“I’m really sorry, I’ve still got a lot to learn. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
She looked almost as embarrassed as he felt. “So now that we’ve both apologised the hell out of this, let’s stick a fork in it and call it done, okay?” she mumbled, flashing him a quick smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
He nodded, folding his arms and leaning on the table. “Can I ask you something?”
Her expression was guarded but he didn’t let it stop him.
“Can I use your shower?”
Relief poured out of her. “Absolutely.”
CHAPTER 13
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
- Nelson Mandela
Callum strode up Ally’s front path balancing two cups of takeaway coffee in his hands, as per their usual Saturday morning tradition. He wondered what kind of mood he would find Ally in this particular Saturday morning. She and Jack had gone to Barney’s – on a Friday night, together. Ally hated going to Barney’s on the weekend and he couldn’t blame her. Was she trying to prove to Jack that nothing had changed? If she was, she was playing a dangerous game and Jack was in for a rude awakening. He was all for her getting the closure she needed, but hiding the truth from him wasn’t going to help.
Despite his little chat with Jack, he still wasn’t convinced that he would stick around, and what would happen to her when he didn’t? He tried not to dwell as Ally opened the door. As soon as she did, he could tell something was up, even through the smile she greeted him with.
“Morning,” he said casually.
“Hey.”
He held the coffee up. “Ambrosia – nectar of the Gods.”
She moved aside to let him pass. “I’ve been looking forward to that coffee all morning – I feel kinda… fragile.”
She closed the door behind him and he turned around, checking her out more closely. She looked paler than usual, and that smile wasn’t fooling anyone. “Really? What’s up?”
“I had a few beers last night. I haven’t done that for so long, I forgot how it made me feel. And this morning, I remembered.”
“Ah yes. The mighty hangover. I’m familiar.”
“Exactly. My head hurts and I feel like crap. Do we have to do the exercise thing today?”
“Define ‘crap’ for me.”
She shook her head dismissively. “Just your general run-of-the-mill hangover.”
“Are you sure it’s not – “
“Yes, I’m sure,” she snapped. “I’m not running a temp and I don’t have any other symptoms so you can stand down, doc.”
He ignored her tone. “Okay, chill. Just checking.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, wheeling past him as she headed towards the living room. “Like I said, not feeling that great. Hangovers suck.”
He followed her through and set her coffee down on the table, sinking into the couch. “No arguments there. So, speaking of last night, how’d it go?”
“Fine.” She took a sip of her coffee.
“Just fine?”
“It was fine – it was okay.”
“Must’ve been more than okay if you had a few beers, or was that Dutch courage?”
“Something like that.”
Not a lot in the way of details were forthcoming. She took another sip of her coffee. He wanted to shake her until she told him everything, but she looked so fragile, he took pity on her. “I can come back tonight if you want. Maybe you’ll be feeling better then, and we can do your range-of-motion stuff.”
“That’d be great. Thanks.” She stared at the coffee cup in her lap.
“You can talk to me about last night if you want,” he offered. “I’m not gonna do anything stupid, I promise.”
She fiddled with the lid, biting her lip. “Thanks, but it’s fine. I wouldn’t know where to start, anyway.”
“Come on – talk to me.”
She hung her head. Something was definitely up. His imagination began to run wild. “What did he do?”
“What? Nothing, he didn’t do anything.”
“I swear to God, I’ll knock him straight into next week, if he so much as –”
“Oh for God’s sake, it’s not his fault, it’s mine!” She reached forward to put the coffee cup on the table in front of her.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she mumbled miserably.
“Do what?”
She stared at her hands in her lap, her fingers finding her grandmother’s ring and twirling it over and over until he had to fight the urge to lean over and physically stop her.
“Be near him,” she said finally. “Talk to him. Every time I look at him, I can see both of him.”
“Both of him?”
She shrugged, hair falling forward to partially obscure her face. “Who he was before, and who he is now.”
Finally, Callum understood what she was trying to say. He had seen it too. “He’s changed.”
“So have I,” she said quietly.
Three Years Earlier
“So what happens now?” Tom asked.
The doctor looked up from the chart in his hand and pushed his glasses further up his nose. “We’ll keep her in for a couple of days, for observation. Someone from the psych team will assess her tomorrow then contact you to talk things over and explain what happens next.”