An Unexpected Gift (8 page)

The
goal to move on with his life was slowly starting to take form. But his resolve
to have nothing more to do with women this year was not quite going to plan;
Caitlin was always in his thoughts. He felt protective about her. As nasty as
the attack had been, it bound them together.

In
his eyes, it was the one positive thing that had come out of such a traumatic
life experience.

They
met as agreed outside Holborn station at six o’clock. Daniel had already
arrived and was waiting for her as Caitlin walked towards him.

About
two steps away from him, she tripped and calmly tried to regain her composure.
But her cheeks were flushed and her eyes shiny with anticipation. “Darned high
heels,” she muttered. He smiled.

“Hi
Caitlin. You alright?” 

“I’m
good thanks. You?”  He nodded in reply.

They
walked over to a wine bar just off Kingsway called Jude’s. It was more than
half full, mainly with couples, getting ready for the weekend and beginning to
celebrate a day early.

Daniel’s
eyes were bright and his best feature and she found herself increasingly drawn
to them. And yet there was something in them that she could not define. She
wasn’t sure if it was a feeling of sadness or emptiness. He watched her avidly.

Are
you flirting with me?  Because that’s just not on
.  She was not quite sure why the two of
them, strangers until three weeks ago, were now sitting at a wine bar, sharing
a bottle of wine.

The
memory of that night cast a shadow over her face. “So the police want to know
whether you’re going to file charges against the attacker?”

He
put down his wine glass. “Of course I’m going to press charges.”

But
you don’t know what Carl is capable of.

Caitlin
looked over at him, a hint of fear darkening her brown eyes. “Are you sure
that’s the right thing to do? I mean, what if they come back and get mad at you
for doing that?”

He
seemed a little taken aback. “They deserve to be punished, don’t they?”
He didn’t want to pry too much into her
personal life but she was lovely to look at and each time he saw her he felt
the need to protect her because he saw that she was scared too.

He waited for her to open up and talk about the
very thing that he wanted to know more about, but she seemed reluctant to shed
any more information on: her violent ex. The animal behind the attack.

When she didn’t, when she gazed out of the window
instead, he said, “Sounds as though your ex boyfriend was a very nasty piece of
work.”

“He
was,” answered Caitlin. She slammed down her wine glass harder than she meant
to, sending a splash of wine flying out of the glass. “I want that man out of
my life for once and for all.”

Daniel
moved in a little closer, “That’s not going to happen if you don’t file charges
against him,” he said softly. “I know you’re scared. But, I’ll be there with
you.”

Her
lip trembled and she fought to contain the tears that she felt welling up in
her eyes. She kept her gaze locked onto the small black vase in the middle of
the table. Because if she looked up at him, into those cool, blue eyes, hers
tears would fall.
Why did being with him have this effect on her?
 

If
she had stopped to think about it at all, she might have reasoned that having
someone be nice to her, say nice things, the right things and treat her well were
all things she so badly needed. They had been so badly missing from her life
during the past few months. And so she found Daniel’s concern about her to be
touching.

She
had refused to tell her parents, even now, that Carl was somehow implicated in
all this mess. She refused to listen to Kerrie who insisted and repeated to her
that her parents deserved to know who was behind the attack. And so now, apart
from Kerrie and Daniel, she had no other people to turn to for.  

I’ll
be there with you.
That’s what
Daniel had promised. Caitlin wondered how exactly he would be there for her,
with Marisa still waiting for him at home.

She
drew her attention away from the
window and paused before she said, “You know how sometimes you think you have a
person all figured out? And then they turn out to be and do things completely
different to how you thought they might? Carl was one of those people. It
started out good but then things changed, real fast. And now I look back on it
all and I wonder how I could have gotten everything so wrong.”

Daniel gazed at her tenderly. “Sometimes, you meet
people who bring out the best in you.”

She smirked. “And Carl bought out the worst in me
just like I’m sure I bought out the very worst in him. And when that happens,
you know you’re not really supposed to be together. Not if you want to be
happy.”

Feeling uncomfortable that their conversation had
taken a turn onto personal matters, Caitlin steered it back on course. “How’s
Marisa?” she asked, looking into her wine glass.

“Fine.”

“I thought we might have bumped into her at the
weekend,” said Caitlin, pretending not to be so bothered about it all.

“I was out with my sister and her husband, they’d
popped into HMV when my nephew and I saw you.”

His nephew?

“I thought he was your son,” stammered Caitlin,
“you both have similar colouring.”

It was a simple enough mistake to make. “My sister
and I have the same hair and eye colour. I don’t have any children.”

He said I and not we.

“Oh.” She felt relieved.

Daniel
poured her another glass of wine and one for himself too. They discussed other
things then, her job, his work. Friends, family, where they lived, why they
picked London out of everywhere else and so on. Idle chit chat, nothing further
to do with relationships or the attack.

His
was an easy going personality and they hit it off. Even the pauses weren’t
awkward. Caitlin felt at ease, at peace. She was glad she had met up with him.
Glad that he had suggested it in the first place.

“Did
you want to grab something to eat?” he suggested. He said it simply, as though
he would be asking a friend. She narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out why he
wanted to grab a bite to eat. 
Didn’t he have a home to go to?

She
was tempted and yet going for a meal with Daniel was not going to help her get
him out of her thoughts. She feigned surprise as she glanced at her watch and
for a split second she
really
was surprised that it was already ten
o’clock. “Ten already?” her brows knitted together in genuine surprise.

