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

her walk away without calling her name. Not because he wanted to, but because he loved her so much that he had to give her want she needed.

 

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

 

Saturday 20th June 2009 – eight months later

 

“Come on, just one more.”

Tom sighed as Chris put his hands together to convey mock begging “fine just one, then I need to be going.”

Chris walked up to the bar and Tom stared at the “staff only” door that was located opposite him. Whatever he did that night, he had to make sure he went home alone. He had always been a womaniser but since his break up with Michelle he had been almost on over drive. In all honestly he couldn’t remember the last time he had spent the night on his own.

Despite being with a fair share of women Tom had had always appreciated time to himself. He had often said that helped him catch up on his own life. He would catch up with his work or watch an old film, drink what he wanted without potentially judging eyes. It had been wonderful.

That was until Michelle had dumped him and now whenever he was on his own he would think of her. He would think of how wonderful she was, how much he had loved her and how the pain would never go away. He had moved to Crowmarsh soon after the break up, he had said it was to help Chris but he knew the real reason. He couldn’t stand the idea of bumping into Chelle.

He loved her, he still loved her, and maybe he always would love her. He had been going to propose to her, a man who enjoyed single life the way he had did not make such a choice lightly.

“Here you are” Chris murmured “sorry I was delayed, I saw Chelle and we had a chat.”

“Chelle?” Tom asked “is she here?”

It wasn’t unusual that she was there, both Tom and Chris had elected to spend the weekend in Didcot. Tom was trying his best to integrate Chris back to his family. There had been tension on both sides after Chris’ engagement had ended and Chris had seldom seen them since.

“Yeah around the other side” Chris replied.

“Did she want to join us?” Tom asked despite himself. A night with her would be tortuous but also wonderfully refreshing. He could sneak a few proper bit of conversation in, something he wasn’t able to do when they met up in a group.

“No she is with some bloke” Chris replied “good for Chelle, it’s been a while since she has dated, I think she was single all of last year.”

If only Chris knew the truth about how unsingle his sister had been the last year. Tom smiled and did his best to appear calm, who was the bloke she was seeing? How could Tom be sure he was good enough for her?

“What did he look like?” Tom asked.

“I didn’t see him, why are you so bothered about Chelle’s date anyway?” Chris asked.

Tom shrugged and looked past Chris’ shoulder “I’m not, just glad to see she is getting out there again.”

 

“Do I have competition?”

Michelle blinked as she arrived back at her table “I beg your pardon?”

“The young man at the bar” her date, Paul, clarified.

“Oh, no” Michelle replied quickly “that’s my brother Chris, I heard he was back in town. He lives in Crowmarsh but is visiting.”

“Well that is a relief” Paul replied with a grin “I was never too good at competitions” she smiled politely as he continued “when did you last see him?”

“Chris? Must have been a few months now” Michelle replied “I popped up there in March.”

Paul, a gentleman she had been talking with for a few months, was three years older than her. He worked for an estate agent and had short black hair and brown eyes. He was handsome enough and they seemed to get on well.

She had first met him at the local supermarket. They had both seemed to do their shopping at the same as such a conversation had sparked. She wasn’t sure why she had accepted his date, after Tom she had promised herself she wouldn’t date again. Unfortunately she missed the male company, and she missed being in love.

If she gave up on it all then surely she was letting those who treated her badly win? Paul was a nice man, he was friendly and he made her laugh. She could worse for herself and in all honestly she could see herself falling for him.

“What does he do?” Paul asked.

“He’s a teacher” she replied “he moved to Crowmarsh about a year ago, he was engaged for a while but they broke it off.”

“Were you upset?”

Michelle blinked at the question, she hadn’t ever considered whether she had been upset or not. Truthfully she hadn’t felt like it was her place to upset one way or the other, it hadn’t been her engagement. She had been consumed by her own, secret, break up that she hadn’t thought much about Chris’.

Was she upset though? No she didn’t think she was, she had always thought that Maisy and Chris were something of an odd match. Something about Chris had been odd as well, near the end, he had been somewhat distant.

“No, I can’t say I was” she replied, “can you excuse me a second?”

“Of course” Paul smiled.

