The First Mistake(39)

He raised his eyebrows suggestively. ‘Which part? Was it the juicing of the luscious, ripe grapes, or the fact that you can make thousands of pounds from buying and selling wine? What turns you on the most?’

‘All of it,’ I said as his hand slid down into my trousers. His fingers just reached the lace top of my knickers before I grabbed his wrist and looked at him wide-eyed.

‘What?’ he said, all too innocently.

‘Patience is a virtue,’ I said, in between kissing him. ‘In one hour, all of your dreams will come true.’

Except they didn’t. Instead, we spent the first two hours after we got to my place searching for Tyson, who had, it seemed, let himself out of the back door.

‘But there’s no way I would have left it open,’ I said, verging on hysteria when we still hadn’t found him. ‘I’m sure I would have checked that it was locked before we went out. Don’t you remember seeing me do it?’

He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I can’t say that I did, but I wasn’t really paying attention.’

‘It’s the last thing I normally do before I go out,’ I cried. ‘How can I have been so stupid?’

‘Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it,’ he said gently. ‘We’ll find him – he won’t have gone far.’

As soon as the sun was up the next morning, we both headed out in different directions, our breaths billowing in the cold air as we shouted his name. ‘Tyson, Tyson! Come on, boy.’ I choked on the words, furious with myself for the stupid mistake I’d made and terrified of what might have happened to him. ‘Please Tyson,’ I begged. ‘Please come home.’

Thomas and I met again an hour later at the park where I usually took Tyson for his walks.

‘No sign?’ I stupidly asked, willing my dog to be at Thomas’s feet.

He looked at the ground, shaking his head glumly.

‘I need to go to work,’ I said. ‘We should go.’

‘I’ll stay, if it’s all right with you,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a meeting I can push back, so I’d like to carry on looking.’

‘Oh, yes, well, of course that would be amazing, if you really don’t mind.’

I’d not seen him looking quite so sombre. ‘I feel responsible too. If I’d not distracted you, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.’

I thought back to the night before, when I’d asked Thomas to do my necklace up.

‘This is beautiful,’ he’d said as he admired the delicate diamond hanging from a silver chain.

My hand had instantly gone to it, my fingers feeling its weight.

‘Thank you. It was a gift from my dad.’

‘Well, he obviously has very good taste.’

I didn’t tell him that he’d had very good taste. Instead, I batted away the tears that threatened to fall every time my dad was mentioned and closed my eyes as Thomas kissed my neck. The fifteen minutes we’d then spent having sex instead of getting ready meant that I’d been in a mad panic to get out of the door to catch our train. Perhaps I’d not had time to check that the back door hadn’t been left ajar. I could blame Thomas, but what was the point? It was a distraction that I had readily encouraged.

‘Thanks,’ I said, kissing him at the park gate, his lips cold.

‘I’ll call you with any news,’ he said. ‘If I find him, is there a cafe or something around here that I can wait in until you come back?’

Was there? I’d lived in the area for five years, but suddenly I couldn’t even recall the shop where I usually got a coffee on the way to work.

‘It’s okay,’ he said, sensing my difficulty. ‘I’ll find somewhere.’

‘No, no . . . of course, sorry, I’m not thinking straight. Here, take my key.’ I struggled to get my house key off the ring that carried a worn photo of me and Dad. I was prepared to give Thomas the key to everything I held dear, but not that.

‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘Is there an alarm or anything I need to worry about?’

‘No,’ I said quietly, paranoid that anyone might overhear how lax my security arrangements were.

‘Keep me posted, won’t you?’ I said as I reluctantly left him.

All morning my mind alternated between Tyson and a man I was fast falling for, and when I’d heard nothing by lunchtime, I could feel myself welling up.

‘I can cover for you if you want to go home,’ said Maria as she rubbed my back.

I shook my head. ‘I’m better off here. There’s nothing I can do at home, apart from wait.’

‘Honestly, I can do your classes this afternoon; you’re no use to the children when you’re like this.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, go on, go,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell the head.’

As I walked from the station to my flat, my mood was lifted a little at the sight of ‘LOST’ posters on every other lamp post along the route. Anyone with information was being urged to call an unfamiliar phone number.

‘Do I assume I have you to thank for the posters?’ I asked Thomas when I got home. I didn’t dare call the number on my phone as I risked ‘Hot Guy’, the childish pseudonym I’d saved him under, appearing. I made a mental note to change it, even though it was still accurate.