Page 57 of Cuts Like An Angel: Part 3

“I don’t think so,” she said, even the thought of going back made her heart lurch. She’d not even go back if her life depended on it. There was nothing in the States for her now.

“There was some other reason you left. More than simple adventure?”

Rosie’s mouth dried up with the way Mark looked at her. Like he knew. His eyes were blue, but not like William’s, more on the blue/grey side, but still, they seemed to delve into her and make her shift uncomfortably. “My parents,” she said in the end. “They had my life mapped out for me and wanted me to be something I wasn’t ready for.” It wasn’t a total lie.

“So, you ran away to England?”

“Something like that.” Rosie’s jaw locked up and her back grew stiff. She ached inside to go and find William. To go and see if he was okay. Time ticked by so slowly. Their food came and the waitress set their plates down, along with cutlery.

“Is there anything else I can get for you?” she asked.

“No. This is great. Thanks,” Mark said.

“Maybe I should go and see if he’s okay? Tell him the food is here?” Rosie said. She clasped her hands in her lap again and twisted her fingers around each other as if she might wrench the answers if she tugged hard enough. She got up. “I’ll just be a second. You start. No sense in all the food going cold.” She took two steps and William appeared at the doorway like a welcome shadow. She slunk back to her seat, suddenly feeling so foolish, like she’d gone to check up on him, but also feeling the bite of his possible lies. “Is your mother okay?” she asked when he got closer.

He came around to sit back down beside her. “Yeah. She just needed some help with something. All sorted, though.” He kissed her on the cheek. His lips were cold and dry. “Should we eat?”

“Yes,” Mark said. “Good job you came back when you did. I was about to devour the whole lot. I’m starving.”

William offered Rosie a smile, but it was a struggle for her to give it back. Instead she nodded to him, her mind locking on the call, the ringtone and everything else. Her stomach soured already, and she hadn’t eaten a bite. She picked up her drink and drank what was left of it, but Mark and William had already started their conversation back up, as if William hadn’t just vanished outside for ages.

She watched him and the easy way he talked to Mark, the way his body language told her he was at ease. Maybe she could have vanished, and William wouldn’t have noticed. Would he have noticed if it were Sam?

“Not eating?” Mark asked.

“Huh?”

He motioned at her plate with his fork. He smiled and chewed at the same time. “World of your own again.”

“Sorry.”

“Are you okay?” William asked.

She wanted to tell him no. She wanted to spew out all the wild things her brain was telling her and have him say it was all wrong. She wanted to be able to ask him for answers, but since Mark had come along, it felt like she had a different William with her. One she’d didn’t know or recognise.

“Have you got a new phone?” she asked. “It sounded different that the other one,” she added quickly, giving reason as to why she was asking. It didn’t stop her cheeks flushing, though, or the faint murmur of possessive girlfriend ringing in her ears. But if she didn’t ask him, it would sit with her for too long, and she’d treat him like he’d done something wrong anyway.

“No.” he pulled his phone out of his pocket … his other pocket, then he handed it to her. She flicked it open, the keypad on it recognising her thumb print because William had set it up that way. His mother had called him, and he’d called her, but it was the time next to both calls that made Rosie’s stomach clench. She was glad she’d not started eating yet. The lemonade already swished in her stomach, ready to come out. Twenty seconds, and then another thirty … but he was out there much longer than that. “You were on the phone all this time to your mother?”

“Yes.” William saw her looking at his call list and he took the phone back off her, locking it and shoving it on the table. His eyes darkened when he looked at her again, and she bristled. “You don’t believe me?”

“I do but …”

He swallowed a bit of sausage and wiped the corner of his mouth with the napkin, then set his fork down. The air moved when he did that. It grew thicker to almost choking levels.

“You were gone for a long time.”

“I went to the bathroom on the way back.”

“Oh.” Now she did feel like an idiot. She could feel Mark watching her, but she didn’t want to glance his way and meet his eyes and know what he was thinking. How much more could she make a fool of herself in one day? “Sorry. I don’t know where my head is.”

“It’s okay.” He went to get the phone off the table, but it rang before he could grab it and his mother’s name flashed across the screen. William grabbed it and cancelled the call.

“You’re not answering that?”

“She’s just being a nuisance. I’ve spoken to her. She’s fine.”

“But it could be important.”

---