The One You Really Want (24 page)

Racing across the kitchen, Rennie grabbed her arms and cornered her between the oven and the dishwasher.

‘Let go of me.' Carmen was wriggling like an eel; a straitjacket would have come in handy. Her eyes blazed as she hissed, ‘I hate you. How
dare
you? Let me go!'

‘Look, the kitchen didn't do anything wrong.' Refusing to release his grip, Rennie nodded at the cereal-and-sugar-strewn floor. ‘I'm the one who upset you and I'm going, I promise. You're right, I should have kept my opinions to myself. You can do whatever you like with Joe. Run off and marry him, if that's what you—'

‘It's over, OK?' Carmen's tone was venomous.

‘Fine, I know. I'll call a cab and pack my things. Just promise me you won't throw any more food while I'm upstairs.' As he took a cautious step back, cornflakes and biscuits crunched under his feet.

‘It's over between me and Joe, you idiot.' Carmen swallowed hard before defiantly meeting his gaze. ‘You were right and I was wrong. And if you say I told you so, it'll be bits of your body strewn around this floor.'

Over.
Thank God for that
. Inwardly digesting this news - while he still had a digestive system intact - Rennie said, ‘What happened?'

‘You're thinking it,' warned Carmen.

‘I'm not, I promise.' Rennie decided to think it only in the privacy of his own room. That would be safe enough, surely.

‘He wanted the money.' Carmen's eyes were blazing. ‘Twenty thousand pounds, just like you told me.
Bastard
.'

‘Who's the bastard? Him or me?'

‘Him. Oh God.' Her face abruptly crumpled as the realisation sank in. ‘I can't believe he did it.
Shit.
'

‘Absolutely.' Rennie nodded. ‘He
is
a shit.'

‘Not him. Your shirt.' She was pointing behind him.

‘How can it still be steaming? I switched the steam off,' said Rennie.

It was Carmen's turn to march across the kitchen. As she lifted the iron from the shirt, she said, ‘That's not steam, you berk. It's smoke.'

The phone on the worktop began to ring. Carmen froze.

‘I'll get it.' Answering the phone, Rennie said briskly, ‘Yes?' then listened.

‘Is that him?' whispered Carmen.

‘Yes, she's here.' Rennie's green eyes narrowed. ‘And no, she still doesn't want to give you twenty grand.'

Carmen felt her stomach disappear. As she held out her hand, she saw that it was trembling. ‘Let me speak to him.'

Joe sounded distraught. ‘I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I don't want to lose you. Please . . . forget about the money, it doesn't matter. Sweetheart, I love—'

‘It's over, Joe. Don't ring this number again.' Carmen heard her voice begin to wobble, but knew she had to say it. ‘Leave me alone, OK? I don't want—'

‘But you mean everything in the world to me,' Joe cried out in desperation.

‘I think you mean I meant all the money in the world to you.' Trembling all over, Carmen hung up.

 

Thirty minutes later the first doubts began to creep in. Carmen gazed blindly at the TV and wondered if she was in fact making a terrible mistake. Changed out of her smart bronze dress into her old white dressing gown and with her make-up brutally scrubbed off, she took a sip of the brandy Rennie had insisted on pouring for her.

From the kitchen she could hear the sound of him wielding the Dyson with as much expertise as he had earlier tackled the ironing. Sucking up granulated sugar, broken biscuits and the best part of a family-sized box of cornflakes was a noisy business.

Which meant that if the phone rang again in the kitchen, she wouldn't be able to hear it.

Oh God, why had this had to happen to her? Burying her face in her hands, Carmen went over the conversation in the restaurant again, word for agonisingly painful word. What if she
had
misunderstood Joe's proposal?

The Dyson went quiet in the kitchen, undoubtedly because it was full to bursting with cornflakes and Rennie couldn't be bothered to empty the cylinder again.

‘All done.' He came into the living room.

Carmen managed a faint smile. ‘Really?'

‘Well, kind of.' Rennie sat down next to her on the sofa and pulled her bare feet companionably onto his lap. ‘Feeling better now?'

Carmen marvelled at the question; was thirty minutes as long as Rennie took to get over the end of a relationship with someone he liked a lot?

