You Got It Wrong - Part Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

A/N Sorry for yet another delay with this post, life is REALLY hectic at the moment, hopefully back on track. Not sure if this chapter is quite how I want it, so may edit again, thoughts welcome!

Theo made for the bar. The pub wasn’t full but there was enough of a crowd that he could enter without being noticed. He moved to the back of the room and ordered a bottle of beer from the barman. Then leaned against the highly polished wood and observed the room. It was a traditional pub, but as it was a weekend, a jukebox drowned out only the loudest conversations, but he could see Nina, with her tall model-esque friend, stood across the other side of the bar chatting to a group of people. Instantly he could see that she was the life and soul of the party, her laughter ringing out as she spoke over the din of a Duran Duran hit.

A man at the bar handed her a bottle of beer and he watched as she lifted it to her lips, seeing her throat move as she swallowed the drink. Everything about her intrigued him, and he couldn’t drag his eyes from her if he wanted. It was amazing to think that he’d really disliked this woman when he first met her. As he studied her now, he felt completely different.  She had the longest eyelashes, and they fluttered as she laughed, and Theo hated that he felt a twinge of strong emotion when a tall blond man slung an arm around her shoulder, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

He hadn’t thought about the fact that she might have a boyfriend, but then he watched her flick her shoulders, causing the arm to slide away and it made him smile.  She was no one’s push over.

Gesturing to the bar man Theo ordered another drink, then leaned once again onto the bar and carried on his observations. The two women were close, he could sense that, and Nina was protective, he watched her hand touch her friend several times in a really supportive way, touch to the small of her back, a squeeze to her arm, and then leaning her head against her friend’s shoulder. There was a story, a history between them, and he realised how little he knew about the woman he’d followed in to the bar.

Suddenly Theo needed to leave, what the hell was he doing following her into a pub? He wasn’t some jealous teenager...but he was feeling strange, watching her from a distance. He had other things to do...he had his daughter to think about. As he reached for his drink, intending to drain it, he felt eyes on him. Glancing up he met an angry stare.

Nina.

He couldn’t escape now, so he once again nodded at the barman who poured him another beer.

What the hell was Theo doing in her local pub? Nina glared across the room at the decidedly smug face and had an urge to pound her fist into it, her...the least aggressive person in the world. She tried to turn back to their friends, but she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her even as she tried to laugh along with a joke, or when Lilah dragged her to the makeshift dance floor with her. She couldn’t tell Lilah he was there, because she hadn’t mentioned him to Lilah at all. That was strange, because they shared everything. But she supposed she didn’t know what he represented or what he wanted. But she did know that he meant nothing to her, and he had no right invading her world the way he was.

After ten minutes, or it could have been twenty, she finally lost her temper. Giving an apologetic smile to her friend, she marched across the bar, straight towards the tall blond man stood smirking.

                “What the fuck are you doing?”

His lips curled into an even boarder grin, then he gave a nonchalant shrug, “what?”

                “You! You’re in my local pub, you the poncey Londoner...why would you do that then? You answer me that?”

He laughed throwing back his head and guffawing, “seems you’re not the only one appearing out of context, hey?”

The made her scowl, and him laugh again.

                “Why are you here?”

He stared at her for a long moment, “I’m visiting Mansell, this place is local...I feel like a drink.” It was a white lie...or maybe a little more than that.

                “So me being here is just a coincidence?”

He gave a non committal shrug, “did you follow me here?”

That made the top of her head literally blow off, “NO. I never want to see you again; can’t you get that into your thick skull?” She watched his face, his eyes for a sign that Theo Peterson realised just how pissed off she was, but all she saw was humour, at her. “Don’t go there!”

He shrugged, “look, I want to talk to you, it IS a coincidence that I’m in the same place as you, but to be honest, I’m quite glad. I owe you an apology...”

                “Accepted...now piss off and leave me alone.”

As she turned on her heel, made to march off back to her friends, his voice echoed over the din of the pub, “we WILL meet up, dinner, drinks...somewhere.”

Not listening to him, she kept walking back to Lilah, the port in the storm, safety.

               

                “Darling! Where’ve you been?”

Nina shrugged, “toilet.” The disco was playing Teenage Dirtbag and her response, to ease the frustration and anger, as well as avoid any conversation with her friend, was to lift a finger, and shout, “I’ve got two tickets to Iron Maiden maybe, come with me Friday, don’t say ‘maybe’...” then as she started to air guitar, Lilah shook her head in disbelief before joining in as enthusiastically. The friends they had joined all laughed, and soon it was a competition to ‘out guitar’ each other.

Slowly Nina calmed down, it was almost possible to forget the enemy across the room as they all dissolved into rounds of giggles, THIS was what life was about, fun, and not the evil thing staring at her.

Theo wondered when the nuisance had turned into a vibrant, funny and sexy phenomena. She was surrounded by what were beautiful people, but she shone out radiant, beautiful. She had a charisma, a presence that he’d not noticed before, and she was captivating. He had to talk to her, because the thought of her hating him for any longer pained him, he wasn’t proud of the way he’d spoken to her, and he wanted to make that good. If she’d let him.

