Page 49 of The Rescue

The drive back to Crossmackie felt twice as long with the weird energy in the car, but we finally pull into the parking space behind the cafe. I jump out of the car not being able to stand another second of awkwardness between us, and I grab our bags off the back seat.

“Oh, you don’t have to get my bag Rabbie,” Crystal tries to protest.

“Dinny be daft,” I smile at her.

She looks up at me from her big green eyes, and I falter a little bit. We’re standing so close together I can count the freckles on her nose. She smells so sweet, and my mouth begins to water at the thought of tasting her lips. I’m about to tell her that not kissing her was a mistake and that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her in her sheer black bra, but she stepsback, creating a waft of cold air sobering me up from my lustrous thoughts.

I’m so distracted by trying to act cool around Crystal that I don’t notice a small older woman standing near the back door of the cafe. The woman looks nervous, and is shifting on her feet. She looks withered and frail, and I have to blink a couple of times for my brain to register who the woman is. My mouth becomes dry, and a lump in my throat is forcing its way up and I think I’m going to be sick. My legs wobble, and I stagger. Crystal steps in besides me, and a look of concern is written all over her face.

“Rabbie, are you okay? You’re very pale,” she asks, her eyes searching my face.

Her arm wrapping around my waist is weirdly comforting, but it does little to ease the sweat that has broken out all over my body. I try to steady myself, and take a deep breath.

Crystal looks over at the older woman, and I feel her body stiffen as she realises who the woman is. Crystal’s body begins to vibrate next to me, and I see the frown deepen on her face. A hum of protectiveness radiates from her, and it makes me feel safe with her next to me.

She still has her arm around my waist as the older woman approaches us.

“Hello, Rabbie,” the older woman says as she wrings her fingers together.

My mouth feels like it’s stuffed with cotton, and I find it hard to speak.

“Mum? What are you doing here?” I croak.

Crystal tightens her grip around me as she stares at my mum with an apprehensive look.

I can’t believe my eyes, the woman standing in front of me isn’t the woman I remembered. The woman I remember was young, and healthy looking with beautiful long dark hair. Thiswoman standing in front of me looks weathered and ashen with greying hair and wrinkles making her look a lot older than she is.

She looks tired and nervous, but it does nothing to comfort me. What is she doing here after all these years? The little boy in me is hopeful that she’s finally realised that she’s missed me and is here to see me.

“I came to see you. I need to ask you a favour,” she says, not looking at me.

My heart drops. Of course, there’s always an ulterior motive with my mum. She always has an agenda when she turns up out of the blue every couple of years. I don’t know why I keep getting my hopes up.

Crystal scoffs and her grip on me tightens even more. My mum’s eyes shoot up to Crystal. A look of disapproval crosses my mum’s face but Crystal doesn’t back down.

“This must be your girlfriend,” my mum says in a dry tone.

I feel Crystal tense next to me, but I squeeze her side and she relaxes in my grip.

“No, this is my friend. Crystal, this is my mum, Susie.”

Crystal makes no effort to be polite and doesn’t exchange any pleasantries, she just looks at my mum in disbelief. There’s a moment of awkward silence between the three of us.

I’m still in shock to see my mum in front of me after all these years, it feels like I’m imagining things. I’ve dreamt of this day since I was a wee lad, and I never thought it would happen. A small part of me has been hoping for this day, but now she’s here standing in front of me I feel numb. She’s not here to see me, she wants something.

“What’s the favour you want to ask?”

She looks down at her shoes, and fiddles with the strap on her handbag.

“Me and your dad have split up, and I need a job. I heard you were the owner of Sweet Treats now and I was wondering if you’d give me a job.”

The mention of my dad has my palm sweating, and the fear bubbles away in my chest. As a wee lad he was terrifying to me, always towering over me, shouting down at me telling me how useless I was. His stale cigarette breath would always make me feel sick. Crystal squeezes my side, and I realise I’m physically shaking. I didn’t think as a grown man that I would be scared of my dad, but clearly I am. My mum looks around us, she’s still shifting on her feet and it’s like she needs to be somewhere and wants an answer from me.

“You’d really be helping me out?” She prods more.

I can’t decide whether to be pissed off or impressed at the nerve she has to ask me for a job. I’m struggling to find the right words, too shocked by how she sprung this on me. The fact that she’s here for a job, and not to actually see me, takes me right back to when I was a wee lad, watching her show up at my nan’s house to just ask for money. I open and shut my mouth, but no words come out.

“You’ve got to be kidding? You show up after years of not seeing Rabbie, and offer no apology or explanation as to why you left him. Then you have the cheek to ask him for a job, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. He owes you nothing, he’s created a life for himself and a successful business. And he has himself to credit for that,” Crystal rips into my mum.

---