Authors: Nicola May
– Chapter Forty-Eight –
Michael’s phone started to come to life as he plugged the charger into the wall. It had actually been quite a treat not having to be beholden to it for twenty-four hours. Text messages began to beep in. He felt popular for once.
Alrite Bro, long time no speak. Let me know if you fancy babysitting soon.
No 1 son, I need a lift with putting something in the loft next time you’re up.
Michael, it’s Jean Tiverton, Rural Writers’ Magazine here, could do with some of your editing time if you’re free this week?
And, then there it was, the message he had been praying for weeks that he would receive. His heart began to beat faster as he read over and over the most beautiful words he had seen for a long, long time -
I miss you. Let’s meet soon? X
He even felt a slight stirring in his loins. It was quite unbelievable what an effect Ruby Stevens had on him. He couldn’t waste a second. Picking up the phone, he rang her number, but it was engaged. He kept trying and got a busy signal each time. After trying an hour later and still getting the engaged tone, he assumed that her phone must have a fault. He couldn’t take the risk of her not receiving a text message. No, he would surprise her. She would love that. He would get her some yellow roses from the wonderful flower stall at East Putney tube and turn up on her doorstep. If she was out, her nosy old neighbour Margaret would no doubt know where she was – and he could either just leave the flowers with her or even wait.
– Chapter Forty-Nine –
After an hour, Fi still wasn’t answering her phone. Ruby looked up to her stuffed black and white moggy on high.
‘Oh Patrick, I’m going to have to go and intercept that scatty friend of mine, aren’t I?’
It was a 3 p.m. kick-off and she wasn’t meeting Sam until two at the pub in Fulham for a pre-match drink, so she had plenty of time. She hadn’t been to see Reading play for ages and was actually quite excited. Now they were back in the Premiership, it usually made for a great game. She was also looking forward to seeing her brother as they hadn’t met up since Christmas.
She worked out the logistics in her head. She would just have to get to Piaf’s early and somehow apprehend Fi before James saw either of them. Easy!
She had a quick shower, got dressed and threw her blue and white scarf around her neck. Just as she was pulling her boots on there was a knock at the door. She screwed her face up, wondering who on earth was visiting now - and was completely surprised when she saw who it was.
‘Harry? I’ve only just left you. I thought you’d be sleeping in for ages?’
‘Sleeping in? Not when you’ve invited me to the Chelsea game, no chance.’
Ruby suddenly remembered why she had made a pact with herself to not drink so much wine. The recollection of inviting him as they had arrived back at his flat when she was feeling horny came to the fore.
‘We are
obviously
in the away end.’ She had wanted the chance to catch up with her brother and hoped this might deter Harry.
‘I will just have to bite my tongue then, when we so
obviously
thrash you.’
Ruby smiled. For one second Harry
was
George. Sharing the same banter when he talked of his beloved West Ham. Thank goodness there was a spare ticket on offer, as Sam’s girlfriend had decided against coming.
If Michael had bothered to reply to her text, then she would have invited him. Sam was such a good judge of character and she already knew that he and Michael would have got on like a house on fire.
Saying that he loved her down in Devon must have simply been a whim. After all, it had been Valentine’s Day and they were in such a romantic setting. They hadn’t been together long enough for him to think she was The One, surely? If he had truly loved her, he wouldn’t have ignored her. She had actually said that she missed him and wanted to see him soon. How could he ignore that, if he ‘loved’ her?
‘Look. Being really honest with you, Harry,’ she said bravely, ‘I was so drunk I had forgotten I had invited you.’
‘Oh.’
‘No. It’s all cool. Luckily, I have got a spare ticket. But I’d arranged to meet a friend for coffee first in Covent Garden and then was heading to Fulham for two-ish.’
‘No worries. I can meet you at the hotel at Stamford Bridge if you like. Mates of mine are going anyway. I’ll have a beer with them beforehand. Just text me when you get there.’
He opened the front door and then, turning around to face Ruby, he pulled her towards him and gave her a big kiss full on the lips.
‘These lips give great head, by the way.’ He winked and did a funny little side kick as she watched him go down the road.
Ruby slammed the door shut behind her, mortified. She hadn’t remembered that either!