He gestured to the barman and ordered another drink.

He thought about his grandfather as he drank the whisky placed in front of him, Mansell was talking of going back to France, Theo knew he should accompany him, but he couldn’t leave Melody again, not whilst Sadie was so unstable. He hadn’t had time to think of the implications of the new branch of his family. Not really. The whole France trip seemed so surreal. His brother Daniel was back from Washington, and he had to speak to him, Daniel was an ideas man, he knew home to manage things, Theo felt like a fool when things like this happened.

He’d liked Helene; she was a gentle, woman, her beauty still evident as she approached ninety. It was ironic that both her and his grandfather had made it so late in life.

Then there was his cousins...he supposed that what they were. Claudine, glamorous and beautiful, she cared for Helene, she was an innate good person, unlike her twin brother...or so he’d been told. Was this dark blot on the landscape a risk to his grandfather? It was like having another child, whilst the man had survived eighty plus years on earth, he was going in to this situation with naivety and nostalgia. Mansell needed someone protecting him.

With a sigh he pulled out his phone and called Daniel, but there was no answer. That was his job the following day.

Giving a final glance in the direction of Nina he sighed, everything was a mess.

Nina hadn’t slept, she was blaming that on eating food on the way home, greasy food at one am wasn’t conducive to sleep, but her mind was filled with Theo when she tossed and turned, punching her pillow. No one had elicited such fierce anger in her as that man, his presumption, rudeness...he expected that all to be forgotten because he’d changed his mind? How little he knew about her.

She got up early, showered, dressed, and still she had the feeling of anger, the uneasiness. After a stroll in the crisp early morning sunshine she was no more relaxed. As Oakdale nursing home appeared on the horizon she smiled, she was always relaxed there, in fact she had an art class the following day, so she could go and check her stock, if she needed anything she could go to the market later. It was a plan, and distracted her from the angry things in her life.

The manager on duty welcomed her, and with a mug of coffee she headed up to the games room.

The room was at the front of the building overlooking the seafront, a huge light and airy place, she loved the room. A huge double cupboard at the far end of the room housed all the equipment, easels, paint, as well as chess boards, bingo machines, giant jenga, and darts...the list was endless.

Nina was checking the paint supplies when she heard the door open behind her. Looking up she saw a little girl smiling at her.

                “Hi, you ok?”

The little girl nodded, “paint!”

Nina laughed, “there’s a lot of paint in here. Where’s you mummy?”

She presumed she was visiting a resident, but she was too young to be wandering on her own. The little girl shrugged a response.

                “I had a sleep over.”

Nina squatted down in front of her, “really? Here? Was that with your grandmother?”

The girl bit her lip and shook her head, “my grampy. His room is there.” She pointed in the direction of the corridor outside.

                “That sounds like fun. Did you have a midnight feast?”

The little girl giggled, “no but we had pancakes for breakfast...they’re my favourite!”

Nina laughed, “I’m Nina,” holding out her hand she asked, “what’s your name?”

                “Melody.”

Nina squatted down and shook her hand, “well Melody, I think we should find who you’re looking at before your grandfather starts to panic. Ok?”

She nodded, then allowed Nina to lead her towards the door when the door was thrown open and Theo stood there, eyes blazing, anger emanating from every pore.

                “You...” he gave his head a shake and Nina was about to open her mouth and launch at the man who seemed to be everywhere she turned, when melody’s voice drew her attention.

                “Daddy! You’re back!”

Theo dropped to his knees and hugged the little girl, and for a moment as he chastised Melody for running away from her grandfather, Nina leaned against the wall and tried to take it all in. The man hounding her, for SO many reasons was this darling little cherub’s father. There was no obvious link, she was fairer skinned than him, with a round cheeky face and tumbling blonde curls, but she looked at him with devotion, and she could see they were close. So he was married, had a daughter...so why was he making her life hell? Why did he want to speak to her so urgently? Why did he care that he’d been a bastard to her?

Nothing made sense, and she didn’t like him any more than she had, though it was always cute seeing a man devoted to his child. She was stepping back from him when his eyes lifted to her, he was about to say something but she didn’t want to hear it, so she mumbled.

                “She wandered in, I was just about to find where she belonged...wasn’t kidnapping her or anything.”

She turned and rushed back to the store cupboard when she heard him start to speak, “I wasn’t about to...” But the door closed behind her.

Nina wasn’t going to waste any more time on him, he was rude, aggressive, very annoying, and had treated her badly from the moment he’d set eyes on her. Their paths had crossed a lot the last few weeks, but that was about to change, she had no intention of spending another moment as much as thinking about him, and she wasn’t going to let him wind her up again.

I think she doth protest too much flew straight in to her conscious brain, but she dismissed that with a shake. He had no redeeming features, he had no rights on her life, or her time, on anything. He was all the things she’d said, just because he had sparkly eyes and a strong jaw did not make him god’s gift to women. And anyway he had a daughter...presumably a wife. She gave a resolute nod. She didn’t like him, full stop. She didn’t want to see him or his cute little girl ever again.