Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn (18 page)

‘A walk?’ Paige repeated stupidly. ‘Where?’

‘I have no idea. Anywhere away from you.’

***

As soon as Bonnie had reached the grey, damp street, she regretted losing her temper with Paige. But it was too late to go back inside; she had to be missing for a little while if Paige wasn’t going to think she was a complete pushover. As she walked quickly around the block, the streets darkening and the lamps just flickering on in their first dull light, she ran over all the things that had been happening to her lately.
Her life was getting weirder by the minute and she was almost convinced that she would wake one morning to find it all been a strange dream.

Eventually, she decided that Paige had stewed long enough, or, at least, she had been missing long enough to give her daughter some food for thought, and headed back.

As Bonnie opened the front door of the flat, she smelt the aroma of cooking sausages. Layered beneath it was the smell of burning, but she tried not to think of that as she hurried into the kitchen.

‘Hey,’ Paige smiled sheepishly as she pulled a pan from the stove.

‘What are you doing?’ Bonnie asked, her eyes wide.

‘What does it look like?’

‘You’re…
cooking
?’

Paige frowned as she shared out the sausages between two plates. ‘I have done food tech at school, you know.’

‘You might have done but you don’t do it at home.’

‘Ha ha.’

Bonnie took her coat off and hung it over a chair as Paige dragged a tray of chips from the oven. She gave a grateful smile as Paige brought the plates to the table and placed one in front of her, a moment later plonking down condiments and a glass of orange juice.

‘Thanks, Paige.’

Her daughter shrugged. She would never say sorry; this meal was as close as Bonnie would ever get to an apology from her. It didn’t matter. She looked down at her plate. Something that resembled charcoal briquettes sat against the sausages. Bonnie surmised that they had once been oven chips.

‘This looks… lovely.’

‘Sorry, the chips are a bit burnt. I had trouble getting everything to be ready at the same time and then I didn’t know what time you would be back.’ Paige grinned. ‘It’s a good job you didn’t go for a long walk, you might have come back to a flat full of firemen.’

‘Oh, I don’t think that would necessarily have been a bad thing,’ Bonnie smiled impishly.

‘MUM!’ Paige groaned.

‘Well, I am hormonal.’

‘Yeah… about that…’

‘Forget it, eh? I had a bad day and this lovely tea has made it a whole lot better. Let’s keep it that way.’

***

Despite the working week stretching ahead endlessly on Mondays, Fridays always seemed to come around so quickly that the days of Bonnie’s life appeared to melt into one indistinguishable mass of time; before she knew it, retirement would be upon her. Not that she was prone to fits of melancholic brooding, but as she pulled on her tabard to get ready for work on that particular Friday, she reflected that the way her life was going, her imminent retirement was set to be a gloomy and lonely affair.

At least there had been no more letters from Holden, and Max had slipped back into the old familiar friend that she knew and loved – wise-cracking and full of good humour – all awkwardness between them apparently forgotten. Linda had stopped her interference in Bonnie’s love life too and had even mentioned helping with Bonnie’s newly-resurrected quest to find Max the perfect girlfriend.

And so all was back to normal – or, at least, Bonnie had thought so. She arrived to find that Linda had opened up and Fred was nowhere to be seen.

‘Where’s Hilter?’ Bonnie asked as she walked through the main shop, shrugging her coat off.

Linda shot her a sideways glance as she took the tarpaulin cover off the apple display.

‘He’s going to be in late again today.’

‘Really?’ Bonnie asked, stopping in her tracks. ‘He normally asks me to open up when he’s going to be late.’

‘He couldn’t get through to your phone…’

Bonnie frowned. She hadn’t thought to check her mobile this morning. Pulling it out of her pocket, her stomach lurched. She knew that the bill had been due a couple of weeks previously, and that she would have to be late paying it, but from the looks of things as she studied the display and saw that there was no network showing at all, the phone company had got tired of waiting and suspended her account. She wracked her brains for a solution, angry with herself for letting things get this bad.

Linda watched her closely. ‘If you need some help with that…’ she said gently, guessing what the situation was.

Bonnie forced a bright smile. ‘I forgot to pay the bill, silly me. I’ll sort it out later.’

Linda paused for a moment, before she nodded and returned to her task.

‘You want a cup of tea?’ Bonnie called as she went through into the back of the shop.

‘That’s the best offer I’ve had all day,’ Linda called back.

