Page 70 of Love, Accidentally

‘She basically felt I’d never struggled. I had a happy childhood, did well at school, got my degree and landed a decent job straight out of uni. Life was handed to me on a plate, in her view.’

‘The same could be said of lots of people. What struggles did she have, then?’

‘None that I could see, but she always made this big deal about how hard she found it to make friends at school because she hadn’t grown up around other children and how I couldn’t possibly understand how difficult it was. It pissed me off because it felt like I should feel guilty for growing up in a large, generally loving family, but I couldn’t say anything because it would just make her worse.’

‘And then she dumped you.’

Mike nods.

‘I never liked her,’ I offer. ‘She was always criticising you. I mean, you can be a consummate arse sometimes, but you didn’t deserve to be treated like that.’

‘Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.’ Mike laughs bitterly. ‘Anyway, it’s water under the bridge.’

‘It isn’t,’ Sarah says to him, her tone suddenly gentle. ‘Because under all that bluster is a wounded little boy who still doesn’t understand what he did to make her behave as she did. I need that little boy to hear that he didn’t do anything. It’s not his fault. She sounds like a deeply damaged person who needs everyone around her to be just as damaged as she is. You’re just fine as you are. I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. Are you listening to me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good.’ She leans across and plants a kiss on his lips. ‘Right. Now we’ve sorted that out, we can move on to Tilly and Will.’ She waves to the spare sofa. ‘Why don’t you step into my treatment room, Tilly. The doctor will see you now.’

* * *

‘Sarah thinks I need to be more assertive and take the lead,’ I say to Tash a few days later as we’re grabbing a quick lunch together in the hospital canteen. ‘She thinks Will is just a bit shy and will come out of himself if given the right impetus.’

‘And what do you think?’

‘I think there’s a real risk of spooking him. I mean, he is shy and he does lack confidence, but I’m not sure leaping on him is going to help.’

‘But you can’t stay in limbo forever either.’

I sigh. ‘No, I know.’

She smiles. ‘I’ve never seen you like this before. You really like this one, don’t you? I mean, you’re right to. He’s definitely a catch, as I’ve said already.’

‘I do.’

‘I’ve got it!’ she suddenly exclaims, slapping her forehead and causing a few other people to turn and look at us. ‘You need Isaac.’

‘Umm. How?’

‘Well, you had a lovely day out with him, didn’t you? He hasn’t stopped asking when he’s going to see Will again.’

‘I’m sorry, and I love Isaac, but I think he’d have precisely the opposite effect to the one I want.’

‘Nonsense. I mean, you’re not going to be smooching in front of him, I hope, but he’s the excuse you need to spend more time together and maybe, after you’ve dropped him home…’

‘The only thing we’d be up to after dropping him home is crawling into bed.’

‘Exactly!’

‘Separate beds. To sleep. Sorry, Tash, but you can’t reconcile free babysitting with sorting out my love life, no matter how hard you try.’

‘Take him anyway? Please? I won’t get any rest until you do.’

I smile. ‘I’ll talk to Will.’

‘I’m serious though,’ she continues after a mouthful of her sandwich. ‘Maybe the key to this is just spending more time together. The more he gets used to you, the more confident he’ll start to feel around you, and then, who knows?’

‘You might be right. His dad needs to back off too. Will was so embarrassed when Jonathan openly tried to push us together. I think he actually did more harm than good.’

---