***
Michael put the roses in front of his face as the smartly dressed, short dark-haired man walked past him. He crossed the road at speed and started to walk in the other direction. Margaret’s curtains twitched. Seeing first Michael and then George’s Doppelganger, she had to sit straight back down in shock.
I miss you! Let’s meet soon!
That’s what she had said. So what on earth was going on? Michael felt sick. He felt confused. Surely she couldn’t have lied to him, made up the fact that her husband had died? No, not his dear, sweet Ruby. She didn’t have it in her to be so heartless.
– Chapter Fifty –
‘Where’s ze fire?’ Ruby virtually bowled Norbert over as he set a table in Piaf’s.
‘What is it, darling? Quick, come round the back.’ The red-lipsticked, glamorous striking figure of Daphne Du Mont opened up the counter door.
Ruby was out of breath. ‘I need to talk to Fi before James talks to Fi. It really is urgent.’
‘OK, OK, beautiful girl,’ Daphne du Mont soothed. ‘Are they both coming here?’
Ruby nodded, then gasped and ran to the back room as the bespectacled figure of James pushed open the glass door. As fast as a cat, Daphne was out the front.
‘Hello, James darling. Large cappuccino is it, as usual?’
‘Oh, hello Daphne, how are you - and yes, please.’
‘All good here, thanks. Norbert, sort it for me, will you, lover. I need to show the lovely Fi something out the back.’ She steered the approaching Fi straight behind the counter and into the room behind the counter.
‘What the feck?’ Fi was shocked to see Ruby sitting there adorned in her ‘Mighty Royals’ Reading scarf.
‘You can’t tell him, Fi,’ Ruby burst out. ‘He’s just been around to see me. You have to hear it from him, let him speak first. But just think along the lines of a surrogate child. Putting someone else’s sperm in you to make a baby. It won’t take much thought.’
‘Fecking hell.’
The worldly Daphne didn’t even bat an eye. ‘Lemon Danish, darling?’
Fi nodded, following the older woman as she scurried back out to the front of the café.
– Chapter Fifty-One –
Michael had to put his intense feelings down on to a page for fear of saying something that he might regret forever.
Let Love Win by Michael Bell
Chapter 21:
Michael smiled as he watched the beautiful yellow roses being wrapped. He had a spring in his step as he headed towards Ruby’s place. The fact that she was missing him and wanted to see him was like a dream come true. His plan had worked. Leave her be and let love win. She had come back to him. He was the man for her, after all. He loved her so much. He had done nothing but think about her, ever since the day he had set her free in Piaf’s a few weeks ago. He had been prepared to wait for months, not weeks, and was just so relieved and happy.
Turning into Amerhand Road, he smiled to himself as he noticed Margaret’s curtains twitch. From what Ruby had said about the old girl, he was sure she would be pleased that Ruby had made a decision to have a relationship with him. He may not be George, but he too was steady and dependable and would do anything for his ginger lover.
And then BANG! He stopped in his tracks and did a double-take. Because there, bold as brass, was Ruby with George! He had only seen the wedding photo once, but there was just no mistaking it. There she was on her doorstep kissing her husband. The duplicitous bitch! How could she have got away with it. The tears, the drama. Telling him that George was dead. Even her sex-mad Irish friend must have been in on the story. But no, surely not. He began to doubt himself. Tony Choi, Daphne and Norbert from the café… that meant everyone would have been in on it and Ruby’s emotion had been so real when she lost the ring. Maybe he was going mad. Love had made him paranoid and granted, he had only seen the photo once.
Michael took a large drag from a cigarette that he had had to buy through stress on his way back to his flat. Paranoia aside, Ruby Stevens was still kissing another man on her doorstep. It may not have been long and lingering but it was a kiss nevertheless.
She was playing him whatever the situation and he loved her too much to just let it go. Maybe it was a grief thing that you went for men who looked like your dead partner. He wished he understood more about bereavement. His mother dying was different. He of course had felt the complete distress and loneliness that losing someone you loved brought, but he couldn’t even imagine what it was like to lose someone you woke up next to every single day.
Michael stretched his arms in the air and drew hard on his cigarette. He opened the window and, not caring if the whole place filled with smoke, he puffed away furiously. He loved her too much to hurt Ruby in real life, but he could write about it at least. Release his emotion in more ways than one.
