Page 43 of The Trouble With Love

‘Hey Holl.’ Nick was hooked over the sofa watching TV. ‘Children’s TV is really good.’ He was just sitting, not even fidgeting. There must be something calming in the air here.

‘Did you ring me?’

His eyes never left the screen. ‘No. What, you mean today? No. I’m watching this, it’s meant for kids but it’s brilliant.’

‘Yeah, well, far be it from me to try to compete with a Dalek.’ I went back into the kitchen, gently kicking shut the door to the living room as I passed.

Kai was plugging in the kettle. ‘By the way, Holl,’ he said with his back to me, ‘thanks for yesterday.’ There was a careful casualness about his tone that told me not to ask any questions, to dismiss his thanks as an idle recognition of my taking the morning off to accompany him.

‘’S okay,’ I replied, trying to mirror his casual tone.

‘You . . . you were great.’

‘I didn’t do anything. I was just there.’

‘Yeah. Which is more than I had a right to ask from you.’ His hand, I could see, was tight on the kettle handle, and the other was bunched in front of him. ‘You cared,’ and now his voice was a hoarseness only just audible over the bubbling rattle of the boil.

‘Well, you seemed to need . . .’, and then, to change the subject, because there was an air of deepening emotion in that room that I couldn’t deal with in wet socks, ‘are you sure you didn’t ring? This place came up on the number ident.’

He shook his head. ‘Maybe the weather has shorted something out.’ He picked up the handset from the kitchen dresser. Looked at it, listened to it and then shook it gently. ‘Looks like the lines are down now anyway.’

‘Well, if you don’t want me, maybe I ought to go back. I’ve left Aiden . . .’ I grinned to myself. ‘Well, he’s not going to be a happy bunny if I leave him for too long, put it that way.’

‘Uh huh.’ Kai put a mug of tea down on the table. ‘No way am I letting you go out in this again. Listen to it, it’s getting worse.’ The incoming tide had suddenly become a running flood, the wind booming and cracking in the treetops and even making it down to ground level now, where it sent snow whirling and crashing like insubstantial, and rather bad, waltzers.

‘Oh God,’ I said. ‘Aiden.’ I turned back to look for my coat again. ‘I have to go, Kai.’

‘No.’ His voice was absolutely definite. ‘You are not going anywhere. Not now. And anyway, I thought you said you’d wrecked your car?’

‘Lend me the Jeep.’

‘Can’t. There’s a tree down across the garage doors. I made a start on chopping it up, but I’ve only done some of the major branches, there’s a whole trunk to go and I am not going out again until the weather sees sense and calms down.’

I looked out of the window. The snow was making a sound like fluttering birds. ‘I have to do something, this could go on for hours.’

‘Ring your friend? Would she go round?’

‘Phones are down.’

‘Mobile?’

I held mine up. ‘No signal.’

‘No, mine neither. Mast gone in the wind or something.’

‘Besides, Megan hasn’t got the handcuff key.’

‘The . . .’ Kai rolled his eyes at me. ‘Holly. What have you done?’

So I told him. I didn’t even edit out the leather trouser incident. ‘But, Kai, I honest to God don’t know what’s got into Aiden. We’ve never . . . there’s never been any talk of making anything permanent, we’ve never watched TV together or gone anywhere . . . it was always just the sex. And I thought he was all right with it, and then he turns up on my doorstep swearing undying love and a permanent hard-on and talking about threesomes and banging other girls like we’ve agreed it all!’

‘And now he’s handcuffed to your bed.’

‘He was going to come with me. And take a look at you.’

‘At me.’

‘With a view to seducing you into bed with us.’

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