I stood back to let her in. ‘I’m free now. Please, come in. I’ll put the kettle on.’
‘Are you sure?’ Becky’s nose wrinkled up.
‘You’re not the only one who currently has no life. Or friends.’ I turned and strode as confidently as I could down the corridor.
Becky followed me into the kitchen. ‘Wow, this is nice! Looking a lot better than last time I came here. Which was years ago, to be fair.’ She went to coo over Hope, now smearing the soggy remains of her breadstick across the tray of her highchair, while I made us a pot of tea.
After a few minutes of stilted small talk, Becky put her mug down. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t not say anything.’
‘Um… about what?’
‘That’s your lunch, isn’t it?’ She nodded at the now cold panini. ‘I was going to pretend I hadn’t noticed, but one of the reasons I gave up my job was because I’m fed up with putting on a polite face and pretending all the time. And now you think it’s rude to eat your sandwich in front of me, when I’m the one who was rude for turning up here out of the blue and interrupting your lunch.’
‘Um… it’s fine.’
‘Please, eat your sandwich.’
Deciding that was probably the least awkward thing to do at that point, I took a token nibble.
‘Okay, so while I seem to be on an honesty roll, I’m going to take a risk and lay it out there.’
I reminded myself that Daniel thought Becky was a nice, normal person, and tried not to visibly brace myself.
‘I like you, Eleanor. I know this is a bit primary school, but I’ve spent too many years schmoozing and charming people and I’m done with being fake. I sort of felt like we clicked. Friends at first sight. Is it too weird for me to ask if you’d like to skip all the faffing about and just be friends? Friends who can say, yeah, come in, but make your own cuppa because I’m in the middle of a panini. Without the need to be polite or worry about what the other one’s thinking?’
I took a long, slow breath. Not because I wasn’t sure what to say – because I wanted to savour the moment. I was done with being fake, too. And I wanted to eat my panini.
‘That would be lovely.’
My business plan shoved to one side, we spent the next couple of hours doing the general getting to know you thing. I explained how I knew Charlie, and the tentative plans for the farmhouse, both of us weeping as we shared our memories of someone who had been a friend to both of us. I did skim over my previous job situation, but that was because we were ‘done with being fake’, and Nora Sharp was nothing to do with the real me. Becky filled me in on her old job, and how she left because she couldn’t bear the loneliness any more.
‘I pretended I felt lonely because I travelled around so much, but the truth is I was a big, fat fraud who couldn’t trust the drivelling hogwash that came out of her own mouth. How could anyone get close to me, when there was no real me any more?’
I nearly told her, then. I would have told her, only Hope started crying because she was long overdue a nap, and by the time I’d settled her the moment had passed.
‘So, you and Daniel,’ Becky pronounced. I waited for her to expand, but no, that was it.
‘What about me and my friend’s brother who is also my landlord?’ I asked, eventually, just to stop her from smirking.
‘Your landlord who rescued you from the side of the road, invited you to move in and also happens to be both single, a really nice person and have a devastatingly sexy scar?’ She shrugged. ‘Just wondering how you were getting on. The two of you. All those cosy nights in together.’
‘Sounds like you should be the one cosying up with him if you think he’s that great,’ I retorted back, in a vain attempt to pretend I didn’t agree.
She flapped one hand in dismissal. ‘Nah. He’s not my type.’
I resisted the urge to ask if pie and pint loving tradesmen were her type.
‘So, how about you? Any sparks flying over the breakfast table? Are you like, spending your evenings hanging out together or what?’
‘Wow. This really is a no-holds-barred, right from the get-go friendship, isn’t it?’
Becky grinned. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve no one to gossip to. Well, apart from Mum, and I’m not about to feed that beast.’
I coughed. Straightened my mug on its coaster and cleared my throat again. ‘Daniel is clearly a really nice guy. And yes, while we have spent some time together in between him working and looking after Hope, it would be far too complicated for me to entertain any notions of a spark. I love it here, and want to make a go of Charlie’s dream. Developing feelings for her brother, who is, as you said, my live-in-landlord, would be a catastrophic move. So, in answer to your question, we’re friends.’ I smiled. ‘Although I haven’t officially asked him.’
‘Okay, so to clarify, you fancy the pants off him but don’t know if he feels the same way and don’t want to make a fool of yourself?’
Before I could clarify her clarification by fudging something about how yes, of course I fancied him but I was hiding a horrible, shameful secret identity so couldn’t do anything about it even if he hadn’t been Charlie’s brother, my landlord and possible future business partner, another clang rang out.
