Leo managed to stop himself from frowning.
‘I will,’ he said, and continued bounding on his way. ‘I definitely will.’
And then his neighbour was gone, rushing away down the street as if his life depended on it, leaving Leo to wonder why Dominic would be sending Emma his love?
Chapter Eighty-Nine
It would be polite to change out of my tatty old T-shirt and sweats that have seen better days, but it’s only Caron who’s coming round for the evening and my friend has seen me in a worse state than this on many occasions. At least I’m clean. I languished in the bath, indulging myself in some of the lavender de-stressing bath oil that Caron bought me for my birthday. It’s wonderful stuff, so I’m feeling very chill. All my make-up has been scrubbed off, along with a few layers of London grime, and I promise myself that I will do something wonderful with my hair tomorrow. For tonight, it can stay swept up in my scrunchy.
Padding barefoot through to the kitchen, I make myself a cup of green tea. A new health regime. No chocolate. No booze. I’m going to detox my body. Except, for tonight, I’ve bought in a box of chocolate Celebrations and a nice bottle of Rioja – so, apart from the green tea, I will start in earnest tomorrow. Honestly. The X-Factor is playing away to itself on the television.
The intercom buzzes. ‘Hi,’ I say. ‘Come up.’ And I buzz the door open. Turning off the television, I select a CD and click that on instead. Caron is bringing a soppy DVD which we’ll watch later with a box of Kleenex to hand. Then I go to open the door to the flat.
‘Hi.’
The last person I expect to see standing there is Leo. But he is.
He’s wearing a dinner suit with a red rose in his lapel and looks breathtakingly handsome. Leo smiles at me and holds out an enormous bouquet of red roses wrapped in purple tissue paper. He leans jauntily on my doorframe turning up his smile, but something in his expression makes him seem surprisingly vulnerable and his eyes hold a worried look that I haven’t seen before.
I examine the roses. They’re exquisite. ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome,’ Leo says.
I have wondered what this moment would feel like. I imagined that I’d fall into Leo’s arms, all the hurt and pain forgotten – but it isn’t like that. I feel tense, affronted and Leo looks like a stranger to me. Perhaps I’m in shock. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve come to take you out,’ he says brightly.
‘Take me out?’
‘If you’ll let me.’
‘I’m seeing someone else.’
‘You’re not,’ Leo says. ‘My spies have reliably informed me that you’re still an unfettered, single woman.’
‘Well, I could have been,’ I sigh.
‘But you’re not.’ Leo fiddles with the rose in his lapel. ‘I saw Dominic today.’
‘Oh.’ I feel myself flush. ‘Did he tell you what happened?’
‘Er . . . yes. Of course he did. Man to man.’
‘It was an experience.’ I try very hard not to recall a vivid image of it. ‘A dreadful experience. I’m going to have a lifelong aversion to cardboard and Superglue. And red underwear.’
Leo raises a puzzled eyebrow and I wonder how much Dominic has really told him.
‘He said to send you his . . . regards.’ Leo nods thoughtfully. ‘His regards. He and Lydia seem very happy together. Very happy.’
‘I’m sure they are.’ I’m glad it’s working out for the man who was briefly a good and caring friend to me. Dominic has forgiven his straying girlfriend and has taken her back. Am I willing to do the same?
I rake my hair and then realise what I must look like. Why couldn’t Leo have warned me that he was going to drop back into my life unannounced? ‘You’d better come in,’ I say.
Leo comes into the lounge and sits down next to me on the sofa. It could so easily feel like old times, but something has changed in both of us. I can feel that there has been an unidentifiable shift somewhere and wonder whether it’s in me or whether it’s in Leo. And I also wonder whether it’s for better or for worse. Would it ever be possible to get the old times back?
‘You can’t just turn up like this,’ I tell Leo. ‘Out of the blue. Couldn’t you have phoned me? It’s been weeks since I’ve heard anything from you.’
‘I know, and I’m sorry. I thought you’d hang up on me again.’
‘I can’t just drop everything,’ I say. ‘I am expecting someone, as it happens.’
‘Caron.’
‘Yes.’
