Tom knew his proposal wasn’t brilliant; what it was was a boring but solid research project. But Frankie, being Frankie, treated it like his study would lead to the most important medical breakthrough since the discovery of antibiotics.
‘It’s not brilliant, Frankie.’
‘If it wasn’t brilliant then why on earth would they give you all that lovely money to do it?’ she asked, still attached to him like a limpet, and still smiling hugely.
‘You’re right. It’s brilliant and I’m a medical genius. In fact I think it’s only fair that you address me as such from now on; my new title can be …’ Tom trailed off as he noticed the change that had come over Frankie. She was looking over his shoulder. Her face had paled and her smile slowly faded. He felt her limbs loosen, and she slowly slid down his body.
‘Frankie?’ he called, as she continued to look past him with an awful frozen expression on her face. He slipped his hand into her hair and squeezed the back of her neck to get her attention. She looked at him, and he caught a flash of panic in her eyes. Something was very wrong.
‘Frankie, you nutter, you could wait for me,’ Lou said loudly as she burst through the doors out onto the pavement. ‘I’m sure the conquering hero of the hour could wait a few …’ Lou stopped in her tracks and looked at Frankie’s face. ‘What’s going … ?’ Tom watched as Lou followed the direction of Frankie’s gaze, and then saw a look of sad understanding on her face.
He turned to where they were looking. All he could see was the old tramp propped up against the building. Even from there he could smell the stench of urine and beer coming off him.
Frankie pulled away from him and moved to the tramp, quickly bending down to his level and gently shaking his shoulder. Tom was not about to stand there and let her catch God knows what from a drunk, homeless man who, when roused, could even possibly be violent. She may be uncontrollably altruistic, but Tom would make damn sure she was safe.
‘Oh my God,’ he heard Lou mutter in the background, and he assumed that she was equally repulsed by the state of the old man. He walked over to where Frankie was crouched next to him and reached down to gently pull her up by her elbow.
‘Look, Frankie,’ he said reasonably, when she was standing facing him. He could hear the tramp beginning to stir in the background, and vaguely registered that he was mumbling in a foreign language. He lowered his voice. ‘Just let him sleep it off. There’s nothing you can do to help him, you know. You’re better off giving money to charities for the homeless. You won’t do him any favours; he’ll just go straight out and spend it on booze.’
She looked up at him and he noticed that her face was curiously blank.
‘Just go,’ she whispered in a hollow voice, then turned to Lou. ‘Lou … please.’
‘What’s gotten into you?’ Tom asked, losing patience and giving Frankie’s elbow a little shake.
‘Look, I’ll see you later, okay? I’ve decided I’m not up for the pub.’
‘You bloody wellarecoming to the pub,’ Tom said stubbornly. He wanted Frankie there tonight. Although he didn’t quite think it was the achievement Frankie did, he was proud that he’d been given the grant and he wanted to celebrate with her. If he was honest, he liked her fussing over him.
‘I am not,’ she returned, her voice laced with steel.
‘I’m not leaving you here with some smelly old tramp for God’s sake,’ he clipped, trying to pull her away, but she held her ground. He saw her eyes flash with anger as she yanked her arm away from him. She looked at him for a beat, then sighed, the anger washing out of her features, to be replaced by what looked like sadness.
‘I’m sorry, Tom,’ she said softly. ‘Please understand. I can’t come now. I’ll … meet you later.’
‘Come on, Weasel,’ Lou said a little too breezily. ‘Frankie’ll catch us up.’ She linked her arm through his and started tugging.
‘I won’t leave her on the pavement with a bloody tramp,’ Tom said, not allowing himself to be tugged anywhere by Lou.
‘Oh don’t worry. He’s harmless, I promise,’ Lou said, a strange undercurrent of tension in her voice.
‘I’m not …’
‘Just bloody go!’ Frankie shouted at him, and he was so shocked that he actually took a small step back. Her face was red, and her arms were straight down her sides, her hands in two small fists. He’d never seen her this angry, and he had certainly never heard her shout.
‘Fine.’ He threw his arms up in defeat once he’d recovered his composure. ‘Keep your mobile on, okay?’
It was unfortunate that Tom was so furious. If he hadn’t been, then maybe he would have noticed the desperate way Lou was trying to drag him along, or the fact that the tramp had been speaking Italian.
Most importantly, he would have noticed the tramp calling Frankie Francesca.
Chapter 24
More than bloody nice
It was late and I was being ridiculous. I was standing in front of the blue door that led into Tom’s Edwardian terrace house. I had made a decision. It was a heartbreaking decision, but things had come to a head tonight, and I knew it was the beginning of the end.
Even though I knew this, I had decided to give myself a gift before I moved on. There hadn’t been many truly amazing things in my life, so I thought I deserved this before I grew old alone and started my ferret sanctuary.
