I flicked on the kettle for a cup of milkless tea before placing a rank-smelling food waste bag that had been festering since pre-Scarnbrook on a tray to carry outside. I opened the interior door and squeezed myself past the buggy.
It was then that I spotted the note on the communal doormat. I placed the food waste down and scooped up the piece of paper. In Tom’s distinctive script, it read:
Mally,
Don’t freak out, but I’m outside.
T
Tom was here?
I peeked through the letterbox. Sure enough, there was Tom’s immaculate car parked directly outside my flat. I could see his silhouetted figure in the passenger seat. It looked like he was asleep with his head resting against the window.
I grabbed an umbrella from the rusted stand in the hallway and approached the car. Draped around Tom’s shoulders was an emergency foil blanket. A Nutrigrain wrapper had been placed neatly on the driver’s seat.
I knocked on the window next to his head. Tom jumped awake and attempted to open the door, which was locked. His car erupted into a wail. Well, if the rest of the street weren’t awake already, they certainly would be now. I noticed Sophie peering out through a gap in the curtains from the upper flat, Oscar attached to her hip and waving frantically at me in an elf onesie. I mouthed ‘sorry’ with my fingers in my ears, then gave them a thumbs up to indicate everything was fine. After a few seconds or so of fumbling, Tom managed to silence the alarm and step out of the car while rearranging his shoulders.
‘That stash of Nutrigrains came in handy again, then?’ I asked.
‘Yeah, turns out I should add “overnight drive in pursuit of unresolved issues” to the list of permitted cereal bar emergencies.’
I noticed that Tom was shivering, despite the fact he was still sporting his silver blanket.
‘Shit, you’re freezing. Come inside. You should’ve just rung the doorbell.’
‘Would you have answered the door at four o’clock in the morning?’
‘You’ve been out there for two hours? Bloody hell. That means you must’ve left Scarnbrook at…’
‘About two fifteen, yeah. I couldn’t sleep, Mal. Ryan sent me your address after he eventually told me what had been going on between him and Elle.’
I pressed my inner front door closed and walked with Tom along the narrow hallway to the living room. By then I’d remembered about the information Ryan had needed for his garage records.
‘He really shouldn’t be giving out my address.’
‘I know, I know, data protection and all that. I’m sorry. I know this is… intense. But you haven’t been receiving any of my messages and I couldn’t even call you. I’ve been so fucking worried, Mally – so’s my mum, and Becky and everyone, really – especially after we saw the news aboutThe Helix. We tried calling you and leaving voicemails but you never answered. I had to check you were all right after, y’know, what happened back home.’
‘Thisis my home, Tom. And here I am, alive and well.’
I busied myself washing the rotting food juices off my hands and making my cup of tea, grabbing another mug from the cupboard and chucking a bag in it for Tom. I poured in the boiling water, annoyed my hands were trembling. I grabbed a teaspoon from the drawer and drowned each floating teabag in turn while I spoke. ‘To be honest, I don’t know why you’re here. What’s motivated you to just turn up like this? Guilt for stringing me along? Pity for poor old Mally and her pathetic, lonely life?’
‘No, neither of those things. I hope you realise that I had absolutely nothing to do with whatever plan Ryan and Elle had concocted between themselves.’
A bubble of hope broke the surface, but I smothered it down, just like the teabags.
‘Oh, come on, so Ryan never told you he was keeping my dad’s car hostage at Elle’s insistence?’
‘Absolutely not. Like I told you in Scarnbrook, me and Ryan have been drifting apart for ages now. Calling him about your breakdown was the first time I’d spoken to him all year.’
I threw my hands in the air in exasperation, the teaspoon clattering to the ground. ‘I just don’t know who to believe any more! My life suddenly feels likeThe Truman Show. For all I know, the constant appearance of Nutrigrain bars could be a paid-for product placement situation.’
‘Now you come to mention it, did you know they bring together all your favourite breakfast ingredients into one tasty bar…’
My mouth dropped open and Tom’s voice faded out as it dissolved into laughter.
‘Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,’ he said, his shoulders still shaking with amusement.
I whipped him with a tea towel and tried very hard not to smile.