Actually, dumb question. Knowing him, thirty minutes was generous.

‘I've been thinking. It's not as if he asked me to
give
him twenty thousand pounds,' Carmen blurted out. ‘What if I'm being unfair? It was a straight business proposition, after all, just a loan -
ow
.' She jerked her left foot away as Rennie pinched her toe. ‘But I'm just saying, what if it was completely innocent and I overreacted because of what you'd said? Ow, will you
stop
that?'

‘No,
you
stop it,' said Rennie. ‘Stop making excuses for him. OK, tell me the truth,' he went on. ‘I know I'm right and logically you know I'm right, but you aren't one hundred per cent convinced. So how convinced are you?'

God, he was bossy. Carmen tucked her feet securely under her so he couldn't pinch her toes again.

‘Ninety-five per cent.' She exhaled slowly. ‘But there's still that—'

‘Five per cent that isn't sure.' Rennie gave her a nudge. ‘See? I knew that GCSE would come in handy one day.'

‘It's just, he does so much for charity!' This was what had been bothering Carmen; to her mind, someone who gave hours of their spare time fundraising for a charity, especially one that helped sick children, surely
had
to be a good person.

‘So does Jeffrey Archer,' said Rennie.

‘Who was it who told you about Joe?' Carmen didn't expect him to reply; every time she'd asked this question before, Rennie had refused to tell her. She had decided he'd invented the supposed mystery visitor. Except now she knew he hadn't.

Unexpectedly Rennie said, ‘She made me promise not to tell you while you were seeing Joe. He mustn't know.'

Carmen nodded; she just wanted this to be settled once and for all.

‘Joe's ex-girlfriend. He dumped her when he met you. Her name's Tina,' said Rennie.

‘Hmm. Ex-girlfriend. So she came here to stir up trouble.'

‘She wants him back.' Rennie nodded in agreement. ‘But the reason she came here was to let you know the truth. Joe boasted about you, about what he was planning to do. She thought you deserved to know.'

‘And now she's won. He'll probably go back to her.' Taking another sip of brandy, Carmen said, ‘Are you telling me the truth?'

‘You can ring her if you like.' Rennie took out his mobile. ‘I persuaded her to give me her number.'

Oh God. Did she want to speak to this girl? Would it dispel those last nagging, niggling doubts?

Swallowing the remains of the brandy in her glass, Carmen took a deep breath and said, ‘Go on then.'

 

‘He's such a shit,' said Tina, when Rennie had explained the situation to her and passed the phone over to Carmen.

‘But you still want him back.' This was definitely a surreal experience, discussing Joe with his ex-girlfriend.

‘I love him. You were a temptation he couldn't resist. Well, your money was.' Tina's tone was pragmatic. ‘But I haven't got any money, have I? So when we're together I know it's because he wants to be with
me
.'

‘Joe didn't know who I was when he first met me. He thought I worked for Rennie.' The brandy was bringing out Carmen's defensive side; somehow, it was important to let this girl know that.

Tina laughed. ‘Is that the way he played it? Of course he knew who you were. Joe's been Red Lizard's greatest fan for years.'

‘B-but . . . he didn't know
me,
' Carmen stammered.

‘He's got scrapbooks at his mum's house. Anything to do with that band went into those books. Look, I'm sorry,' Tina sounded embarrassed, ‘but he knew where you lived. When your husband died, Joe came along to the vigil outside your house.'

Carmen felt the last flicker of doubt die inside her chest. That was it, all over. Then the sound of a bell ringing on the other end of the phone cut through the silence and she heard Tina gasp, ‘Oh my God, he's here!'

‘Joe?' This surely had to be the ultimate farce.

‘I just looked out of the window. He's standing on my doorstep.' Tina was unable to disguise her joy and relief. ‘I have to go. Promise you'll never tell him it was me, OK?'

‘That's easy enough. I'm never going to be speaking to Joe again,' said Carmen.

‘And you mustn't ring this number again either. He'd go mental if he knew what I'd done. Right, well, it's been nice talking to you but I have to answer the door now . . .'

