Page 123 of The Reboot
‘We thought maybe you two…’ Nora left the sentence hanging suggestively.
Ella swallowed hard and shook her head. ‘It was nothing like that. We were just friends.’
Neither of them looked convinced, and she caught them exchanging a worried look.
‘So what happened there?’ her mum asked. ‘Why did you move out?’
‘Did he meet someone else?’ Nora asked.
‘No. I mean maybe. He might be getting back with his ex, but that’s not why—’ She gasped and a sob escaped as the tears she could no longer hold back spilled from her eyes. ‘Oh god, I messed everything up.’
Her mother took one of her hands, and Nora clasped the other tight.
‘Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think,’ her mother said.
‘It is.’ She sniffed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘I did something – years ago – to Roly, and now he’s found out and he’ll never forgive me.’
‘Whatever it is, it can’t be all that bad.’
‘It is, mum. It’s really terrible. You don’t know—’
‘We knowyou,’ Nora said. ‘You wouldn’t do anything to hurt someone, not deliberately.’
‘Nora’s right. What could you do that would be so dreadful?’
So, when she’d managed to stop her sobs, she told them. She’d never told anyone what had happened that night, what she’d done – not even her mum. Not even Roly, she thought with a pang. It was a secret she’d buried deep inside herself.
‘But you did it for his own good,’ her mother said when she’d finished. ‘You were worried about him – and rightly so, by the sound of it.’
‘You were being a good friend,’ Nora added. ‘You did him a favour. Thanks to you, he got the help he needed.’
‘Roly doesn’t see it that way.’
‘Well, I’m sure he will once he calms down. It must have been a shock when he found out. It’s understandable if he’s upset. But I’m sure he’ll come round and realise that you were just trying to do what was best for him.’
‘But it’s the fact that I didn’t tell him,’ she wailed. ‘That’s the really unforgivable part. I should have told him when we met up again. Now it’s like I tricked him into—’ She stopped abruptly, realising she’d been about to say ‘into loving me’.HadRoly loved her? It had felt like it. ‘But he didn’t have all the facts – about his own life.’ Or about exactly what kind of person he’d fallen in love with.
‘I agree you should have told him,’ her mother said. ‘But I know how hard that would have been and I totally understand why you didn’t.’ She put an arm around Ella and hugged her. ‘Oh, darling, I hate seeing you so unhappy.’
‘We seem to have come back in the nick of time,’ Nora said.
Ruth smiled at her sister and nodded. ‘You do seem to have made a bit of a mess of things while we’ve been away,’ she said to Ella. ‘But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.’
‘I don’t see how.’
‘Well, let’s start with Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Do you think they’d give you your old job back?
34
‘Thanks for meeting me.’
‘No problem. It’s good to see you, Ella.’
‘It’s really nice to see you too.’ She meant it. They were a sight for sore eyes. She was once again seated on the other side of the coffee table from Jake and Dylan in their little office area. Outside the door she could hear the low hum of Citizens life going on.
‘So, what can we do for you?’ Jake asked.
This was it. She twisted her sweating hands in her lap and swallowed, her throat dry.
