Page 134 of The Reboot
‘And I let him. God, I’m so pathetic! How could I have fallen for all that bullshit? We’d never even met and he was carrying on like he was madly in love with me – and I was stupid enough to believe it.’ She drew a heaving, shaky breath. ‘Oh, Roly, what’s wrong with me?’ she wailed.
‘Nothing’s wrong with you, Mum.’ He rubbed her leg, looking up into her face. ‘He’s a dickhead, that’s all.’
‘But why do I never learn?’ She sniffed. ‘You must think I’m such a gullible old fool,’ she said, looking across at Ella.
‘No, of course not.’
‘I should have known better than to think a man like him would be interested in me.’
‘Don’t be daft, Mum. Anyone would be lucky to have you.’ He rubbed her arm soothingly. ‘But there is no “man like him”. He doesn’t exist. It’s just a scam.’
She nodded furiously, tears spilling from her eyes. ‘And of course I was eejit enough to fall for it. I should have known when he asked me for money. How could I not have realised? Your nan is right about me, Roly. I don’t have the sense I was born with when it comes to men.’
‘Don’t beat yourself up, Mum. Lots of people get taken in by these scammers.’ He looked to Ella for back-up.
‘These people are very clever, Loretta,’ she said. ‘They know what they’re doing. I read an article just the other day about a high court judge in America who’d fallen for a scammer. She’d given him hundreds of thousands of dollars before she realised.’
Loretta heaved a deep breath, wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve. ‘Well, would you two like a cup of tea?’ she asked, rousing herself.
‘I’ll make it.’ Ella jumped up and went to the kitchen, glad of the excuse to leave Roly and Loretta alone for a bit. She wasn’t good at looking after people. She wasn’t naturally motherly. But she knew Loretta would do it for her in a heartbeat. She had to step up and be the grown-up for once.
The kitchen was hot, and there was a delicious smell wafting from the oven. She peeked inside – it looked like she’d arrived just in time to save Loretta’s dinner from burning. She’d just flicked on the kettle when Loretta came in behind her.
‘I turned that off,’ Ella said, nodding to the oven. ‘I hope that’s okay? It looked like it was done.’
‘I’d totally forgotten about it. Thanks, Ella. I’m not thinking straight, offering you tea. There’s wine open, if you’d prefer?’
Ella looked to Roly, who’d followed his mum and was standing in the doorway. He gave her a nod.
‘I think that’d be a good idea.’
‘Well, I know I could do with some. And you two should stay for dinner. There’s all this food. Have you eaten?’ Loretta looked between them.
‘No, we haven’t, and I’m starving. It smells really good, Mum.’
‘Why don’t I go and leave you and Roly to it?’ Ella said. ‘You can have dinner together.’
‘I’d love you to stay, Ella. I could do with the company. And I’m not in the mood for drinking alone.’
‘Okay, if you’re sure…’ She looked doubtfully at Roly.
‘Yes, stay,’ he said, nodding.
‘I only cooked for two, but I was allowing for Mike,’ Loretta’s voice caught on the name, ‘to have a big appetite. Being a military man and all that,’ she said, rolling her eyes. Ella was relieved she seemed to be cheering up, and seeing the funny side.
‘I’m sure there’ll be plenty,’ Ella said.
‘There’s some garlic bread in the freezer,’ Loretta said. ‘We can bulk it out with that. And we’ve three courses. I was pushing the boat out.’
‘I’ll do the garlic bread,’ Roly said, shooing them out of the kitchen. ‘You two can get started on the wine.’
‘He said it was because of being in the military that he couldn’t do video chats,’ Loretta told Ella when they were ensconced on the sofa with a couple of glasses of wine. ‘Something about having to keep his location a secret.’
Ella nodded. ‘That’s why so many of these scammers pretend to be soldiers on a mission somewhere. It gives them lots of excuses for not being in touch. They say they have no phone reception, or the internet is dodgy, or they’re not allowed make calls for security reasons.’
‘You must think I’m such a chump, falling for it.’
‘Not at all. They wouldn’t be so successful if they weren’t so plausible.’ Ella toyed with her glass. ‘Did you give him much money? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ she added hastily.
