’ve taken him in to check him over and monitor him for a few days.’
‘Oh, that’s good,” Freya said. ‘Poor Sammy, I hope he’s OK.’
‘The guy I spoke to said he was gorging himself on a ton of fish so I think he’ll be fine.’
Freya smiled and then turned her attention back to her food.
‘How did it go at the fair today?’
‘We did good, we sold nearly everything I took, including all of my pieces. I have several people that are interested in you creating an individual piece for them too. Our company is becoming well respected.’
He was encouraged by the words of togetherness from that sentence. ‘We’ and ‘Our’ were all good signs that she still considered herself a part of Through the Looking Glass. He wouldn’t push her on that though, well not yet.
‘That’s fantastic and I had no doubt that your pieces would do well, you have a wonderful talent for it.’
She blushed. ‘I had a great teacher.’
He swallowed a mouthful of food before he spoke, considering his words carefully. ‘We make a great team.’
She stared at him and he wondered, not for the first time, what was going on behind those pretty whisky-brown eyes.
‘I’ve always thought so,’ she said, eventually.
‘I’d hate to lose that,’ Rome said, softly.
She looked down, playing with her food for a moment before she returned her attention to him. ‘That’s the last thing I want.’
He nodded and concentrated on his food for a while. Maybe there was hope for them yet.
‘All this wine is making me sleepy,’ Freya said, resting her head on the back of the sofa.
Rome smiled at her, fondly. It hadn’t been his intention to get her drunk, but he’d thought with a few glasses of wine
inside her she might be more agreeable to coming back to work or at the very least telling him what really had gone wrong that fateful night. But she’d quickly passed from the talkative merry stage, through the giggling stage, and now into the sleepy stage, and he knew he wasn’t going to get any coherent answers from her tonight.
‘You had a busy day being a hero, no wonder you’re tired. I’ll leave you to go to bed. I need to do a bit more work before I go home anyway.’
She sat up and grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t go.’
‘No?’
‘I’m enjoying talking to you. I always enjoy talking to you.’
‘I enjoy talking to you too.’
‘Not enough though.’
He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Oh never mind. Go get the glass and I’ll help you with some copper foiling for a while, before I go to bed.’
He stood up and walked downstairs. Maybe she was in the mood to talk after all. He needed some answers because he didn’t have a hope of fixing this unless he knew what he’d done wrong.
He gathered all the yellow, orange and gold bits of glass into a box that would eventually form the sun. He grabbed two rolls of copper foiling, some scissors and a few other tools and put them all in a box so it was easier to carry back upstairs. He walked into the lounge and saw Freya curled up on the sofa fast asleep.
He sighed and put down the box then carefully scooped her up into his arms. Her eyes fluttered open and she wrapped her arms round his neck, pressing her face into his throat.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Taking you to bed.’
She giggled. ‘And there are four words I never dreamed I’d hear you say. Pretty much every woman on the island dreams of you saying those words to them but I’m the only one who hears them in a non-sexual way.’
He moved into her bedroom, not sure what to make of that.
‘We’re friends, aren’t we?’ Freya muttered as Rome laid her down on her bed.
‘Of course we are.’
‘And that is never going to change?’
‘No, never.’
She sighed and snuggled into her pillow. ‘I knew it. So no night of hot passion for me then?’
He swallowed. ‘Would you like us to have a night of hot passion?’
‘If I said yes would you climb straight into bed with me?’
‘No.’
‘God that’s depressing. I offer myself to you on a plate and you still don’t want me.’
‘Trust me, this has nothing to do with me not wanting you, nothing could be further from the truth. I just prefer the women I sleep with to be conscious.’
She closed her eyes.
‘It’s never going to change,’ she whispered, drifting off to sleep.
He stared at her in confusion. Did she really want to sleep with him or was that just the drink talking? But in reality, even if she was sober and she asked him to spend the night with her, he knew he couldn’t do it. A night of amazing sex would be incredible and something he wanted more than anything but she was too important to him to want to mess this up.
He needed to talk to her, properly, because this second-guessing was driving him mad.
Chapter Thirteen
Freya woke the next morning and stretched and smiled, the sun streaming through the windows. She could hear a radio playing softly downstairs. Rome was obviously working early and a flash of guilt surged through her at leaving him when he was so busy. She glanced over at the clock and sat up in confusion, her head pounding with the sudden movement. The clock read half past nine. It was Monday morning and she was supposed to be helping Eden at the pottery café. She hadn’t set the alarm the night before. Her mind tracked back… Why hadn’t she set the alarm?
Rome had been there, they’d ended up drinking a bottle of red wine. Horror slammed into her stomach. Had she really asked Rome to go to bed with her? And he’d turned her down.
She quickly got out of bed. It was fine, she had been drunk and if he asked her about it she would just laugh it off.
