Ellie's Return (10 page)

Lola could have done without this on the
night she was going to be schmoozing with the local business community. She was
expecting to have some problems, but she had already pinned those on Tom, so
when he had seemed quite agreeable about supporting her function she knew it
was because he saw it as a social event more than anything, but she did not
care as long as he was not going to be disruptive. Now she would have to
explain his absence, and she certainly could not hide her relationship as people
would be asking for him all night, but it was a small price to pay for finding
out what Ellie was up to. She had thought of this on the way back to the shop
and once it occurred to her it was the only possibility, and she felt safer
being confrontational than being on the run. She would call Ellie and tell her
she really needed to talk but there was no good time, could she come along this
evening and they could try to make a night of it?
 
Ellie had sounded delighted at the idea,
the only thing was that she had only casual clothes and there wasn’t time to
shop. Then she had the fantastic idea of borrowing something from Lola, they
always used to swap clothes so it was the perfect solution, she would meet her
at the shop, and they could go home together.

Lola was angry that the plan seemed to
have hit an early roadblock. Having Ellie turn up at a do where she didn’t know
many people and Lola was in control was supposed to back foot her, but now
Ellie wanted to see her in her own home, which had been just Tom’s place when
Ellie was with him, so she was going to have to confront things right away and
she still did not know what Ellie knew. She called Tom and told him that she
needed the house to herself so he should go and get what he needed and make
himself scarce.

Tom had packed everything he needed that
morning. He had considered not drinking that evening but that was ridiculous,
especially as Lola was having to cough up for the wine out of her own business.
His plan had been to get home, and first thing next morning to get up and out
before Lola started swanning around. He had looked forward to this evening but
only really as a respite from being alone or being with Lola, so when he
discovered he could start his weekend earlier he was all for it. He called on
to the hotel he was booked at and extended his stay another night, and as they
remembered him as a good customer of yesteryear they were happy to accommodate.

He left the office early, having tidied up
some papers that he was not really focussed on and made his excuses to his PA,
who in turn started getting ready to leave as soon as he was gone.
 
He had been feeling edgy all day today.
The day seemed to have started off not too badly. That was when he thought he
would not need to speak to Lola, but it always ruined his day to have to speak
to her in the middle of it. She was just too unpleasant. She put on an air of
politeness with everybody she spoke to, but she would not need to put it on if
she were not quite such an ill-mannered pig the rest of the time. Sometimes he
shuddered just to think of her. If that were not enough, that trollope Ellie
was now apparently knocking around as well, and he had half dreaded that she
may turn up at his office just to rub his nose in it. She may not, perhaps she
was not so brazen, but he was glad to get away because she didn’t think she
would go to their house and there was no where else she would find him.

Fifteen

Just after Tom arrived at the house, Ellie
pulled up outside too. She had gone to his office to see him, not believing
that he was away on a trip but knowing she would not now see him this evening
at Lola’s business event. When she got Lola’s call, Ellie had already asked
Claudia if she could borrow her car for the weekend to get away. She was half
thinking of asking Claudia if she wanted to go with her to see some old friends
but she was afraid that the invitation might have some romantic overtones that
she did not intend. When the call came from Lola she thought the invitation was
a great idea, not because she wanted to go and learn anything from Lola but
because she knew that if she was expected there Tom and Lola would have to be
in different places and Lola would be confined to one for the whole evening.
Coming to the house now was fine, because Lola would be waiting for her at the
shop, and anxious to talk to her before revealing the address they needed to go
to. Ellie had got to the busy street where Tom’s office was and had seen him
come out and get into the metallic silver Bentley Continental GT that Lola had
grudgingly agreed fitted the profile he needed to have for his business. It was
one of the few things in life that gave him some pleasure these days, although
he was aware that any vehicle which could get him away from Lola at weekends
would have a place in his heart. Ellie had been able to wait to see where he
went and had time to turn around and follow him. She suspected she knew where
he was going, but when he stopped in at a retail park she pulled in too, since
if he did not live in the same house anymore she would lose him now if she were
not careful.

He looked very much the same in many ways,
but he carried himself differently, or something about him was not the
same.
 
She wondered if was having a
bad day because his demeanour always used to be so breezy and upbeat, but he
looked bowed down, unhappy with his lot. When he went into a pharmacists and a
couple of other shops, Ellie thought of a couple of things she needed too but
decided that a meeting in a shop was going to lead to him storming off and then
she might not find him, so she would bide her time.
 
She had not decided whether she would
confront him at all, much less what she would say. She had come back from
Venice not knowing what she would say if she could see him, and that was before
she knew about his new relationship. There was no doubt, mostly just because of
how hard Lola had tried to avoid her, that there was something not quite right
about the whole scenario, and that alone made it worth at least speaking to
him. She didn’t know why she was feeling so defensive, after all it was he who
had cut off all contact with her, which was why she had gone away, and he had
not attempted to contact her since which he easily could have done if he had
wanted to. That being the case, she was the one entitled to be angry with him,
not the other way round, and maybe he should think about that.

She waited for him to go into the house.
He did not carry anything in from the car so whatever he had bought he probably
needed for the night, wherever he was going. He had always been very organised,
he didn’t like to spend time packing and he did not like to be away and find he
had forgotten anything he needed so he had a packing system; he had a system
for everything. If Ellie had known he was going away for the weekend she might
have expected him to go in, grab a bag and go, but she did not know he had been
intending to get away for the weekend. She decided that he would be going in to
have a shower and get ready and she had time to think about what to say. After
ten minutes of staring blankly at the front door of the town house, all she had
really thought about was how lovely the window boxes were upstairs, and she
wondered who was responsible for nurturing them. She decided that since she was
not letting her mind find a way to deal with the situation, she had best rely
on her instinct, and she had an irresistible impulse to go and knock on the
door. Once there, her heart was beating so fast that she feared she would be
unable to speak, much less say anything worth hearing. But she was knocking for
so long that it had time to slow and although she was tense by the time she had
padding down the stairs, at least she was calmer than she had been.

