In The Heat Of Passion - Unfinished, Sophie J Brain [dark academia books to read txt] 📗

Chapter Five

I love you. The words were simple enough, just three tiny simple words that people said to each other every day. Michelle had said them to both her parents the previous evening, but it was different wasn't it? It was easier to say it to your parents. She was sure they loved her back, and sure she would hear the words back. Saying it to a lover, well that was a different thing altogether.

Michelle and Tom had been seeing each other for just over ten months and she knew that it had turned into love. She wasn’t sure when it had started but it was true. She wasn’t sure what he felt for her but she had planned to tell him her feelings that evening.

They had made plans to stay over in a hotel in Wallingford. It was a move that was a bit of a waste of money but after a near miss at being caught they had decided to stay out of Didcot. It was the perfect time for her to tell him how she felt.

She had no idea if he felt the same way for her though. She hoped he did but he hadn’t given her any clear indication. They hadn’t started out intending to fall in love so she wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t reciprocate her feelings.

She quickly checked into the hotel and dumped her suitcase onto the bed before making her way to the shower. They were due to meet in just over an hour and she wanted to make sure she was ready.

Tom was just about to leave the house when he heard his phone ring. He frowned as he walked over to answer it, it was Chris.

“What’s up mate?” Tom asked.

“I need to see you, are you busy?” Chris asked.

“Actually I was just on my way out to Wallingford” Tom replied in as urgent a tone as he could muster. He was due to meet Michelle in just under an hour and he couldn’t stand her up. There were things that had happened, things that had to be said.

“Meet me there, please” Chris begged “I will be in the market square in twenty minutes.”

With a sigh, Tom agreed to meet him then drove as quickly as he could to Wallingford. He walked briskly to market square, keeping an eye on the time as he did. He was due to meet Chelle in one of the pubs and he wanted to be there before her. They had to discuss important matters and he wanted the mood to be just right.

He spotted Chris straight away and rushed over to him, short when he saw his friend’s face. Something was wrong, very wrong. Chris looked tired and drawn and his eyes had glazed over.

“What’s happened?” Tom asked as he sat down on nearby bench.

Chris sat next to him “I’ve called off the engagement, me and Maisy have broken up.”

“What?”

“I just couldn’t marry her” Chris replied.

Tom let out a heavy sigh, it looked like he was going to be stuck with Chris for a while. He would have to get a message for Chelle as soon as he could. “I know you can’t” he replied “your heart isn’t in it.”

Chris suggested they go to the pub, the same one he was due to meet Chelle in, and Tom agreed. If he could get to the pub then when Chelle arrived he could try to find a quiet moment to let her know what was happening.

They ordered drinks and sat down at a table in the corner. Tom took a sip of his drink and turned to Chris “what happened?”

Chris shook his head “I wanted to love her but, it was never her, not really.”

Tom raised his eyebrows “you mean there was someone else?”

“Nicky” Chris smiled, Tom could see real love and affection in his smile.

“Who is she?” Tom asked.

“I was seeing her for a while when I first moved here” Chris explained “we fell for each other and I planned to end things with Maisy but she visited and Nicky met her. Nicky ended things.”

Tom swore under his breath. Chris had got himself into a right mess, and it was so unlike him to see two girls at once. Chris had always wanted to find someone to settle down with, he had always wanted to find the right woman.

It was for that reason perhaps that he rushed into things with Maisy, someone who had never been suited for him. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Maisy but hers and Chris’ personalities just didn’t go together. Chris needed someone with a bit fire inside of her. Maisy would make an excellent wife and partner but for someone else.

“Are you going to see this girl?” Tom asked.

Chris shook his head “I don’t think so, it’s all a bit awkward, besides she is in university now. She was a student for the school.”

“God Chris” Tom murmured “what have you got yourself into you? You know you could get fired if anyone found out.”

“I didn’t intend to fall in love with her” Chris argued “it just happened.”

Tom nodded, he knew just how easy it could happen as well. He looked at his watch again, Michelle would be there soon. Chris finished his drink and walked up to the bar where he started to talking to two women. Tom inwardly groaned, the last thing he needed was Michelle turning up and seeing him with another woman. He was finished with all that, he didn’t want anyone else. It was almost surreal really, Chris had always wanted to settle down and Tom had always been against it. It was odd to think that Chris was now single again while Tom was planning to propose.

How had it all happened? Less than a year ago Michelle had just been a friend and now he wanted to marry her. There was no one else better suited from him, there was no one else he wanted.

He hoped he hadn’t misread her feelings, he didn’t know what he would do if she turned him down.

