What about you? - 24

Chapter 24

Kate looked at Mason’s sleeping form; he looked so relaxed sprawled across the bed. Finally relaxed after the traumatic day. Kate on the other hand was wired. The events of the last day playing on her mind in a vivid reconstruction.

Clarissa had stormed out and left the two of them in her room. Mason had looked at her and told her she didn’t have to go with him, he’d leave alone. She had no intention of staying; she wanted to be with him even if Clarissa wasn’t as angry as she was. So they’d both packed their bags then slept until six am, annoyed that they’d had a few drinks and couldn’t rush off immediately. Before anyone had woken they’d left in Kate’s car, the only message a note to Margaret explaining.

Where to go when the World is your Oyster? Neither had much idea. They wanted to get away, put miles between them and the disaster of the previous night, so they’d driven aimlessly until they ended up in a cold but pretty seaside resort on the east coast. It was cold and blustery as they’d stopped the car in front of a small hotel, and they’d been relieved that their first port of call had vacancies for the next few nights.

The hotel was a small place run by a male couple who were more than friendly, and the room they were shown to was little short of a bordello. Elaborate red and gold drapes, linens and walls made the room too gaudy to be romantic, and they had both chuckled as the door closed behind them.

                “All it’s missing is a pole to dance around!” Mason had announced with a raised and waggling eyebrow.

Wrapped up warm they’d wandered along the seafront, arm in arm against the winds before finding a small restaurant that was open in the desperately quiet town.

Over pasta, pizza and wine they had sat across from each other and contemplated the day.

                “Why did Clarissa launch at you Mason? I know your mother must miss you, you said you’ve been in Dubai for years, but surely she doesn’t begrudge you your own life? I’ve never seen her like that before. She always seemed so reserved.”

He’d looked everywhere but at her for a few moments until he finally brought his eyes back to meet hers. “I didn’t leave by choice...” Mason didn’t look overly proud as he retold the ugly story of his rubbish childhood, and then his rebellion. Sleeping with his step mother, and then becoming such a womaniser, and the ultimate low, seducing his young step sister.

                “I deserved to be chucked out by them, and it DID make me grow up. But I know my mother spent years grieving for me...Derek my stepfather wanted more children, but it never happened...he blamed that on the stress and depression my mother suffered, not the fact she was in her forties...so of course that was my fault too.”

He had looked at Kate with a sad expression on his face, “so my Aunt is right, I have caused nothing but trouble, you’d do well to have kept a wide berth from me!”

Kate sighed, “I’m just glad to know that I’m not the only one guilty of making wrong choices. My family are in bits, I’ve lost lots of friends to devote myself to Peter...”

Mason reached across the table and took her hands in his, “you didn’t make a wrong choice Kate, you’re only guilty of doing the right thing. I’m afraid I can’t boast that fact. I wanted revenge over my father and it made me as bad as him. I did some terrible things...”

They’d agreed at that moment to bury their pasts, and back at the hotel they’d made love. Now as Mason slept in the beautiful and rather raunchy bed, Kate found sleep eluded her. He’d bared himself to her, told her all his dark secrets, but she’d not shared back. Peter was such an emotive subject that she had barely honest with anyone about him, and she knew that she had to share her own guilt with Mason, but she wasn’t used to sharing anything anymore, and  without Peter to hide behind, she found she was still anxious, nervous of getting close to Mason. Then there was his mother, his Aunt...because of her there was another rift developing. Margaret had tried to call him when they arrived at the town, but Mason had ignored the phone. She couldn’t help thinking of her mother, her brother, how devastating her absence had been to them, and she didn’t want to be the one that started that for Mason.

Pacing the room she sighed, she seemed to need reminding that she actually was in charge of her destiny. Was Mason the man to offer that reminder?  With another sigh, she tried to block negative thoughts. She had a handsome man all to herself, a room paid up for two nights, and no other agenda until after that time. Shaking the bad thoughts away, Kate crossed the room and snuggled up to the warm slumbering body of Mason.

There wasn’t much more to do in the cold weather than take short strolls, then return to bed to warm up. The time passed too quickly, and the second morning...their final day, Kate woke feeling sad. They’d still not discussed what would happen when Mason returned to Dubai and Kate back to London. There was no mention of the future and that saddened her.

She was stood looking at the sun, struggling to shine over the dark sea, when two arms encircled her, settling over her stomach, Mason’s chin rested on her shoulder. “Despite the rubbish weather, I find myself wanting to stay here, in this little hotel, forever...with you!”

She smiled, tilting her head to kiss the bare arm that wrapped around her, “why does this feel like the end?”

He spun her around quickly, forcing her to look into his eyes, “trust me Kate, this is definitely not the end. We’ll work things out ok?”

She wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t expect him to choose her over her family, not after he’d abandoned his mother once before. But she smiled anyway and nodded, “ok!”