Daniel
waited for her response but had the uneasy feeling that she was going to turn
him down. “Didn’t realize it was so late. I take it that’s a no then?”  He
shrugged his shoulders and added, “It’s late, maybe it’s better to head on
home.”

“It
was nice, talking and stuff. But I have to go. I don’t like being out too late
these days.” She reached behind her to grab her coat.

“Sure,
I understand. I’d offer to see you back home, under the circumstances, but I
wouldn’t want you to think I was coming onto you or anything.”  Caitlin
looked up startled. His words surprised her. That he had said out loud what she
had been thinking and worrying about the whole time she had sat here with him.

“I
know you’re not coming onto me. I know ….because you’re married, right?”

Daniel
gave her an odd look, which she couldn’t quite translate. “Sorry Caitlin, I
didn’t mean to be so….direct. The last thing I want is for you to think I have
other ulterior motives. I wanted to meet you because what your friend said,
about your ex and the attack. I wanted to know more. He attacked me too and I
was curious.”

Instead
of getting up to put on her coat, she relaxed back in her chair and looked at
him directly. “Daniel, it’s fine. I’m glad you said what you did. It makes
everything more out in the open. For what its worth, I find it real easy
talking to you too.  You probably think I keep going on about it, but you
saved me that night. My whole world is all shook up right now. I’m trying to
put the few months with him behind me, I’m trying to deal with the assault, I’m
struggling with the idea that he paid someone to beat me up.”
And I’m struggling
to fight my attraction to you.

Daniel
slipped on his coat and looked at her sympathetically. “Tough times Caitlin but
we’ll get through them. The assault, your ex, the charges, all of it. I’ll be
there right beside you.”

“Will
you?” she asked, drawing her scarf tightly around her neck.

He
ran a sturdy hand through his thick blond hair. “We were thrown into this and
we’ll get out of it. Trust me.”

She
did trust him but it was more than trust. She knew she could count on him
because he had turned up at the very point in her life when she was beginning
to lose hope in ever getting close to another man again.

He’s
going to help you through the court case and facing Carl. Don’t expect anything
more. He’s married, remember?

They
stepped out into the crisp night air and onto the busy Kingsway road, where
cars, motorbikes, vans and lorries hurtled along at breakneck speed.

She
turned to him, just outside the wine bar, the light from inside bathing her
face in a soft amber glow. She paused for a moment before looking into his
eyes. “Sometimes I think that the way we met, as unexpected as it was, was a
blessing in disguise. You see Daniel, whether you want to see it that way or
not, the way I see it is that you gave me a gift. You saved my life and I feel
indebted to you. I know you said I shouldn’t, but I do. And I can’t help it.
It’s like I feel this….this…this connection to you. And I don’t even understand
it myself.”

“Don’t
feel indebted,” he said softly, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t feel as though
you owe me anything, because you don’t.”

She
stared into his eyes, mesmerized by their blueness and if she let herself she
could almost lose herself in his gaze.  Almost.

He
leant forward, gently placing his hands on her shoulders and bent down to kiss
her lightly on the cheek. As he did so, she hugged him back, lightly holding
his arms as he hugged her close to his chest. He drew back slightly, not
wanting to overstep his place, but her half-parted lips and the longing in her
eyes held him spellbound. He wanted to kiss her, badly, but he restrained
himself.

Instead,
she closed her lips and brushed a light kiss against his lips. It happened all
so fast, that it seemed as though it hadn’t happened at all.

“I’m
glad we met tonight Caitlin.”

“Me
too.”

He
insisted on calling her a black cab which he knew would safely take her back
home. And despite her protests, he wouldn’t have any of it. She was safely back
at home less than thirty minutes later.

And
Daniel headed back to his house in a separate black cab, unaware that he was
being followed.

The
entire journey home, Daniel had been thinking about the evening with Caitlin
and the light kiss they had shared. He had done the decent thing and held back.
But she had kissed him first.

Lightly,
very lightly, but it was a kiss all the same.

He
had been so close to telling her about Marisa but it didn’t seem appropriate to
mention anything about his own personal hell just yet.

The
cab pulled up outside Daniel’s house. It was eerily quiet and the floodlight
came on as he walked up the driveway.

As
soon as he stepped into his hallway, he immediately felt that something was
different about the place.

He
looked around the rooms and saw a few things missing. He opened his coat closet
and saw that only his coats and jackets and his shoes were inside.

All
of Marisa’s things were gone.

He
breathed a huge sigh of relief as the realization hit home and then he laughed
out loud. It was a wholesome, loud and hearty laugh. He had his house back and
Marisa was gone, for good. Not the Marisa that he fell in love with, but the
Marisa that she had become, a needy, greedy, spiteful and vain Marisa. They had
grown apart so quickly in the last six months of their married life. The
laughter was his release; it was the letting out of much pent up frustration.
Living with Marisa these last few months had been especially trying. And now,
at long last, he had his life and his home back.

Maybe
life was starting to look up now.

Daniel
stood in his hallway, dropped his briefcase to the floor and inhaled
deeply.  For the first time in weeks, he was starting to feel optimistic
about the future.

When
he awoke the next morning and came down the stairs, he felt the strong need to
vomit.

He
cupped his hand over his nose, noticing a nasty odor in the house. It was the
sharp smell of excrement. Wrinkling his face, he looked down on the floor of
his landing and saw the squidgy and unmistakable pile of dog excrement on his
doormat. His letter box was soiled and the smell was everywhere. Quelling the
desire to reach over and retch, Daniel stepped over the feces and yanked the
door open in a fit of rage.