Tom answered the door, wearing only a
towel and still dripping all over the floor. He did not look pleased to see her;
she had not expected that he would, whatever she may have hoped. He looked over
her head and around at the street and then at her as though she surely must
have something to say. Ellie was relieved she had calmed down because the image
of Tom standing dripping wet might have pushed her over the edge altogether if
she had not, as it was she could not think of anything to say, and seemed to
forget even that something was expected. Tom opened the door to let her in, but
from his body language it seemed more because he did not want to be stood in
the doorway like that. She stepped inside but he did not move away from the
door, so there was nowhere to follow. She had an immediate sense of being home.
The décor had not changed, the smells were the same, and the light as it shone
down through an upstairs side window onto the wide tiled lobby was a suddenly
familiar but long forgotten sight. She looked at tom, she had hoped she would
have no feelings for him but she knew the moment she saw him leaving his office
and she felt a jump in her chest that she still wanted him. She looked at him
now, in wonder, his lean solid chest, his firm arms and abdomen. She had never
seen him work out, never seen him try too hard to look like this, and she
wondered at how little he had changed. That was his body though; his attitude
had changed completely. He told her that Lola was not here and she could leave
a note or find her somewhere else. Ellie was taken aback by the suddenness of
his dismissal; there was no hint of having missed her or being pleased to see
her. There was no sign of attraction or longing in him. She wanted to reach out
and touch him but she knew he would reject her, again.

She told him she had come to see him, she
knew where Lola was, she had seen her briefly, and nobody knew Ellie was here.
That seemed to relax Tom very slightly, as though perhaps he had thought she
was going to walk in any moment too. Lola had a way of ruining Tom’s next few
hours every time she spoke to him, and as much as he tried to conquer that, the
intensity of his dislike for her was almost insurmountable. He did not hate
her, that would be crossing a line to becoming something he was not, but every
day he lived with the image of being tied to her for as long as he could
imagine, and every time she spoke to him the horror of that idea became more
animated, so when he knew her presence was imminent his hackles were raised and
when he knew she was not, he calmed slightly. Ellie was unaware of the strength
of his feeling for Lola, or certainly the direction of it, and thought that the
ire she witnessed could only be for her. She was desperate to stay and talk but
equally needed to get away and escape the intensity of his disdain for her. If
she only knew it, Tom was incredulous that she should show up now when he had
tried so hard to contact her before and she had not even acknowledged him. It
was after all she who had run off and left him standing, so he had no idea why
was she standing here now expecting he would have anything to say to her.

She looked beautiful. He always thought
she looked so radiant, and here she was now, standing before him, glowing
again. Her blonde hair seemed to shine from nothing, and her teeth were so
straight and white. Her chest was flushed, she had tripped over her words when
she spoke, and now she seemed dumbstruck again. He had the sense he had not had
for so long of wanting somebody. The one
night stand
he had before was more an act of will than of spontaneity, and as for the few
weeks of passionate sex he had with Lola when they first met, he had little
memory of that. Lola had a beautiful body but she was ugly inside and he could
not think of her with any warmth. There had been no spontaneity between them,
no inherent language of their bodies together, nothing intimate, just
gratuitous sex which after what he had with Ellie before she left so suddenly
was really nothing more than revenge on her for going like that, without a
word. That last recollection was a sudden jolt that bought him back, the
repulsion for Lola now tainting Ellie by association.
 

He reached for the door latch, turned it
and stood back to open the door. She had been central to his existence for two
years and then one day she had gone, for no reason that he understood even to
this day. Everything she had ever said, any declaration she had ever made to
him was rendered meaningless by that action, and still he had looked out for
her and still she had rejected him. Only his abject sense that if she was not
worth pursuing then no woman was, had kept him going through the turmoil of the
last three years. Only the sense that if he could get away from this situation
he would be away for good and forever, and he would be alone. More than
anything he would be alone. There was nothing to say to this woman, except to
thank her for his resolve, and that would mean nothing until he knew that he
was free and he had his revenge on both Lola, and on Ellie herself.
 

Sixteen

 
Claudia was fretting, as it was now
several hours since Ellie had gone out and she had no idea if or when she would
be back, other than to gather her belongings. She consoled herself that Ellie
had seemed greatly calmed and somewhat relieved by what she called Claudia’s
‘magic hands’, which was a polite euphemism for all the different kinds of
magic that Claudia had worked on her on this occasion and many others before.
It helped that Claudia had fleshed her fantasies out in great detail and was
able to implement the products of her creative senses, but it helped no less
that Ellie was such a desirable subject and when she was willing at all, as
willing as one could ask. The problem was that she would appear and disappear
again with a frightening rapidity, which made life very stressful for Claudia
who had ordered her life before considering where she would fit people into it,
rather than around those who were already there. She no longer deluded herself
that a relationship with Ellie was a realistic proposition, and it had hurt
Claudia to see how devastated she was about Tom and Lola, but as long as Ellie
wanted to come and go she was welcome to, and Claudia would try not to
constrain her by asking when that would be but she could not help wishing that
she was better qualified for the demands of being the giver of unrequited love.