She stood and walked towards the toilets, which were located around the corner where Chris and Tom were sitting, of course. She quickly used the toilet and started to make her way back to her date.

“Chelle?”

She turned around slowly, why had he called out to her? She didn’t want to speak with him but with Chris around she could hardly ignore him completely. She noted that Chris wasn’t at the table and smiled softly “Thomas, where is Chris?”

“Just gone out for some air” Tom replied “do you want to sit down?”

She did sit, because she wanted to be friendly “I can’t be too long I am with someone.”

“I heard” Tom replied “what is he like?”

“He is lovely” Michelle replied, “not that it is any of your business one way or the other. He is an estate agent, very funny, very friendly.”

“Safe” Tom replied flippantly, hating himself the moment the word came out of his mouth. He had no right to be commenting on her love life, no matter what they had been, they had finished. He knew that and yet he couldn’t help himself. He wanted her to see how much he cared for her, he wanted her to see that side of him, not the unreliable side she had convinced herself of.

He wanted to banish the memory she had of him sat with a girl while she thought she had been stood up. If ever a misunderstanding needed clearing up.

The look on her face confirmed how out of place his comment had been and she stood up “there is nothing wrong with safe, perhaps that is where you have been going wrong.”

“Chelle, I’m sorry” Tom murmured.

She nodded but her eyes darted back to her date “I need to go, speak to you soon.”

He watched her walk away as Chris joined him back at table “what did she want?”

“Oh just to say hello” Tom lied.

“Right, you wanted to go home after one more didn’t you?”

Tom sighed, that had been his plan but seeing Michelle had completely knocked him. He looked around the bar and spotted a young lady with her dirty blonde hair. She caught him looking at her and gave him a smile, he smiled back as he picked up the glasses “maybe just one more.”

 

A week later Michelle walked along Manor road with Paul. They had met at the Queens Arms, on their third date, and had promptly decided to take a stroll and enjoy the weather.

She had been enjoying his company immensely and she knew that she was falling deeply for him. Some long lost feelings had been awakened and she loved it. “I live right by here.”

“Do you?” he asked.

“Would you like to see it?” She asked “no pressure or promises of course, just somewhere private we can chat.”

Paul nodded “of course, let’s go.”

They walked to her house in silence. She had said no promises but she couldn’t help herself thinking about being with Paul. She had been out of the dating world for so long she didn’t know at which point it was socially acceptable to be intimate. Was the third date all right? She had no clue, she really liked Paul and she didn’t want to scare him away.

“Here we are” she smiled as she let them both into the house. She walked into the kitchen, which also homed her dining room table, and gestured for him to sit down.

He did so and waited for her to walk over with some water “thank you.”

“I have stronger drinks but I thought it best to start off with water” she murmured.

He nodded but she noticed his attention was caught by something on the wall. She followed his line of vision and smiled to herself, he was looking at small brown, blackish mark on the wall.

“That’s where the table used to be, way back when before I was born” she explained “it was moved after someone was killed there.”

He choked on his drink and turned to her “pardon?”

“I usually say someone was murdered that way my house sounds very cool” she laughed “but the truth is someone committed suicide here.”

“How awful” Paul grimaced.

“I don’t know” Michelle smiled fondly “it’s quite nice to have a ninety year old stain, makes my house kind of historic, don’t you think?”

“Ninety?” Paul echoed.

“Or so the story goes” Michelle replied “according to my grandfather, she said that when my great grandparents were first married an old work mate of my great grandfather stalked them. Then he took my great grandmother, her sister and a family friend hostage, they talked the guy down but then he shot himself while sat at the table. My grandfather says that my great grandmother swore blind that the young man was suffering from shell shock.”

“How many times have you heard that story?”

She shrugged “oddly not too many, there are quite a few wild stories from my great grandmother’s side of the family.”

“I’m not sure if I should be worried or impressed” he smiled “my family seem very boring in comparison, would you like to tell me another?”

Michelle grinned “well, there was the time my great grand aunt Vi helped someone run out of their wedding so my great grand uncle Simon could marry her instead.”

“Sounds interesting and romantic” Paul grinned.

“Well, basically it happened like this…”

 

Chapter Seven