‘She isn’t coming,’ Leo tells me.
A frown crosses my face. ‘How do you know?’
Leo has the grace to look sheepish.
‘Oh,’ I say, penny dropping. ‘You organised this with her? Caron who used to be my best friend, but the situation is currently under review.’
‘Caron and Grant.’ Leo checks his watch. ‘They are currently enjoying a convivial meal together at a lovely Italian restaurant. I think they’ll make a nice couple.’
‘And what would you know about that, Leo? You’ve suddenly become a relationship expert?’
‘Everyone thought that you’d missed me.’
‘Oh, did they?’ I fold my arms. ‘Well . . . well, you can even miss toothache once it stops.’
Leo grins at me. He can read me like a book. ‘Caron told Grant that you couldn’t stop thinking about me.’
‘Caron, who is now looking for a new best friend, said that?’
Leo reaches out and takes my hand. It’s warm and familiar and sends a weakness to my knees that I hadn’t expected. It’s just like the first time I met Leo. His face is suddenly serious. ‘I want to try again.’
‘Oh.’
‘You said that the magic had gone out of our relationship and I had no idea what you meant. Really I didn’t. But I do now and I want to see if we can get the magic back,’ he says.
‘Oh. Oh.’ My heart is pounding. ‘And what about Ms Incredibly Gorgeous Isobel?’
‘She’s . . . er . . .’ Leo looks sad. ‘She’s gone. For good. And she won’t be coming back. You don’t have to worry about that.’
‘I can’t be second choice, Leo.’
‘It isn’t like that,’ he says. ‘It was never like that.’
‘Do you want to tell me what happened?’
‘No.’ Leo shakes his head. ‘I’m not sure what happened myself. It’s a very bizarre story. You wouldn’t believe me.’
‘I never believe you anyway, Leo.’
‘I’ll tell you when we’ve grown old and grey together.’ He strokes my hand tenderly. ‘Then you’ll trust me.’
‘If I agree to go out with you again, I’ll be old and grey within two weeks.’
Leo grins at me. ‘So you are considering it?’
In some ways it feels so good, so right for us to be here together again. Can I forgive and forget all that has gone on between us and start over with a clean slate? In striving for perfection, I’ve been less than perfect too and it looks as if Leo can forgive me. Aren’t the strongest relationships made by people who are prepared to work through the bad times together?
Then I shake my head sadly. ‘I can’t do this, Leo.’ I can’t risk getting hurt again. Even though I’m hurting without Leo, it’s a constant pain – not the rollercoaster ride that I was on before. ‘I’m not sure that I can trust you with my emotions again.’
‘You can.’ Tears fill Leo’s eyes. ‘I promise you.’
‘I can’t risk it,’ I say.
‘Then it’s really over?’
‘I’m sorry.’ My throat has closed, so I can’t say anything else. I don’t want to cry but I can’t help it. Tears roll slowly down my face.
Leo stands up and I follow suit. He takes my hands in his warm ones. ‘It’s a terrible shame, Emma,’ he tells me, ‘because the new, improved Leo is a really great bloke.’
He holds me tight and kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before. Then he turns and walks out of the door while I stand an
d wonder what the hell I’ve done.
Chapter Ninety
Leo’s car, Ethel, is parked on the road outside my flat under the spotlight of a nearby lamp post. She’s decorated with a garland of tiny white lights and has swags of tinsel round the outside. Ethel is also wearing huge black false eyelashes on her headlights. Leo is already climbing into the driver’s seat.
‘Leo!’
He stops and looks back at me. I suddenly realised I couldn’t let him go, so now I’m standing on the pavement feeling ridiculous. My eyes fill with tears and my throat is still constricted. Leo comes over to me.
‘That looks pathetic,’ I manage to say gruffly.
‘Come on,’ he says, tugging gently at my hand. ‘Get in.’
‘Where are we going? I can’t go out looking like this.’ Skanky sweats and scrunchy are not a good look. ‘You’re in your dinner suit.’
Brushing my cheek softly with his thumb, Leo says, ‘You look beautiful just as you are.’
