Page 129 of Bad at Love
Chocolates.
I’ve texted and emailed and called Marina repeatedly over the last few days, asking to see her, speak with her. Even just to know if she’s been getting my presents.
She’s shut me down every time.
Well, the one time she answered the phone, she shut me down. She said, “please stop calling me, I don’t ever want to speak to you,” and then hung up. Everything else before and after went unanswered.
But I’m emboldened by what Scooby said.
To grovel like a son of a bitch.
To fight for her.
To fight to be a part of her life in the very way she deserves.
The way we both deserve.
So I’m just heading over to her house unwanted, uninvited, and I’m not backing down, not until she knows how I feel, until she hears what I have to say.
But the gate is locked.
I frown, my fingers trying to fiddle with the latch which is usually so easy to lift.
“Can I help you?” a raspy low voice that definitely belongs to a heavy smoker comes out from the house.
I jump and look over at the open window where Miss Havisham is leaning out of, the curtains pushed behind her.
Bloody hell. I’ve never had a good look at her before, only as she was back in the day as a movie star and it’s apparent she still thinks she’s said movie star with all the thick, cakey makeup and red, overlined, Joan Crawford lips.
“Uh, hiya.” I remove my hand from the gate lock. “I’m here to see Marina.”
“She’s not home,” she says.
I glance at Marina’s VW bug on the street. “Are you sure?”
“She’s gone out with her friend. The grumpy one. What do you want?”
I stare down at the papers. “I wanted to give her something.”
“You can give it to me, I’ll give it to her.”
“Well actually it’s best I give them to her in person. I really need to talk to her.”
“So you can break her heart again?”
Ah. So she knows.
“No,” I say quietly. “I’m not going to break her heart again. I don’t even have her heart anymore.”
She rolls her eyes. “You young people don’t know a thing about love, do you?” She sighs and cocks her head. “Do you smoke?”
“I used to,” I admit. “Only on occasion now.”
“Come on in here. Have a cigarette with me and I’ll tell you the secrets of the universe.”
I should probably leave. I know that if I try and go to Marina’s—whether she’s home or not—I’ll get in trouble for it. It is Barbara’s property after all and she’s yelled about calling the cops on me before.
But curiosity has me by the neck.
