Page 4 of He's the One

“What? So you can yell at me?”

“I want to see you. I want to see you. I want to see you. I want—”

“Okay.” The only word that would get him to stop.

“Oh Mummy! Daddy! Billy’s coming to see us. We’ll have such fun. Don’t leave it too long, Billy. You’ve little enough to do now you’re done with Robert.”

The phone went dead and Col gasped. How the hell had Dominic guessed?

There was no more sleep that night.

In the morning, Col packed up the last of his things and took them out to his car. Robert usually got back mid-afternoon, and Col was already backtracking on confronting him. Even the thought of it made him feel ill.So why do it? Just leave.But something told Col that if he didn’t face Robert, he’d regret it later.

He bought a paper to read, a cheese and onion pasty for later, and went back to the flat to call his mum. Not the one in hell, but the mum who loved him. He’d been taken into care aged ten and fostered four years later by Merlene and Livingston Thomas, whose parents had been one of the first groups of post-war West Indian immigrants to arrive in the UK on HMT Empire Windrush.

“Col, sweetheart. How are you?”

Just hearing his mum’s voice made his throat close.

“Fine. No…” He heaved a sigh. “Not fine.”

“We only saw you on Thursday night and you were full of beans then. What’s happened?”

“I’m not with Robert anymore.”

“Oh no. And you really liked him. I’m sorry, Col.”

Col didn’t fail to notice his mum hadn’t saidshe’dreally liked him. Not that she’d ever said she didn’t like him. His parents had met Robert several times and Col knew they didn’t think they were a good match. A stonemason who’d left school at eighteen and a lawyer who’d attended Oxford University, and now worked for one of the magic circle firms—his mum couldn’t see what they had in common. Col wondered that himself now.

“He turned out not to be who I thought he was.”

“Not a hot shot lawyer?”

Col huffed. “Maybe he isn’t. I think he’s…got a family. A wife and two small children. That’s where he was every weekend. Not looking after his parents.”

His mum sucked in a breath. “Oh my word. How did you find out?”

“I saw the four of them in Richmond Park.”

“Better that you found out.”

“Thank you for not saying—I told you so. I knew there was something not right about him.”

“I never said that.” There was reproach in her tone rather than indignation.

“No, but you thought it. You were suspicious of him spending every weekend caring for his parents, and I defended him. I’m an idiot.” Col bit his lip.

“Oh Col. You’re not an idiot. You’re a sweet, trusting young man who wanted to believe the best of your boyfriend. Better to be like that than suspicious of everything and everyone. Where are you now?”

“At the flat. Waiting to talk to Robert.”

“Oh. Are you sure you want to do that?”

She knew him well. “Yes.”But no.

“Come to us tonight. We’re so close to where you’re working. You can live with us.”

“Except that job is about to finish and I don’t know where I’ll be sent afterwards. But if I could stay in the meantime…”

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