Packing up the car, she drove him to his apartment, he gathered up the little that he’d brought from Dubai, then she drove him to Heathrow. They lingered as long as they could in the check in hall, but soon his flight started to flash up on the departure board.

                “I’ll call you!” he promised clinging to her as though his life depended on it.

Kate clung on equally as hard, snatched kisses, fists full of clothes, anything to commit to memory in case she never saw him again. Then as he finally separated from her, he disappeared into the security check area, and finally out of view. It wasn’t until then that the tears started to fall, and she cried all the way home to her cold, empty London home.

With time difference and travelling, after a day back in work Kate hadn’t heard from Mason, and whilst she was disappointed, desperate to hear his voice, she knew that it was unreasonable to blame him. But when she hadn’t heard as much as a text or email by the following morning, she started to become defensive, angry.

Everything had changed beyond recognition. Tilly was marrying Ashton in a few weeks, Mike and Steve were leaving, going travelling, she’d had the confrontation with Clarissa, and therefore Peter...her brother was married, her mother was sad in her own home. The only constant was her demanding job!

Kate looked around her empty home. She’d not be sad to leave it, in that it was really far below what they should be renting. But it had been the top of her price bracket after the hefty bill she paid for Peter. Steve and Mike had loved the cheapness, and had obviously managed to save for this mammoth trip they were planning. Without them to share the load she had two options. Her own place, at a ridiculously hiked price, or sharing with strangers. She’d spent the last eight years sharing her home with others, now she was almost twenty seven, she should be building a home for the future. Tears rolled down her face as she tried to contemplate the mess her life had suddenly become. A couple of months earlier everything had been set in stone, she knew what the past, the present and the future held. Now she knew nothing.

Throwing herself onto her bed, she started to cry again. That’s all she’d done the last few days.

She must have fallen asleep, because she woke with a start and was completely disorientated. Lifting her head, she suddenly heard the familiar ringtone of her phone. Rummaging in her pocket, she finally found the handset and snatched it to her ear.

                “Hello?”

               “Sorry Kate!” Her heart immediately started to race at the sound of Mason’s warm and seductive voice. She wanted to be strong, angry at him for taking so long to call, but instead she melted.

                “Oh Mason! It’s great to hear your voice! I’ve had a shit day.”

            “Anything I can help with?” he offered and when she chuckled and asked him to just keep talking, he apologised. “I landed and walked straight into another crisis! It’s been chaos here. Poor Brandon seems doomed to never spend time with his new baby! The poor man. I wanted to call, but I didn’t want to have to rush, and to be honest this is the first time I’ve been free of meetings.”

Kate sighed, the excuse was incidental now that he’d called and she could just hear his voice.

                “You’re quiet Kate. What’s wrong?”

Kate didn’t need to unload her many problems on Mason, not now. And to be honest she didn’t know where to start, so she just laughed, and told him some inane stories about her working day. The call lasted for just under an hour, and once he hung up despite the sadness at them being apart, she curled into bed and slept well for the first time without him.

                “So tell me all about Christmas and specifically why you didn’t return any of my calls or texts?”

Tilly was sat across the table from Kate in their favourite cafe looking more healthy and glamorous than Kate had ever seen her look.

                “Well whatever happens, I don’t look as radiant as you!”

Tilly gave a wry smile, “I was spoiled by my soon to be husband, and none of his family were there...need I say anymore?”

Kate chuckled; she knew how Tilly hated the overbearing nature of Ashton’s family, “sounds idyllic!”

                “It was...” Tilly seemed lost in a rather pleasant memory for a moment before she shook her head to drag herself back to the present, “and don’t avoid the question Michaels! Where’ve you been?”

So Kate filled her in on the disasters at her home between Stu’s new wife and her mother, then turning up at the Wightman’s.

                “Guess who opened the front door Christmas morning?”

Tilly’s eyes widened as the rather large penny suddenly dropped, Kate hadn’t been absent because of a difficult time with Peter, quite the opposite! Leaning back in her chair, she smiled at her friend.

                “You dark horse Kate Michaels! What the hell have you been up to this Christmas?”

Kate sighed, then the whole sorry story came out. Their arguments, the animosity, she glossed over the reconciliation, that was in the ‘too much information’ category, but then finished up with the ugly scenes with Clarissa.

Tilly was sat, her mouth open in wonder, unable to believe so much had happened since she’d last seen her friend. “Why didn’t you call me? I hate that you go through all this shit on your own chick. I’m supposed to be your friend and I am there for you!”

Kate blushed, she’d been far too engrossed in Mason to call Tilly and she wasn’t overly proud to admit that. “It was Christmas; the last thing you needed was me bringing you down! Now we’re here for wedding planning Tilly, enough about me!”

Tilly smiled, but watched her friend as they started to discuss the finer details of the planned nuptials, she could see her friend was quiet, reserved. She thought that becoming free from Peter would stop these demons that haunted her, but for a worrying moment, she realised that very little had changed.