Leo opens the passenger door for me. The back seat of the car is filled with hundreds of red roses.
‘Have you bought these all by yourself?’ I whisper.
Leo nods. This is not the man I know and have loved. Someone must have taken him and waved a magic wand over him. By some divine intervention or top-rate miracle, Leo has turned into a proper boyfriend.
The perfume in the car is intoxicating. My head is reeling. I slide inside.
‘I feel very silly,’ I say without conviction. ‘Can anyone see us? Where are we going?’
‘Sit back and relax,’ Leo instructs. ‘Leave everything to me.’
He gets in the car next to me. Then we sit and look at each other for a moment, still in the silence, and I can see that Leo’s eyes are full of love. Love for me. ‘I have missed you,’ I say tearfully. ‘I’ve missed you a lot.’
My favourite Whitney Houston CD starts playing on the car stereo. Which is very strange because Ethel doesn’t have a CD player. The stereo doesn’t even appear to be switched on. Even Leo looks taken aback.
‘How did you do that?’
‘I didn’t,’ Leo says, bemused. ‘It must be magic.’
He guns Ethel into life.
‘Is all this magic going to make your driving any better?’ I ask.
‘No.’ He shakes his head. ‘It’s magic. Not a miracle.’
‘So some things never change?’
‘No. I guess not.’ He leans over and kisses me on the cheek. ‘But some things do. You wait and see.’
Leo pulls out into the street and, in his usual style, kangaroos off down the road, shouting out of the window, ‘Tally ho!’
We drive past a cyclist, way too close, causing him to swerve.
‘I know you!’ Leo shouts and gives the cyclist a friendly wave. ‘Yoo hoo!’
He turns to me. ‘I made him fall off his bike the night of your birthday party,’ he confesses. ‘Doesn’t that seem like another lifetime ago?’
‘Yes.’ Another lifetime ago. In the past. Behind us.
In the rearview mirror I notice that the cyclist has fallen off his bike once more. He jumps up cursing and gives Leo the finger.
We both burst out laughing.
‘Sorry!’ Leo yells back at him. ‘Sorry! Awfully sorry.’
Chapter Ninety-One
Lard pulled uncomfortably at his shirt cuffs. ‘I’ve never been on a blind date before,’ he complained.
‘Shut up moaning,’ Grant said, as they entered the restaurant. ‘And be pleased that I care enough about you to arrange this.’ He nudged Lard in the ribs and whispered, ‘They’re here.’
Caron and Jo were already seated at the table that Grant had booked. They both looked lovely. Not shimmery and sparkly, but grounded, substantial and beautiful women.
‘Oh my word,’ Lard said. ‘I wish I’d worn my best undies now.’
Grant put his arm round Lard and hugged him. He’d developed a much stronger need for human contact and warmth since coming home. It was as if all his senses had been scrubbed out and were shiny and raw. His bond with Leo and Lard had strengthened from their experience and he knew that whatever happened to them in the future, it would never be broken. ‘I told you I wouldn’t let you down, my lovely little friend.’
The conversation in the restaurant babbled like the brook in the Land of Light, and Grant wondered if he would ever stop getting flashbacks to their visit there. It was like suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – little images could be triggered by such trivia. Except that the vision didn’t frighten him or give him nightmares, but filled him with a powerful sense of love, loss and longing. When he saw flickering lights, would it always take him back to their weird and wonderful night at Stonehenge? Would these images always be imprinted so sharply on his brain, or would his memories fade with time? How much worse must it have been for Leo, to have loved and lost a being from another world? All he and Lard could do was try to support Leo and, when he felt alone and overwhelmed, let him know that, for a brief time, they had shared an earth-shatteringly surreal experience with him that had changed them all. Grant could see a kernel of compassion and humanity in the three of them that had never existed before.
Grant kissed Caron as he sat down. He was eternally grateful that she’d been able to forgive him for standing her up on their first official date and had agreed to give their stalled, fledgeling relationship another try. ‘Hello again.’
Caron smiled shyly. Lard hovered nervously in the background and Grant pulled him into the nearest chair. ‘Meet Lard,’ he said by way of introduction.
