Page 40 of One Snowy Day
Fuck it.
With an impulsive but careful swerve, he pulled out of the left lane and into the centre, changing direction in more ways than one. He went on to automatic pilot yet again, heading to the Park Circus area of the city, where he’d lived in a spectacular Georgian townhouse with his family, and then later, in a nearby flat with Tanya.
When he arrived at his destination, he sat in the car and stared at the outside of the house he was about to visit, one that he hadn’t come near for years. He could still change his mind. Still leave and no one would ever be aware that he was here or know that he didn’t have the courage to face it. That’s when Alyssa’s words came back at him again, the same line he’d remembered earlier, but this time so loud that it drowned out his murmurs of deflection.
‘Because when I’m sorry for something I’ve done wrong, I fix it. And I don’t see you trying to do that.’
She was right. And he knew he would never forgive himself if he didn’t try to fix this.
He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. Then he summoned the resolve and adrenaline he needed to get out of the car and walk up the stone steps to the door of the two-storey duplex onthe legendary curved crescent, just a few houses away from the home his father had once owned. Once upon a time, he’d thought that he would end up somewhere exactly like this too. How wrong he’d been.
He pressed the buzzer on the intercom that was mounted on one of the columns that stretched from the ground to meet the ornate mouldings that bordered the top of the door. Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson had designed this, and many other stunning buildings in Glasgow, and his eye for detail and grandeur had been exquisite.
From the outside of the beautifully carved, solid oak door, he heard the chimes reverberate around the ground floor, followed by the faint sound of footsteps coming towards him. One lock turning. Then another.
When the woman answered the door, his first thought was that she was beautiful. Then he watched as her hand instinctively went to her rounded stomach, and stayed there, cradling her unborn child. And that image delivered a hammer blow to his chest that almost felled him. It took all his strength to stay upright, all his courage to stay, and all his oxygen to say the words.
‘Hello, Tanya. Can I speak to Jason?’
Without saying anything, the woman who had once been his everything stood back and let him walk into his brother’s home.
6 P.M. – 8 P.M.
21
JESSIE
‘Och, Alyssa, it’s beautiful. I can’t thank you enough.’ Jessie gazed around in wonder at the transformation of the café from this morning. Earlier, it had been a warm, cosy, Christmassy retreat from the cold – now it was like a grotto from a winter wonderland.
There were dozens of white and gold balloons, filled with whatever air they put in them to make them rise up and attach to the ceiling. In the middle of the room, there was a glistening Christmas tree. Over at the buffet table, the spread looked incredible. And the whole room was glowing, thanks to the clusters of candles that covered every shelf on the walls. They looked realistic, but they were the battery-operated ones because everyone knew Val’s huge blonde bob contained so much hairspray it could go up like a flash if she went near a naked flame. Over at the makeshift bar, Hugo and Ginny were polishing glasses, and Jessie shouted her thanks to them too.
Alyssa gave her a hug. ‘You’re welcome, Jessie. I’ve loved working across the road from you and I really appreciate all thesupport you gave my business when it first opened, and every day since.’
That was a fond memory for Jessie. When Alyssa’s café had opened its doors, Jessie had been delighted. The café had been closed for months at that point, after the previous tenant had realised that his concept of a gaming café wasn’t going to work in a village where the daytime customers’ average age demographic sat somewhere north of seventy.
Jessie had fair missed a local spot to pick up a bacon roll on a busy day so to ensure Alyssa’s café thrived, she’d offered a 10 per cent discount on any hair treatment to every client who came in with a receipt for a purchase at the café. She’d viewed it as a good marketing ploy for Alyssa’s fledgling business, but she’d found to her surprise that it was mutually beneficial when she’d also gained new customers who’d heard about the deal and couldn’t resist the bargain.
Alyssa gave her another squeeze. ‘You have a great night, Jessie, and if you need anything at all, just holler. I’m going to go check on the hot food and let you get ready to greet your guests. By the way, is Kayleigh going to be here tonight?’
‘Yes, she is. In fact, there she is now.’ She opened her arms to welcome Kayleigh and Grant, who’d just burst in the door.
‘Gran, you’re a total babe,’ Kayleigh proclaimed, giving her the second hug of the last five minutes. Grant gave her the third, while Kayleigh greeted Alyssa. Her granddaughter had worked here in the summer every year since it opened, so the two of them were great friends.
‘Can you come find me when you have a minute? I just want to pick your brain about something,’ she heard Alyssa ask Kayleigh.
In normal circumstances, Jessie would be curious, but there were too many other things vying for her attention tonight,including her big honey of a son. ‘You look fabulous, Mother,’ he told her, making her beam. ‘Where’s Dad?’
Jessie nodded over to Stan, who was propping up the bar and already on his second beer. He wasn’t exactly radiating happiness, and she didn’t blame him, given that disaster of a conversation earlier. Even now, her stomach flipped just thinking about it. She’d got totally the wrong end of the stick and she’d made everything much worse. Not only were they still leaving for Tenerife tomorrow, but he now knew that she hadn’t wanted to go in the first place. What a bloody mess.
When he’d told her that he wasn’t changing his mind, and that it was her decision as to whether she went with him or not, she’d been so shocked, her voice had escaped her. But only for a moment.
‘Like I said, Stan. We’ve done this life together. I’m not going to change that now. I’ll be ready to go to the airport first thing in the morning.’ She was going. They both were. And that was that. The only thing left to do had been to put on her red sparkly sequin frock, her favourite silver heels and enjoy the last night with everyone she loved. Talking of which…
‘Kayleigh, where’s your mum? and dad? She’s not with you? I’m worried that no one else will venture out in this weather and it’ll just be us lot. We’ll never get through all those sandwiches.’
‘Gran, don’t worry. If that happens, we’ll still have a great night. Mum’s just coming. My dad was at the house earlier and he was going to come tonight too, but then he got an emergency work call and had to go.’
Jessie wasn’t quite sure what emergency work call a solar panel salesman would have at seven o’clock on a dark, snowy, December night, but given that Grant was now standing behind Kayleigh making frantic slicing motions at his throat, she guessed it was something best addressed later.