 

‘You aren't crying,' said Rennie. ‘I thought you would.'

So convinced had he been that he'd even thoughtfully placed a box of Kleenex on the coffee table.

‘I'm hurt. I feel stupid and ugly and made a fool of, and I really hate it that you warned me and I refused to believe you. But it isn't the end of the world.' Resting her head against the back of the sofa, Carmen said, ‘I cried when Spike died. Compared with that, this is . . . nothing. I'll feel empty again, but I'm used to that. I can handle it.' She picked up Rennie's phone once more and punched out the number for directory enquiries. ‘Plenty of practice. Oh hi, I'd like the number of the Savoy Hotel in London, please. Yes, can you put me through?'

Rennie said, ‘Why don't we have another drink?'

‘Hello, could you tell me if Rennie Todd has a room booked for tonight? No? OK, thanks very much. Bye.'

‘I booked under a false name,' Rennie protested when Carmen looked at him. ‘I'm a celebrity, we have to consider security, I have
stalkers
. . .'

‘You sad, deluded old man.' Carmen gave his arm a sympathetic pat. ‘Whoever in their right mind would want to stalk you?'

‘Don't worry. I'll go.'

‘Oh, shut up. You know you won't.'

‘I just feel I could be more useful here,' said Rennie. ‘You need looking after. It's my mission in life to get you through this traumatic episode.'

‘Plus you get bored in hotel rooms,' Carmen reminded him. ‘You're hopeless at being on your own. You buy houses and sell them again without even moving into them.'

‘I moved into the last one.' Rennie was indignant.

‘For a whole week. Then you got lonely and sold it to that racing driver.'

‘It was too bloody big.' He groaned at the memory of the eight-bedroomed mansion in Berkshire, bought on a whim because he'd been so taken by the stained-glass window on the landing. If only he'd just bought the window; that house had been such a mistake.

Oh well, at least he'd sold the place for a quarter of a million more than he'd paid for it.

‘You're a hopeless case,' chided Carmen.

‘I've got a few of those upstairs. Still want me to go and pack them?'

‘Oh, give it a rest.'

Rennie knew he'd won. Life was great here with Carmen, Nancy and Rose, and now that Joe James - thankfully - was out of the picture, they could all get back to normal. He planted a kiss on Carmen's cheek. ‘You love me really. And you aren't ugly or stupid either.' Forcing her to look at him, he said, ‘You do know that, don't you?'

Carmen sighed. ‘Who was that American billionaire? He was two hundred years old and in a wheelchair when he married a Playboy model. That's kind of how I feel.'

‘Boobs aren't big enough,' said Rennie. ‘I mean, sorry and all that, but they just aren't.'

‘You know what I mean. I liked Joe for who he was. I thought he liked me for who
I
was. But he didn't. God, how could I have been such an idiot?'

‘Forget him,' Rennie said bluntly. ‘The guy's a twat and a dickhead. The
good
thing is that you've spent the last three years thinking you'll never find another bloke and be happy again, but now you know you can.'

Carmen wrapped the ends of her dressing gown belt around her fingers. ‘I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not actually feeling that happy right now.'

‘But you will. You'll meet someone else and fall in love.' Something tightened in Rennie's chest. ‘At least you know it's possible now. It can happen and it will. And with any luck, next time he won't turn out to be a dickhead.'

‘Listen to you.' Carmen broke into a smile. ‘Talking about falling in love, all this girly stuff. Very New Man.'

‘Hey, I'll be wearing Birkenstocks next. Eating tofu salad and reading the
Guardian
before you know it. Anyway, I'm just saying don't be too hard on yourself. You've turned a corner,' said Rennie. ‘You're on your way back to the real world. Give it a couple of weeks and you'll be out clubbing every night, getting chatted up and pulling left, right and centre.'

‘Turning a corner's one thing,' Carmen pulled a face. ‘But that would be turning into you. Oh, here they are.'

Rose and Nancy were back.

‘Good show?' said Rennie.

‘Heaven! The most wonderful thing I ever saw.' Rose, her face blotchy and her eyes pink-rimmed, exclaimed, ‘I've never cried so much in all my life. I couldn't stop!'