Page 112 of Wrapped Up In You

Chapter Eighty-Three

In the kitchen, I bang about with the cups and find my favourite Hotel Chocolat drinking chocolate in the cupboard. Archie comes to look at what I’m doing in case there’s anything to eat involved, even though it’s all for show at the moment. I wish the days would come back when he was a greedy pig who’d eat anything, rather than have him wandering around like a little lost cat.

If I don’t think too deeply, it almost feels like a normal Saturday in some ways. Almost. As the milk is boiling, there’s a knock at the front door and I lift the pan from the stove.

As I walk to the door, a wave of nausea comes over me. I can’t identify the feeling. It’s a familiar one now, but I can never decide whether it’s hope or fear or a heady mixture of both. I’m always aware that it could be Dominic standing there at the door. Or a policeman coming to tell me that they have found him first and it’s bad news.

Whichever way, if I answer my phone or open my door now, it’s always with this sickly sense of dread. To think that my only worry at one point was the pesky and persistent Lewis Moran. I hope that he hasn’t heard that Dominic has disappeared and has come back to try his luck again.

But no. This time, it’s Nina who’s standing there. She’s looking sheepish and is holding up a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers.

‘Hey,’ she says.

‘Hello.’

‘Can I come in?’

At one time, she would never have needed to ask this. I stand back and open the door. Nina breezes through to my kitchen and I follow. Archie hisses at her and all the heckles on his neck stand up, proving that animals are, indeed, sensitive to moods.

‘Peace offering.’ She holds out the flowers and wine.

For a second, I wonder whether I should take them or whether I should tell her that our friendship is over and I’m not interested in what she has to say any more. But then I sigh to myself. Nina and I go back a long way. I shouldn’t let this come between us. I’m hoping that she’s come to apologise for what she said about Dominic. In her place, I’d feel entirely responsible for Dominic having left.

‘Thanks,’ I say and relieve her of her gifts. ‘I’m just making hot chocolate. Want some?’

‘That would be nice.’

Awkwardly, she ensconces herself in my kitchen.

‘You look terrible,’ she says to me. ‘No wonder Kelly was worried about you. Your hair’s gone all floppy and lank.’

Has it? I’m a hairdresser, I should notice these things.

‘You look exactly like my sister did when she was preg . . .’ She stares at me, horrified. ‘. . .nant.’

I think of all the early morning puking, the tiredness, and although I’d put it down to generally being unwell, I now begin to wonder. Have I missed a period? Frankly, I’ve no idea. Could it be possible? It had never even occurred to me until now. Dominic and I both wanted to have children, but I never thought that it might happen so easily, so quickly. I’ve been so distracted, so busy trying to bring Dominic home that I haven’t had time to consider that there might be new life growing inside of me. The thought knocks me sideways. Surely Nina can’t be right?

‘Mike’s in the garden,’ I say hurriedly, as a distraction technique. ‘Want to say hi?’ Do I see her eyes brighten slightly? ‘I was just going to take out some hot chocolate for him too.’

She shrugs. ‘Yeah. Why not?’

I pick up Mike’s mug and we both go outside. ‘We have a visitor,’ I announce.

‘Oh, hi,’ Mike says as he straightens up from his work. If he’s surprised to see Nina here, then he doesn’t show it. ‘How are you?’

‘Fine,’ Nina says. But her discomfort says that she really isn’t.

‘I’ll drink this down and then take the rubbish up to the tip,’ Mike says. ‘Give you some time to talk to each other.’

He’s well aware that I’m not Nina’s biggest fan at the moment.

‘Don’t run away on my behalf,’ she says.

‘Good timing,’ Mike insists.

They’re slightly awkward with each other and I wonder if it’s simply because of the situation or whether they’re both thinking back to the rather passionate kiss they shared on New Year ’s Eve. Whatever it is, Mike scuttles off and Nina and I go back inside, retreating to the warmth. We sit at the kitchen table both nursing cups of chocolate.

My friend breaks the silence. ‘Kelly said that she had to send you home on Thursday.’

‘Yes.’ There’s no point lying about it. Everyone in the salon will know that I messed up, anyway.

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