Page 10 of Falling in Love at Pennycress Inn

‘Like I said, miss. You’ll have to take it up with the finance company. Mr Briggs has had plenty of time to rectify the situation.’

As he began winding the window back up, she tapped again. ‘How much notice was he given? He would have told me if he knew the car would be repossessed.’

‘He would have had a pretty good idea that after four months of not paying this would be the result. Good luck, miss.’ And with that, he drove off, leaving Nicola standing in the middle of the road, her handbag hanging from her elbow with her purse in one hand and a bunch of cards in the other.

Four months? The man had either been mistaken or it was an admin error. Yes, an admin error. That’s what it would have been.

Nicola walked towards her cottage, pulling her mobile from her bag as she did so. Closing the front door behind her, she dropped her purse and cards onto the narrow table beneath the porch window and hit the Call button.Pick up, Nathan.

‘Hello, Nicola?’

Hearing Nathan’s voice for the first time in five months, when she’d chucked him out, took the wind out of her and it took a moment for her to come to her senses. ‘Nathan, the car’s been taken away. There’s been an admin error which says you’ve not paid for four months. Can you ring the finance company and sort this out, please?’

‘Well, I…’

‘Please, Nathan. I need that car. You know I do, just ring them. I’m sure it won’t take long to sort it all out. Just explain it’s been taken and ask them to return it. If you’re quick, they might be able to instruct the tow truck driver to turn round and drop it straight back off.’

Silence.

‘Nathan? Can you ring them, please?’

‘There’s no point in me ringing them.’

‘Well, I can’t, can I? It’s your name on the contract, they won’t discuss any of it with me. It has to be you.’ It was just one phone call. That was all she was asking for. One call.

‘Nicola, listen. I meant to contact you and warn you. I should have done.’

‘Warn me about what? You knew this was going to happen? You knew there had been a mistake, and you didn’t think to rectify it?’ She could feel a surge of anger stirring in the pit of her stomach. If he’d just bothered to take a couple of minutes out of his perfect life with his perfect mistress to ring them, then all of this could have been avoided. Had he really just flicked a switch and stopped caring about her? After all the years they’d spent together, he really just couldn’t give her a minute’s time?

‘It’s not a mistake, Nicola.’ Nathan’s voice was quiet, guarded.

What was he saying? Was he actually saying what she thought he was? ‘What do you mean, not a mistake?’

‘Just that. I stopped the payments. Of course the car was going to get repossessed.’

‘You stopped making the payments?’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes?’ She shook her head. ‘Why? Why would you have stopped paying?’

‘Because it’s not my car.’ Nathan threw that comment in with as much indifference as if he was answering whether he fancied chocolate fudge or lemon drizzle cake for dessert.

She gripped her phone tighter, fisting her free hand. ‘I know it’s not your car. It’s mine, but you were paying it off. We had an agreement.’

‘Well, Kerry said…’ Nathan cleared his throat, his voice stronger this time. ‘Kerry said, being as it’s in my name, I can choose to default on the payments. It has nothing to do with you.’

‘Nothing to do with me?’ And Kerry? Kerry said? What? Would he jump off a cliff if the perfect Kerry told him to? ‘It has everything to do with me! It’s my car!’

‘That I’ve been paying for.’ Nathan’s voice was dry. A familiar tone she remembered from past arguments. One he usually saved just for her when he was trying to explain his point of view, however wrong it might be.

‘You’ve been paying back the money I used to pay off your loan!’ She could hear the shrillness in her voice, but she didn’t care any longer. If she had her way, she wouldn’t have anything to do with him. In fact, she’d been pretty happy not having him in her life these past five months. It had been an adjustment, and she was still grieving for what she’d lost – or, more aptly, what her and Nathan’s relationship should have stood for: love, security, having each other’s backs. She’d been grieving for the very idea of a relationship, but looking back, she knew she’d never had it with him in the first place. She’d just been a stopgap. Someone to fill in the time before someone better came along. And they had. Kerry had come along, and he’d jumped.

‘That was years ago, Nic. Things change.’

She clenched her fist tighter, her fingernails digging into the flesh of her palm. He had lost every right to call her by her nickname. ‘Yes, things change, but our agreement still stands. You haven’t paid it all back yet. You were supposed to be paying me back through financing the car. You had no right to stop.’

‘Nic…’

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