The First Mistake(42)

‘You sure you’re okay to do this?’ I asked.

‘Nothing will give me greater pleasure,’ he said.

I saw a flicker of something cross his features, a tightening of his jawline, a blackness momentarily descend over his eyes. I’d not seen that look on him before.

‘You won’t do anything silly, will you?’ I said, feeling unsettled.

‘Of course not,’ he replied, a little too quickly.

Unconvinced, I waited by the phone, eager for news. I didn’t know what I was more nervous about; it not being Tyson, or Thomas discovering that it was all a ruse and decking the guy.

When it rang, I said a quick Hail Mary on both fronts.

‘I’ve got him,’ said Thomas.

My hand flew to my mouth in relief and my chest seemed to cave in as it rid itself of the stress and anxiety I’d been holding within it.

‘Oh thank God,’ I cried. ‘Was it okay? Any problems?’

There was a long enough pause to make me think that all was not well and panic gripped me once again.

‘By the time I got there, the bloke said he wouldn’t hand him over for a penny less than three grand.’

‘Oh,’ I said, more concerned about where Thomas had got the extra thousand from than having to pay more to get Tyson back. No amount of money would have been too high a price.

‘So suffice to say, the idiot lost out. He should have stuck to his original price, because his audacity pissed me off so much that he only ended up with a thousand.’

‘Is that all he ended up with?’ I asked cautiously.

‘I’ll drop him back shortly,’ he said, ignoring the question.

The knock at the door came just after seven, and I raced towards it, narrowly avoiding the chewed-up ball that Tyson loved to play with. To see him there with Thomas on the doorstep, his tail wagging, made my heart feel as if it was about to burst.

I beamed as Tyson leapt up to greet me. ‘Where have you been?’

I fell to the floor as he whirled about like a dervish, not knowing whether to jump onto me, nuzzle my hair or lick my face.

‘Thank you,’ I said, looking up at Thomas. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘I’m sorry that it cost you so much to get him back,’ he said.

‘I would have paid much more,’ I said, laughing, as I ruffled Tyson behind the ears. ‘You coming in?’

‘No, I need to go and see my mum.’ He looked down at the ground and I felt as if I should say something. He’d not divulged any information about his background or his family – mind you, neither had I.

‘I’ll call you tomorrow,’ he said, slipping the envelope, with what looked like the surplus cash, onto the hall table before leaning in to pull me up.

‘I can’t thank you enough,’ I whispered, our faces almost touching.

‘I’m just so happy that I was able to get him back for you.’

His lips brushed mine and I so desperately wanted him to stay. If it hadn’t been his mother he was going to see, I would have done everything in my power to convince him to. I was that close to letting him know how I felt, regardless of the consequences. If he ran in the opposite direction then so be it, but I needed to get across the effect he was having on me because it was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.

When he didn’t call the next day, and the weekend had been spent staring at the phone, willing it to ring, I convinced myself I’d done something terribly wrong. What had I said? Nothing, yet. But the power of the unspoken word should never be underestimated. Had he known what I was about to say? Was he scared that I wanted to take our relationship one step further? I didn’t know what that was yet, but I couldn’t let him go. Though perhaps, in not saying something, I already had.

‘Are you sure he’s not married?’ asked Maria in the pub after work.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ I said, having wondered the very same thing the night before.

‘Would you carry on seeing him if you found out he was?’

‘Absolutely not,’ I said, taking umbrage that she even needed to ask. ‘I would never cross that line and besides, that isn’t the type of relationship I’m looking for.’

‘What type of relationship are you looking for?’ she asked. ‘Because, honestly, right now, it seems that this one is based on sex.’

‘But it’s really good sex, M,’ I sighed.

Maria rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t suppress a grin. ‘You can’t allow that to cloud your judgement,’ she said. ‘There’s more to a relationship than mind-blowing orgasms.’

I raised my eyebrows as if questioning the validity of her statement. ‘Is there?’

‘A relationship cannot survive on sex alone; it has to have something more. You need to be compatible in life, not just in bed.’

‘We’re harmonious in many ways,’ I said. ‘We talk . . .’

‘A few post-coital words do not constitute a conversation,’ she said, laughing.

‘We’ve got something deeper than that. Well, at least I thought we had.’

‘Does he know that?’

I pulled an apologetic face.

‘Oh great,’ she said, lifting her hands in frustration. ‘So you’re now pining like a love-sick puppy for a man who doesn’t even know that you’ve fallen for him. Have you gone this long without speaking before?’