As Bonnie filled the kettle, the usual morning knock came at the back door. Bonnie went to open it, moving aside to let Max in before returning to the kitchen to put out an extra mug. ‘You’re just in time for a brew,’ she said from the tiny sink.

‘Ah, that’s because I have my tea radar on,’ he replied, rubbing the cold from his hands. ‘I can hear the kettle clicking on from three streets away.’

Bonnie came back through to the storeroom. ‘Got any plans for the weekend?’

‘Not really,’ he replied carefully, though Bonnie suddenly detected a change in his demeanour, as if there was something he didn’t want to say.

‘I’ll be here for most of it, of course,’ Bonnie added, trying to make light of his discomfort and change the subject. ‘Bloody shop work, I must be mad. A one day weekend is rubbish.’

‘Yeah,’ Max agreed, ‘there are some things to be said for being your own boss. At least I get to choose not to deliver on Saturdays.’

‘Yeah, Fred hates that, he’s always moaning about how he can’t have fresh stuff on Saturdays… just so you know.’

‘I know he does. Unless he wants to get his stuff for twice the price at Countywide, he’ll just have to put up with it.’ He glanced through the doorway to the main shop. ‘Where is the old goat anyway?’

‘Probably getting some more thatching,’ Linda said coming back through from the shop and catching the turn of the conversation.

Bonnie grinned at Linda. ‘You be careful he doesn’t catch you saying that. He was almost right behind you when you pointed it out to Edith Jones the other day.’

‘Pah!’ Linda waved a dismissive hand. ‘What’s he going to do, sack me? I’d like to see what he’d tell the unfair dismissal tribunal if he tried.’ She turned to Max. ‘So what’s this thing you’re not really doing at the weekend?’

‘Bloody hell, Lind, you must have ears like a bat!’ Max exclaimed.

‘You’ve got to get up early in the morning to get anything past me. So spill.’

Max glanced uncomfortably at Bonnie, hesitating for a few moments before he finally spoke. ‘I’m going to see Sarah.’

‘You’re what!’ Linda spluttered.

Max shrugged helplessly. ‘She called and said she wanted to talk. What else could I do?’

‘She wants to talk you into giving it another go, you know that, don’t you?’ Linda warned.

‘Probably. But I suppose I owe her the courtesy of hearing her out at least.’

‘You owe her nothing. If saving the girl a broken heart further down the line is wrong, then I don’t think you want to be right.’ Linda glanced at Bonnie, whose expression had become suddenly uptight.

‘I’ll go and make that tea,’ Bonnie said quietly, slinking away to the kitchenette.

‘This is madness,’ Linda continued to Max, lowering her voice. She sighed. ‘The sooner you and Bonnie realise that you were made for each other, the better.’

‘Bonnie doesn’t want me.’

‘Of course she does. Weren’t you looking a minute ago when she sloped off to make the tea? Her face said it all – she’s gutted about you getting back with Sarah.’

‘I never said we were getting back together. I’m going to see her, that’s all.’

‘Hmph.’

‘I promise, Lind, I’m just going to talk to her.’

‘Where are you meeting?’

‘Blossom Palace.’

Linda arched a cynical eyebrow. ‘Kind of public and date-like to be a serious talk about why you can’t get back together.’

‘Her idea.’

‘I’ll bet it was.’

Bonnie came back through with three mugs on a tray. Linda and Max both took one and Bonnie removed hers, putting the tray to one side. She took a silent sip, looking from one to the other before putting her cup down on a bench and announcing that she was going to start getting the cold stock from the fridges before Fred came in. Linda had a curious look on her face as she watched her go.

‘I’d better get cracking too,’ Max decided as he left his cup next to Bonnie’s.

‘Actually…’ Linda said slowly, ‘I could do with you looking at this tray of kiwis.’

‘Kiwis?’ Max said in a bemused voice.

‘Yeah, we had some complaints that there was some kind of worm in the ones we sold yesterday. I kept them in the fridge so I could show you.’

Max followed Linda to the huge, open fridge doors. Bonnie was in there rotating the stock on the shelves.

‘Just in the corner,’ Linda said, ushering Max in. ‘Oh, and you two…’ she added with a sly grin, ‘I am really sorry about this, but you’ll thank me one day…’

‘Huh?’ Bonnie looked up.

Linda’s grin widened. ‘I’m not letting you out until you agree to go on a date with each other.’

