Page 37 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
‘He has five motorbikes, Lois,’ said Steph proudly.
‘They’re Harleys darlin’. You gotta start rememberin’ the difference.’ He brought his fist down on the table to emphasise his point.
Nice.
‘Sorry, I’ll get to grips with the jargon.’ Steph grinned at Lois, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this boyfriend might be the biggest dick of them all.
‘Lois.’
She turned to look at someone who had said her name. Someone she hadn’t heard utter her name for a few months.
‘Alex, what are you doing here?’
‘I’m back for the weekend.’ He looked past her at Steph, who raised her hand solemnly in greeting, his eyes landing on Max with a slightly startled look.
‘Are you coming to pick your stuff up?’
‘No, I hadn’t planned to. I didn’t think I’d see…’ He trailed off as he realised how that sounded. ‘I mean, I was going to call you…’
‘There’s no need to be weird about it,’ Lois said. ‘If you don’t want to talk to me that’s fine but at least have the decency to pick up your stuff and move out properly.’
Alex’s friends, Rich and Marc appeared with pints in their hands while he looked at Lois in surprise. She was pleased. He’d messed her around a lot and she was fed up with it. It was about time she stood her ground with him.
‘Alright, Lois?’ asked Rich enthusiastically, completely unaware of the atmosphere.
‘I’ll be out on Sunday,’ she said, ignoring Rich. ‘Pick your stuff up and leave the key behind when you go.’ It had only just occurred to Lois that he still had his key and now she wanted it back but she also didn’t want to be there when he came round. ‘I’ll be getting the locks changed on Monday either way.’
‘There’s no need to be like that Lois,’ he said, looking like a wounded puppy.
‘Alex, come on. I’ve been waiting for you to be ready to sort this out for weeks and now you’re here and you weren’t even going to bother getting in touch. I’ve put everything ready in the spare room. Sort it out on Sunday, please. You owe me that.’
He turned and walked away with his mates.
‘Christ, Lois. I bet he never knew you had it in you,’ said Steph, looking impressed.
Lois felt pleased with herself. The shock of seeing Alex unexpectedly would have floored her a few weeks ago but now she was almost indifferent to it.
‘Are you alright?’
‘Yes, I’m fine.’
‘Bloody hell, it’s like EastEnders in here,’ said Max. ‘Brightened things up, didn’t he?’
22
On Monday morning, Lois left the house resolving to sort out the Alex problem once and for all. Perhaps unsurprisingly he hadn’t turned up to collect his things on Sunday. The whole time they’d been together it was a very rare occasion that he did anything for her, especially if she’d asked him to, so she shouldn’t have expected anything else.
Despite that, she felt positive and in a good mood now that she’d decided to get the closure she deserved from that relationship, so she decided not to risk ruining her buzz by going into Oliver’s for coffee. She had yet to come across Amy since she’d moved in with him and was now officially Oliver’s girlfriend, and the longer she could postpone that moment, the better.
‘Morning Lois. I’ve got something really exciting to show you.’
Lois was taken aback by Linda’s early morning enthusiasm but pulled off her coat and joined her at the computer.
‘Look, it’s a competition for the Library of the Year Award! There’s a category for initiatives which enhance the local community, I think we should enter with the book club.’
Lois hated to burst Linda’s bubble but there were loads of book clubs and she wasn’t sure that theirs was different enough. ‘It’s a good idea, we can look into it.’
‘We’ll need to get people to vote online for us so we will have to do some campaigning. We can use Twitter and Instagram,’ she said proudly, having been to see Claudia again at the Hive to learn the next steps in her social media journey.