‘Why are you called Lard?’ Jo wanted to know.
‘I used to be chubby,’ Lard confessed. He looked down at his new slim-line stomach – one of the bonuses of having persuaded a giggling Isobel to cast a spell on him. Now when Lard ate chocolate in vast quantities it only helped him to lose weight. The more Mars Bars he consumed, the more the pounds dropped off. It was a shame they couldn’t bottle it and sell it.
‘And now you’re not,’ Jo said. ‘So what’s your real name?’
‘Tim,’ Lard answered. ‘My name’s Tim.’
Grant looked at him in surprise. He was sure that he must have once known what Lard’s real name was, but no one had called him that for years.
‘So Tim,’ Jo continued, ‘if I let you buy me dinner, are you going to expect to sleep with me tonight?’
‘No,’ Lard said, faintly aghast.
‘Shame,’ she said. ‘Let’s eat. You can reconsider your answer later.’
Grant sighed with relief. They were going to be okay. Lard wouldn’t stand a chance if Jo decided they were going to be an item. Which was good, because it meant that he could forget about keeping an eye on his friend and concentrate on his own date.
‘It’s good to see you.’ Grant took hold of Caron’s hand.
Caron filled his glass for him and they touched them together. ‘To us,’ she said.
‘To us,’ he echoed.
She sipped her wine and then said, ‘I wonder how Emma and Leo are getting on? Do you think they’ll still be talking to us?’
‘I don’t know,’ Grant admitted. ‘We’ve done all that we can to try to bring them together again. The rest of it is up to Leo and Emma.’
‘I hope it’s going well for them,’ Caron said.
‘Me too.’
‘Leo’s lucky to have a friend like you,’ she said.
‘No.’ Grant shook his head. ‘We’re all lucky to know Leo. He’s a very special guy. I have a lot to thank him for.’
It had been a strange few weeks, but life was gradually getting back to normal again and he was looking forward to settling down to more mundane pursuits once more. No fairies, no spells, no magic. He looked over at Caron; her eyes were shining in the candlelight. Perhaps it wasn’t fair to class someone so stunning as a mundane pursuit. He smiled at Caron and felt a rush of warmth to his heart. And as for magic, well, maybe it was a bit rash to say no to magic. He hoped that he wa
s always going to remain open to a bit of that.
Chapter Ninety-Two
It was a marvellous starry, moonlit night. Leo couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect. And he’d seen some pretty amazing things in the past few weeks. They could hear nothing but the sound of the lapping waves on the beach, the rush of water over shingle. Leo didn’t know what had really happened in the Land of Light or with the whole Isobel thing, but he did know that he felt more calm than he had in his entire life. There was a contentment at his core that had been missing before, and instead of charging aimlessly and foolishly through his life, he was going to start to appreciate the things he had. Leo Harper was going to stop and smell the roses.
Emma and Leo were sitting on a tartan blanket that he’d set out on the beach. Leo had whisked her down to Brighton – snuggled together in the beautifully-scented Ethel, eating up the miles with ease. This had always been one of their favourite weekend haunts and somewhere they hadn’t visited in a long time. Now it was dark and the day-trippers were long gone, heading for the bars and restaurants, the renowned nightlife. The lights of the town sparkled in the distance and the huge framework of Brighton Pier provided their backdrop. They were alone, looking out over the vast sweep of ocean.
Leo had taken a lot of trouble in packing the picnic, trawling his brain to remember all of Emma’s favourite foods. He realised that it felt great to do nice things for the person you love the most on earth.
The night was warm, but Leo had gathered some firewood and lit a fire on the beach. Cuddled up together, they were watching the sparks dance in the air. They’d both rolled up their trousers to their knees and had stripped off their socks so that they could toast their toes by the fire.
‘Warm enough?’ Leo asked.
Emma nodded, but he took off his jacket anyway and draped it around her shoulders. She didn’t complain, just leaned against him, eyes closed. Leo undid his bow tie and let it hang. Tonight he had managed to tie it all by himself without the aid of a fairy and her magic wand. Isobel was right, he was perfectly capable of managing without her, and that thought somehow made him smile.