Page 28 of Teacakes & Tangos
Rory sighed. ‘No, Clara. That’s not at all what I mean. But it’s just a few hours...’
‘Look, it might bejust a few hoursto you, but those few hours could make all the difference between Magic of Dance actually being ready to open in a couple of days or having to reschedule.’ I made an exasperated noise in my throat. ‘Oh, just go to the cinema with Lois! Don’t worry about me. I’ll manage here myself.’ And I turned away, picked up a nearby broom and started sweeping the floor, bashing the brush against the skirting board in my fury.
I couldn’t believe Rory was pandering to Lois tonight of all nights, instead of choosing to help me!
What sort of a boyfriend wouldn’t want to be at his girlfriend’s side when she was clearly going through hell?
He tried to placate me and pull me into a hug but I was too angry to budge.
‘Just go, please, Rory,’ I muttered, moving away from him.
‘Right.’ He lost his patience then. ‘I’ll come straight back after the film. So I’ll see you later,’ he said shortly, striding out to the car.
‘Enjoy the movie with your best friend!’ I called after him, my tone loaded with heavy sarcasm.
After he’d gone, I sank down on the floor and ran my grimy hands through hair that was flattened to my head with sweat. I was trembling and I felt sick. Rory and I argued so rarely.
But why didn’t he understand that seeing him spending so much time with Lois these days was adding to my stress and making me feel vulnerable and less certain of our future together? He and Lois were together long before he fell in love with me. And I knew my sister only too well. She was lonely and at a loose end now that she and Mark were over. And it was all too clear to me that she was using Rory as a substitute.
How long before spending time together as friends reignited the spark between them?
Tears pricked at my eyelids as I cautiously sniffed an armpit. I couldn’t really blame Rory for deciding to go to the cinema with Lois.
I was sweaty and smelly and yes, behaving a little hysterically these days... a proper mess, in other words. While Lois would no doubt be looking her very best for Rory, fitted jeans showing off her slender figure, her long blonde hair blow-dried and gleaming.
I looked around the entrance hall in despair. This should be such a happy, exciting time for me, seeing my life-long dream come true at last. But without Rory by my side, the future would be bleak and colourless.
I hated myself for losing my temper with him like that. It was so unlike us to argue, it truly felt like the end of the world...
*****
The days after my row with Rory were so hectic, I barely had time to think, which was probably just as well.
We had to move on after ‘cinema-gate’ as I’d begun thinking of it, but relations between Rory and me were strained, to say the least. I didn’t ask him about the film he’d seen with Lois and he didn’t volunteer any information about it. We were polite to each other whenever we were together and I got the feeling Rory wasstepping around me cautiously, as if I were an unexploded bomb that could go off at any minute.
But amazingly, by the morning of opening day, we were all ready to receive visitors.
After what I’d been through, it felt like nothing short of a miracle...
Anika
CHAPTER TEN
It was Saturday, the day Magic of Dance was opening its doors for the first time.
And I’d woken up regretting having said I’d go along to the launch with Xander.
Dad’s condition hadn’t changed at all over the past few days and I’d been feeling so dispirited the night before that I’d drunk most of a bottle of wine in an attempt to drown my sorrows. Not used to alcohol splurges, I’d woken up with a nagging headache.
I stood at the kitchen window in my dressing gown, glugging down glasses of water and thinking about texting Xander and saying I wasn’t going to be able to make it along to the grand opening after all.
My head was pounding.
Then I thought about Dad lying motionless in that hospital bed.
Could Xander be right, that talking to him about the new dance centre might spark something in his subconscious?
He’d completely lost his love of dance when Mum died. It was as if that part of his personality – a big part of who he was – had died with her. He even refused to watchStrictly Come Dancingthese days, when once upon a time they would never have dreamed of missing the show.
