Page 28 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
What should she do? Go after Oliver? Make sure he was okay, because since when did a public display of affection merit such behaviour, especially when only one person had seen it? Unless there was something else about Croftwood Library that she didn’t know. Perhaps there was a ‘No Heavy Petting’ sign somewhere.
The atmosphere lasted all afternoon as she and Rosemary worked together, in silence. Working together was an exaggeration because Lois was pretty sure Rosemary had been actively avoiding her by hiding within the shelves on the pretence of researching possible suggestions for the Christmas book club.
When Rosemary left with a curt goodbye at lunchtime, Lois breathed a sigh of relief. She would go to the coffee house after work and find out what was going on.
Oliver had gone straight back to the coffee house and asked Patsy to work the rest of the day for him. He wasn’t in the mood for conversation and working to take his mind off things wasn’t going to help because he needed to think about what had happened.
The effort he’d gone to, wearing his best jeans and sweater suddenly seemed ridiculous so he changed into his lounging around clothes. Now, he sat on the sofa, running his fingers through his hair in despair. What must Lois think of him?
In the moments before Rosemary had caught him and Lois kissing, he had felt like it was the most natural thing in the world. More than that, he felt like he’d found himself for the first time in a long time. The friendship he had with Lois, their easy conversations and light banter had become something he looked forward to every time he saw her. The kiss was a natural progression of that and he could hardly believe the way he’d reacted when Rosemary came in. It wasn’t anything he’d consciously decided to do, to walk out and leave Lois who must be wondering what on earth was the matter with him, it had just happened.
He stood at the window, looking out over the high street as the streetlights began to flicker on. Should he go back to the library and explain? He wasn’t sure yet what he could say that would make his behaviour seem normal when only a spineless idiot would run out on the woman he’d just kissed. The woman he’d wanted to kiss for ages. He should have stood up to Rosemary, he knew that. But it wasn’t so easy when she was in front of him radiating disapproval.
As he watched, he saw Lois on her bike. Her neon pink jacket made him smile because he knew it wasn’t what she would choose to wear, she was forced into it because no-one had made quirky safety jackets to match the kind of people who rode quirky bikes. She had stopped across the road from the coffee house and was busy locking her bike up before she took off her helmet and went inside.
By the time he realised she was probably coming in to see him it was too late to think about changing because she was already knocking on the door.
‘Hey,’ he said, wishing he hadn’t got undressed and wishing he hadn’t been running his hands through his hair all afternoon in despair.
‘Patsy said it was okay,’ she said hesitantly.
‘Come in.’
He went over to the sofa and gestured for Lois to sit down while he stood there awkwardly before beginning to pace in front of the windows. It was a million miles away from how things had been before Rosemary walked into the library that morning.
‘I owe you an explanation, Lois. There’s something I should have told you before…what happened today.’
‘Okay…’
‘My ex, Amy, is Rosemary’s god-daughter.’ He waited to see what she thought of that. It went some way to explaining Rosemary’s reaction at least.
‘Oh, I see. How long ago did you break up?’
‘It was about six months ago.’
‘Six months?’ Lois looked astounded. ‘Are you joking? You broke up with her months ago and you and Rosemary both have some sort of meltdown when she sees you kissing someone else. That’s beyond weird, Oliver.’
‘For Christ’s sake, Lois,’ he said crossly, as he hoped she’d be more understanding, ‘there’s more to it than that.’ He absentmindedly raked his hands through his hair.
‘Go on then, enlighten me,’ she said angrily.
‘I left her. She had a breakdown, really bad depression and I left her.’
He could see that Lois immediately understood that he’d felt guilty.
‘I didn’t know how bad it was at the time. I’d just bought the cinema and was preoccupied with that. She was angry because I’d gone ahead with the project without asking her what she thought about it, at least I thought that was why she was angry. I think we’d already started growing apart, she was pushing me away, withdrawing from the life we’d had together because she was depressed. And I didn’t notice. I walked away from her when she was at her absolute lowest, thinking that she wasn’t supporting me.’
Lois nodded her head and her expression had softened which he took as a good sign.
‘In some ways, it was the right thing to do because after I left she hit rock bottom and got some help. I think she’s in a better place now but I still feel responsible for her, Lois. I don’t want to, I don’t think I even need to now but it’s been hard to get to this point.’
He relaxed slightly and came to sit next to her on the sofa.
‘And now?’ asked Lois, gently.
‘I hadn’t heard from her at all until she contacted me a few weeks ago and we met up. When I saw you at the bar with your friend.’
‘So that was why you felt you couldn’t push her to leave us at The Old Rectifying House?’