There was a glass of water next to the bed and a strip of painkillers and her heart swelled with love for Rome. She was never going to get over him if she was seeing him every day. But what was the alternative? If she got offered this job at the glass studio in St Ives at least that would mean she could get off the island and away from him for a little while, but could she afford anywhere to live in St Ives on the salary they were offering? It was such a mess and there was a huge part of her that never wanted to leave Rome anyway.
She drank the glass of water and took two tablets and then had a quick wash and threw some clothes on. She grabbed her bag and ran down the stairs into the shop.
Rome looked up at her when she came tearing through.
‘I’m late and I’m hungover and I hold you entirely responsible,’ Freya said, jokingly, hoping to smooth over any embarrassment from the night before now so she wouldn’t have to face it later.
Rome stood up. ‘Wait, Freya, we need to talk.’
Freya cringed inside. Did he really want to talk about the night before? It was random drunken ramblings, surely he wasn’t going to take any notice of it.
‘I’m late for Eden.’
‘This won’t take long.’
Freya sighed, conjuring up her best defence for offering to go to bed with him.
Rome walked towards her. ‘Listen, I’m not sure what went on the other night when you quit your job and stormed out of Envy. I have no idea what I did to provoke such a reaction but the fact is you have a job to do here and if you want to leave you are contractually obliged to work a notice period and the standard practice is one month.’
She stared at him in shock. That wasn’t what she expected him to say at all. ‘Wait, what? I’ve never signed a contract with you.’
‘That doesn’t matter. I’ve looked into it and by law you are required to work a notice period. You are responsible for me getting this commission for the school, you are also responsible for the increased workload and these are projects I would never have taken on if I thought I would have to do them alone. There is no way this mural is getting done in time without your help and that was something they were very clear about, that it had to be finished by the end of the summer holiday. If I postpone the deadline, that will look bad on my company and could be detrimental to future commissions. I understand if you don’t want to work with me any more. Well actually, I don’t understand – we’ve worked together for two years and not once fallen out, you seem to love your job so I honestly don’t get why you would just walk out like this. But I do respect your decision to move on, maybe you want a change in career or a job that will pay you more than what you earn here, lord knows you deserve it, but you need to work your notice before you leave.’
‘I… we’re best friends and you want to pull some legal rubbish on me.’
‘Yes we are best friends, so I don’t know why you would leave me to struggle and possibly ruin the company you’ve worked so hard to build up. I’m asking for four weeks, Freya. As my best friend I would think you could give me that.’
‘Eden is my best friend too and she needs the help as well.’
‘I appreciate that, but you work for me, not her. Clare will be back this week to give her a hand and Dougie will no doubt help her out until Clare comes back. I spoke to her this morning, and she understands.’
Freya had no words, her mouth flapped open and closed while she thought of a suitable response. But he was right. That school mural was going to take forever to finish and she did feel bad about landing him in trouble like that. The mural was also something she really wanted to work on, loving being part of such a huge community project. They were supposed to be going to Penzance tomorrow to help with the Under the Sea carnival, she didn’t want to leave him to do that on his own either. What difference would four weeks make to her in her attempts to get over him? She’d worked alongside him for two years while she’d been in love with him, another fou
r weeks wasn’t going to make any difference. The maternity cover job in St Ives didn’t start until September anyway, so if she did get the job, her notice period would be over by then. What choice did she have? Any job she applied for would want references and what kind of reference could Rome honestly give her after she walked out and left him in the lurch like this, apparently for no good reason?
‘I need to talk to Eden,’ Freya muttered.
Rome handed her his mobile phone. ‘Go ahead.’
He walked back to his desk and she reluctantly dialled Eden’s number. She glared at Rome though he didn’t seem to notice. With her pounding head, this was the last thing she needed. But if she thought she could avoid any awkward conversations with Rome today, he clearly had other ideas.
Rome placed a mug of tea down in front of Freya. She had spoken to Eden, who he knew would back him up as he had already primed her early that day, and then she had gotten on with the mural. She had barely spoken to him all morning other than to ask questions revolving round work. He knew she was angry at him for pulling the boss card and demanding she work her notice. Legally, he didn’t have a leg to stand on, forcing her to work four weeks. She had never signed a contract and they both knew he would never take her through any kind of employment tribunal. He knew she was there because he had guilted her into it and he felt bad about that but he didn’t know what else he could do. Although things seemed to be back to friendly again – well they had been before that morning – it was quite clear, from talking to her the night before, that she had no intention of coming back to work for him. He couldn’t lose her. She was his best friend and he couldn’t even contemplate what life would be like without her. He now had four weeks to persuade her to stay for good and he was going to use every tool at his disposal to get her to do that.
‘Shall we go to lunch? I’ll treat you to a slice of cake,’ Rome tried.