Chris returned back with the ladies he had been talking to at the bar and introduced them as Abbey and Kate. Tom smiled but in truth he wasn’t even sure which one was which, his mind wasn’t on them. It was on Michelle.

Michelle checked her watch and frowned, where was Tom. They had said they would meet at the hotel hadn’t they? There had been talk about going to a local pub but she was sure they had said to meet at the hotel first.

She glanced at her watch again as she got off the bed, one of them must have got it wrong as he was over thirty minutes late. With another sigh she got off the bed and put her shoes on, with one last glance at her watch she left the hotel.

She walked through Wallingford trying not to worry about what might have happened, surely it had all been a misunderstanding? Surely he wasn’t standing her up? Maybe he had sensed that she wanted things to be more serious and that had scared him off.

Perhaps he was trying to tell her that he didn’t want anything more by standing her up. Michelle shook her head, Tom wouldn’t do something so cruel would he? She knew that he had a habit of leaving before the next morning after sleeping with someone but he would be honest with her surely? They had known each other since they had been children, surely that deserved a bit of honesty?

She arrived at the pub, where they had agreed to to go to and looked around for him. When she couldn’t see him, she quickly purchased a drink and sat in the corner of the pub. Where was he? Maybe something had happened to him while he had been traveling to Wallingford. She had just started thinking of all the possible accidents he could have had when she heard it. Chris’ voice piercing across the air, almost a wind in her heart, then she heard Tom’s laugh.

She stood up and followed the sign of their voices and found them sat in the opposite corner, with two women. She felt the tears in her eyes as they continued talking to the ladies they had obviously picked up.

She knew that she and Tom weren’t exclusive but she had never thought him so callous as to stand her up so he could pick up a woman. How stupid she had been.

Where was Chelle? Tom glanced as his watch while trying to get Abbey of Kate, he hadn’t bothered to work out which was which, off his arm. He didn’t want Chelle to see him practically cuddling with another woman when she showed up, if she showed up. She was over thirty minutes late.

“Come on, why are you fun like your friend?” the girl asked as she clung back to him.

“Tom is fun” Chris joked “sometimes he just likes to take things slow, isn’t that right Tom?”

Tom laughed, unsure what else to do. He could hardly tell Chris that he didn’t want any attention as he was planning to propose to his sister. Chris still didn’t know that they had been seeing each other.

Tom checked his watch again as the girl put her arm around him, as he turned to tell her to leave him alone he saw her, Michelle. She was stood looking at them with wide eyes, she finished her drink and rushed out of the pub.

Tom excused himself and quickly followed her out “Michelle!” he called.

She stopped, almost despite herself, she didn’t want to hear his accuses. She was foolish to think that they could be a proper couple; she was foolish to fall in love again.

She smiled “you had better not leave her waiting, its room twelve in case you want to take her back.”

Tom groaned as she shoved the room key in his hand, how must it have looked to see him with that girl? “You were late” he tried to explain wincing at how it sounded “not that that was why she was there, Chris picked her up not me.”

Chelle snorted “do I look like an idiot? First of all I wasn’t late, we were supposed to meet at the hotel, but I can see now why you were detained. Second of all, Chris would never pick up women; he is engaged for God’s sake.”

“He broke up with Maisy” Tom explained “he wanted to see me and I met him quickly. He brought these girls over, I thought we were meeting here, I’m sorry Chelle.”

It all seemed so innocent but she didn’t believe him, why couldn’t she believe him? She shook her head “you had your arm around her.”

“She had her arm around me” Tom corrected “I was waiting for you.”

Michelle smiled sadly “I was waiting for you in the hotel and all this time you were on the pull with Chris. I’m not sure why I am surprised.”

“I was not on the pull” Tom argued.

“It doesn’t matter really” Michelle replied “you will always be this way. Look you stay in the hotel tonight, you paid for most of it anyway. I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

Tom blinked, what had happened? When had he suddenly lost control of the situation? When he had he lost her? “Chelle it was innocent I assure you.”

“I know” she replied “but it just made me realise that I can’t do this anymore, I can’t explain but suddenly I don’t think we would make a good couple.”

“Couple?” He echoed.

She smiled again “a silly thought I had, but it was foolish. It wouldn’t work, I know that now.”

He took her hold of her hand “no Chelle, please don’t say that. let’s go somewhere and talk please.”

She shook her head “I can’t explain it, I’m sorry, there is nothing to talk about.”

“Chelle, please” he begged.

“Tom, let me go, please” she whispered.

He did let her go, not because he wanted to, because he didn’t. He watched