And she slammed the door before either of them had a chance to get to it, trapping Max and Bonnie inside.

Max spun around as the fridge was plunged into gloom. ‘What the hell…’

‘Oh my God, Linda!’ Bonnie squealed, tripping over a tray of tomatoes that sent her sprawling across the floor to land at Max’s feet. She felt a strong pair of hands pull her gently up to stand.

‘Are you ok?’ Max’s concerned voice cut through the darkness.

‘Yeah, nothing broken. What the bloody hell is Linda doing now though?’

Max chuckled softly. ‘I always knew she was a bit of a loose cannon but this is off the scale.’ He thumped a hand on the door. ‘LINDA!’

‘She probably can’t hear through this thick wall, and even if she can she’s not going to give up that easily,’ Bonnie said. ‘Hang on…’ she was silent for a moment as she felt along the wall. A strip light flickered into life and she could see Max’s part-quizzical, part-annoyed, part-amused expression. It looked a lot like the one she was sure she had too.

‘She’s joking, right?’ Max asked. ‘She won’t make us stay in here?’

Bonnie bit her lip. ‘I wouldn’t put it past her.’

‘But Fred will be back soon, surely? She’s got to let us out before then.’

‘Fred doesn’t scare Linda. She’s got this mad idea in her head and she won’t let go of it.’

‘About you and me?’ Max gave her a sheepish grin.

Bonnie nodded.

‘So the only way we get out of here is if we agree to go out on a date? Doesn’t seem like such a hardship when you put it like that.’

There was no escape this time. Bonnie couldn’t change the subject or make excuses and scuttle off like she usually did. Linda knew what she was doing locking them in together, because faced with telling Max like this, Bonnie wouldn’t be able to do it. She flopped down onto a sack of carrots and looked up at Max, who came over to sit next to her.

‘It’s pretty cold in here,’ he said, the breath unfurling from his mouth in a soft plume to reinforce the fact even as he spoke. ‘Let me know if you need warming up.’

Bonnie shot him a sideways glance. His face was poker straight but there was an impish humour dancing in his blue eyes.

‘We’ll both be frozen stiff if we don’t get out of here soon.’

‘That’s a bit melodramatic,’ Max chortled.

‘We might suffocate then.’

‘More likely.’

‘Bloody Linda. Wait till I get out of here.’

‘
If
you get out of here.’

‘I thought I was the melodramatic one?’

‘But just imagine,’ Max began, putting on a spooky voice, ‘Linda is kidnapped right now and driven away in the boot of a car and nobody knows we’re here until it’s too late…’

Bonnie smacked him on the arm and he grinned broadly.

‘So, what are we going to do then?’

‘We can tell Linda we’ve agreed to it,’ Max said.

Bonnie shook her head. ‘She’s not that stupid.’

‘There’s only one thing we can do then,’ Max replied.

‘One drink,’ Bonnie warned. ‘And there’s nothing in it but mates going out together.’

‘One drink. Yes ma’am!’

Bonnie was thoughtful for a moment, hugging herself against the cold that was now beginning to bite through her clothes. Max leaned across and rubbed her arms to try to warm her.

‘What about Sarah?’ she suddenly asked.

Max’s arms dropped to his sides again. ‘I still have to meet her. I said I would.’

‘Does that mean you want to try again?’

‘I don’t think so. I don’t know, if I’m honest.’

‘What would she say if she found out about us?’

Max held her in a penetrating gaze for a moment before he replied. ‘There is no
us
, is there? It’s just a drink, like you said.’

‘Yeah,’ Bonnie said, something like disappointment creeping into her expression. ‘Just a drink. Of course it is.’

The door opened and they both span around to see Linda grinning from the doorway. She held a mop out at them threateningly. ‘Don’t think you can rush me and get out. Have you sorted it yet?’

Bonnie and Max shared a loaded glance.

‘Yeah,’ Bonnie said. ‘We have.’

‘And?’ Linda asked.

‘We’ll do it. One date and then you leave us alone.’

Linda stepped back and let them out of the fridge.

‘Bloody hell, Linda, it’s cold in there. I need another brew now to thaw out,’ Max said as he stepped back into the cool, but at least a little warmer, stockroom.

Before Linda had time to reply, Fred’s furious, bright red face appeared at the doorway of the stockroom. ‘Industrial action is it this morning?’

Bonnie gave him a confused frown.