Heaven Sent, page 29
The guests, still oohing and aahing at the pyro spectacle, clapped delightedly as they crowded outside the registry office.
‘Pass me another tissue, love,’ YaYa sobbed as the fireworks and the music eventually faded. ‘This is all too much for me.’
Clemmie passed a handful of hankies. She hadn’t cried, not this time. She was emotionally exhausted. And still stunned by the efficacy of Allbard’s Magik Green.
‘What I still can’t get,’ YaYa dabbed gently beneath her eyes, ‘is why she changed her mind. And what part you played in it. And why, come to think of it, you and Guy are always using that fab green firework every time there’s a bit of a problem.’
‘It’s just me and my silly bit of homespun folklore,’ Clemmie said with what she hoped was ringing conviction. ‘You know, green being the colour of all things magical. I always try a bit of hocus-pocus when there’s trouble.’
‘Yeah, right.’ YaYa blew her nose. ‘You mean it’s something weirdly scientific that a mere accountant wouldn’t understand? Oh, you keep your silly pyro secrets, love – I’m not fussed. I’m just so pleased they got spliced. And now we can all go off and have a little bop at that cute little pub, and hopefully celebrate Guy’s birthday too; not that he deserves it, the way he’s been behaving.’
Clemmie looked across at Guy, standing with the pyro crew, being congratulated by Ellis and Lola and their friends, and shrugged.
‘He’s got his reasons. And he might not even want to go back to the Crooked Sixpence – if he’s really that bad-tempered, he might go straight back home to Winterbrook.’
‘Let him,’ YaYa said with a shrug. ‘We can still go and have a bit of a celly, can’t we?’
Clemmie, who really didn’t feel like celebrating anything at all, nodded.
Ellis and Lola, still entwined, were now scrambling excitedly back into the limo, and the guests, laughing and talking, were flooding back to their own various modes of transport.
Waiting until the tail lights had disappeared, and the registry office staff had switched off their lights and locked the doors, the pyro crew, including Clemmie and YaYa, moved silently to clear away the last traces of the display.
‘I need a drink,’ Syd said, slamming the last sand bucket and fire blanket back into the van, and making sure the computers were stacked carefully. ‘Anyone else?’
There was a general yell of agreement and, in seconds, The Gunpowder Plot’s vans, had joined the Steeple Fritton-bound convoy.
‘What about you?’ YaYa asked Guy. ‘Fancy a drink, birthday boy?’
‘Not really.’
‘Oh, stop being such a pain in the arse!’YaYa snapped. ‘You’re such a spoilt brat! Your bad temper has made Clemmie want to leave us! And I hate you for that!’
‘YaYa …’ Clemmie groaned.
‘Sorry, love – but it had to be said. We all tippy-toe round him and his bloody moods – I love him to bits, but I won’t let him drive you away!’
Guy pushed his hair away from his eyes and squinted at Clemmie. ‘Is she right? You’re leaving?’
Clemmie nodded. ‘I was going to hand in my notice straight after New Year, but YaYa asked me to stay a bit longer. So I did. And I wanted to see tonight through and now I have. Well, anyway, I’ve got my resignation letter in my bag and I might as well get it over, so—’
‘Don’t you dare!’ YaYa spat. ‘Now you listen to me, Guy Devlin! I’m your best and oldest friend! You talk this over with Clemmie. Now. Properly. Like grown-ups. I’m going to go and sit in the car and have a fag, or maybe two. And when I’ve filled myself with nicotine, I’ll come back and if you haven’t managed to sort anything out, then I’ll accept that Clemmie’s leaving because she wants to and not just because she can’t stand the sight of you any longer!’
And swaying away on the scarlet killer heels, YaYa left them alone in the hazy darkness.
‘She’s very kind,’ Clemmie said faintly, ‘but she’s wasting her time, isn’t she?’
‘Apparently.’
Clemmie shook her head. ‘Oh, no. Don’t take that sarky tone with me. None of this is my fault. We were getting on just fine before and I was really happy with the job, more than happy – and we were good friends, weren’t we? And then—’
‘And then?’
‘God, you’re so annoying! Don’t just repeat what I’ve said. Say something!’
‘OK …’
Guy shifted his weight onto one hip. It was a very sexy movement which Clemmie tried extremely hard to ignore.
They stared at one another. Clemmie, feeling slightly hot, dropped her gaze first.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘Don’t try the smouldering bit on me, either. I know what you did. It was so cruel. You could have just told me to back off, not go through that bloody charade with Helen.’
Guy peered at her. ‘Now you’ve lost me.’
Furiously, Clemmie glared at him. ‘Crap. You made me think that you liked me – maybe more than liked me – because you knew – knew – how I felt about you, didn’t you? And you’re such an arrogant bastard that instead of just breaking it to me gently, you had to have a laugh about it. You decided to invite me to dinner and then you pulled that viciously cruel stunt. And ever since, you’ve ignored me, frozen me out, treated me like some menial idiot; so, how the hell do you expect me to stay working with you after that? Go on – you tell me!’
‘You stood me up.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me,’ Guy said quietly, his eyes expressionless. ‘That Friday night. I was waiting for you and you didn’t show up. You stood me up.’
‘Did I hell!’
‘Yes, you did.’ Guy sighed. ‘We arranged to meet at about seven. I’d found a lovely little Turkish restaurant that did takeouts, planned the menu, lit the candles, and me and Suggs were waiting – and waiting – and waiting …’
‘All fantasy!’ Clemmie snapped. ‘You didn’t do any of that for me. You did it for Helen!’
‘I can assure you I didn’t.’