Emily walked in behind him quietly at his desk.
‘Shit, Em, you made me jump! How are you feeling?’
‘Oh, you know, still a bit sick and a bit fat but also quite randy.’ She pulled open her shirt to reveal that she had no bra on.
‘You’re insatiable, wifey, but I’m not complaining.’
‘You’re not? I feel you’ve been a bit off with me lately - is everything all right?’
Michael knew if he was to get what he wanted he had to lie.
‘Of course it is, babe. You know, it’s stressful being freelance and with a baby coming along too, I just want the best for us all. Now come here and let me touch those beautiful breasts of yours.’
‘They are massive now!’ Emily laughed, feeling for once at peace with her husband.
‘So is this.’ He pulled her hand to his erect cock and she undid his zip hungrily.
‘Let me suck you.’ She teased him with her lips until he was moaning in pleasure.
‘Bedroom, now!’ he demanded.
Their lovemaking was passionate and frenzied.
‘I’m gonna come!’ Michael gasped
***
‘GOAL!!! Come on, U’rrr’sss,’ Sam shouted as his beloved football team scored. Ben the guide dog sat quietly by his feet.
‘Lucky,’ Harry whispered as Ruby squeezed his hand warning him not to upset the away supporters. She had had a bad enough experience years ago when James had called out against Newcastle, and Sam had had to give him his dark glasses and white stick and pretend it was him who was blind.
‘So how did you meet my sister then?’ Sam enquired at half-time. Ruby was annoyed that she hadn’t been able to tell Sam anything about Harry before the match. She had had to wait for Fi and James to leave the café before she could depart, as Norbert had misplaced the key for the back entrance.
‘We literally bumped into each other, didn’t we, Ruby?’
‘Yeah. I was just leaving Rita’s, I dropped something and we bumped heads and that was that.’
When Harry went off to the toilet, Sam said: ‘Rubes, you haven’t mentioned this one before. What’s happened to that guy Michael you were seeing? He sounded really nice.’
‘He is really nice, even told me that he loved me, but then turned around and said he should give me some space. I mean, I was mucking the poor guy around slightly as you know how confused I was and still am about George. He said I was to go to him when I felt I was ready.’
‘So why haven’t you?’
‘I have. I texted him and said I missed him and wanted to meet him soon. And - nothing.’
‘Have you spoken to him?’
‘Well, no I haven’t.’
‘He could have just not got the text or anything. The new smartphones aren’t infallible, you know.’
‘I didn’t think of that – but anyway, he knows where I live.’
‘Ruby, people just don’t turn up on other people’s doorsteps unannounced these days.’
‘If they loved you they would, and he said that he did.’
‘Blimey, sis. You’ve read too many Mills and Boons. This is the twenty-first century and Mr Darcy isn’t going to suddenly appear from the water and rush to you, dripping all over, with a bouquet of flowers.’
‘He might.’
‘Talk to him - it’s probably just a silly misunderstanding.’
‘But I slept with Mr Smooth last night.’
‘Oh God, sis, what are you like? Sometimes you are like a bloke. You’ve only just met him.’
‘When did you become the Pope? I have needs as well, you know.’
‘You also have a man who sounds like he adores you. He could fulfil those needs - if you just stopped being so bloody childish and talked to him, that is.’
Sam stroked Ben and gave him a doggy treat. Ruby went quiet. ‘And stop sulking!’
Ruby smiled and kissed her brother on the cheek. ‘I love it that you can see more than me, even though you are blind.’
‘I’m just not sure about Harry, Ruby. I can’t put my finger on it at the moment, but all I know is that he smells wrong.’
Ruby felt a massive surge of love for her younger brother. ‘You and your smells.’
‘Have you not seen
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, Rubes?’ In theatrical voice, Sam quoted: ‘
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And, therefore, is winged Cupid painted blind.
’
‘That is SO spooky.’ Ruby thought back to the fortune-cookie message.
‘What’s so spooky?’ Harry returned to his seat.
‘Nothing, really,’ Ruby flustered. ‘Just that being blind has a lot of advantages, that’s all.’