‘Yes you did. You invited Helen to stay for Christmas. Asked Helen to open the door to me when I arrived. Asked Helen to make sure I knew you and she were reconciled and were planning a family Christmas! She even hinted you were in bed – with her.’
Guy laughed harshly. ‘I haven’t been in bed with Helen since – well, years and years ago. And Helen didn’t come to stay for Christmas! God I’d rather have slit my wrists. I spent Christmas entirely alone with Suggs. Helen only popped in that night, completely unannounced and unexpected, on her way to one of her other exes, to collect the obligatory presents for the brats which in her usual avaricious way she knows I’ll buy out of guilt for disliking the poor little sods so much, and as it was way before seven I jumped in the car and drove off. I told her she had twenty minutes to collect the presents and get out of the house before you arrived.’
Clemmie sniffed. ‘Yeah, that sounds really plausible.’
‘It happens to be true. I stayed out of the way while she was there, and she was gone when I got back.’ He paused and frowned. ‘You mean you did turn up while I was out and Helen was there? Earlier than we’d arranged? And she opened the door and said – and you believed her?’
‘Well … yes.’ Clemmie nodded. ‘And she didn’t leave a note or anything to tell you I’d called or that she’d spoken to me, did she?’
Guy shook his head. ‘And I was really worried about you, in case you’d had an accident, so I kept calling your mobile but after a while I just assumed you didn’t want to talk to me. That you thought I should have got the message by not turning up.’
‘You thought I’d stood you up and I thought – oh, God – I thought it was your way of telling me to push off. Helen said that you and she were … were …’
‘Helen is the biggest cow in the world,’ Guy snarled. ‘She knew how I felt about you. How close we were. She hated it – hated it! And she – oh, shit!’
Clemmie bit her lip. Oh, shit, indeed.
‘I bet she didn’t give you the champagne either, did she?’
‘No. But then that would have proved that you’d called, wouldn’t it? God, she must have loved that – guzzling champagne from you to me.’
Clemmie pushed her hair behind her ears. Why on earth hadn’t she said something to Guy sooner? Why hadn’t he broached the subject? Why had they both been so ridiculously, stubbornly, pointlessly proud?
‘We’ve been a bit stupid, haven’t we?’ Guy said with a rueful grin. ‘These have been the worst weeks of my life.’
‘Worse than when you split up with that girl in your youth?’
‘Far, far worse – I’ve never felt like this before. I wanted to die. Honestly. There seemed no point in anything any more. And, to make it even worse, I’ve been a bastard to you while you’ve been going through all that yourself. Splitting up with your boyfriend; YaYa told me.’
‘That’s not exactly true.’ Clemmie smiled, her heart doing a little jig under her ribs. ‘He didn’t actually exist. YaYa sort of got a bit carried away. And when I was so upset about – about well, Christmas and Helen and everything – and couldn’t tell her the truth, it seemed easier not to disabuse her of the notion.’
They gazed at one another
‘So where do we go from here?’ Guy asked. ‘Can we put all that crap behind us and start again? Or do you still want to leave – oh God, you do, don’t you?’
Clemmie, her hand in her bag, shook her head. ‘I’m not about to whip out my resignation letter. Actually, I was going to give you this …’
She handed him the rainbow maker.
‘Happy birthday – although, as you’ll guess from the wrapping, it was really your Christmas present.’
‘I bought you a Christmas present too. It’s still wrapped up in the sideboard. You’ll have to have it when we get home.’ Guy quickly unwrapped the rainbow maker and whooped. ‘Wow! It’s superb! Thank you! Clemmie – I love it! I’ve always wanted one of these! Suggs’ll love it too – he’ll spend forever chasing rainbows.’
‘A bit like us, then?’
Guy nodded, holding out his hand. ‘But not any more. Oh God, Clemmie, I’ve been such a fool. I’m so sorry.’
She smiled at him, shivering, as his fingers closed around hers then catching her breath as he pulled her against him.
‘Thank God we didn’t need to resort to using the Allbard’s Magik Green, having used it up on Lola,’ she said faintly against his leather jacket. ‘Although I did think I might try it out on you if—’
Guy laughed. ‘It would have been OK. I brought one, too. For you. Just in case … But clearly it won’t be needed. Now come here: I’ve owed you this since Hassocks Hill, haven’t I?’
Then he kissed her, and all the fireworks in the world fizzed vibrantly through her body and exploded vividly around them.
‘Oh …’ Eventually surfacing, she looked up at him. ‘Oh, wow …’
‘Oh, wow just about cuts it for me, too.’ Guy stroked her hair away from her face. ‘I don’t know about Ellis and Lola, but this has to be the best night of my life.’
‘Mmmm … Mine too. Do you know,’ she said dreamily, ‘if you count Suzy and Luke, we’ve been involved in three weddings and a funeral.’
‘We have.’ Guy kissed her lips again, gently, teasingly, temptingly. ‘And that sounds slightly wrong to me …’
‘Well, loves,’ YaYa chirped happily from the darkness. ‘There’s only one thing left to do, isn’t there? Three weddings and a funeral – wrong. Four weddings … well, you’re the brainy ones so I’ll leave you to do the maths.’
‘I’m way ahead of you,’ Guy laughed. ‘Now bugger off and leave us alone.’
YaYa giggled as she sashayed away towards the 4 × 4. ‘With pleasure, loves. As long as I can be a bridesmaid in black net with white lilies. Now, I’m off to the pub to join in the celebrations. Might see you there, later?’
‘Much, much later,’ Guy said softly. ‘As this is Valentine’s Day and my birthday, it seems like a heaven-sent opportunity for me and Clemmie to have a little private celebration all of our own.’
Also available by Christina Jones, published by Piatkus books:
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