Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Orla, aged 27. Christmas Eve.

Orla couldn’t have been any more bored than she was right now. She’d met Craig online and he seemed nice. They’d spent a few days messaging each other and they got on well, even if it was all online, so they’d decided to meet at a lovely little restaurant called The Tulip Garden on the cliff tops overlooking the sea, the pretty town of Apple Hill Bay and the gorgeous little harbour.

And that’s when it started to go wrong. She’d ordered the fried garlic mushrooms to start and that’s when he’d started talking about his love of mushrooms. He knew every mushroom there was in the world, or seemingly did; he could identify every mushroom in the wild, which ones were poisonous, which would make you sick and which were delicious to eat. Craig apparently grew his own mushrooms in his shed. He currently had blue oyster mushrooms, pink oyster, grey oyster, yellow oyster, king oyster, and she now knew all the differences. He also grew shiitake, lion’s mane, enoki and maitake mushrooms but he really wanted to try growing porcini and truffles because they were apparently the hardest to grow. Orla had never heard the word mushroom so often in a conversation.

Their starters arrived and he insisted on eating most of her mushrooms to see what they tasted like. Inferior was the word he used, especially in comparison to the ones he grew himself. When she asked if she could try his chicken wings, he said he didn’t share food and went back to talking about mushrooms again.

She was going to kill Ettie for this. Orla had become really good friends with her over the last three years since they’d started working at Seahorses together. It had been Ettie’s suggestion, or rather insistence, that Orla try online dating, berating her for doing nothing but run the café and hang out with her, Fern or Shay all the time. Although it was probably the amount of time Orla and Shay spent together that Ettie had the biggest problem with. Not because Ettie didn’t like him – she adored him, but because Orla and Shay were so close, no other man stood a chance. That was Ettie’s words. And there might be a tiny bit of truth to that.

She and Shay had slipped back into their old ways so quickly after her return to Apple Hill Bay, meeting most nights on the beach and of course they’d see each other throughout the day because he worked right next door at The Little Beach Hut Hotel. They were best friends and everyone who lived locally saw them spend so much time together at work and outside of it they assumed they were a couple anyway, so men asking her out were very thin on the ground.

So as Ettie and Fern both had boyfriends, none of which Orla thought would be long term, Orla had reluctantly agreed to widen the net and try online dating. Shay hated the idea, telling her there were too many weirdos out there on the internet, which so far had been true. He didn’t like any of the men she had dated so far. She’d stopped telling him she was going on dates now as he always wanted to know everything about them before she went out with them, sometimes making his mind up that he didn’t like them without even meeting them. He also always wanted to know when she was home safe, which in this day and age was probably not a bad thing, but it did feel like a crazy one-night stand with one of her hot dates was off the table because of it, not that she’d wanted that with any of the men she’d dated so far.

Just then Shay walked in with his latest girlfriend, Brooke. It was not a total surprise he was there. Apple Hill Bay was so small she’d often bump into him even when she wasn’t planning on seeing him. As far as nice restaurants go, there wasn’t a great deal of places to go to and The Tulip Garden was well known for its delicious food. Unlike her, Shay never seemed to have any trouble getting a date. Brooke was very pretty with her long dark hair. But none of his girlfriends lasted beyond a few dates. He was clearly looking for something that none of these girls made him feel. She knew that feeling – every time she went on a date with someone, she was always looking for a man that made her feel the way that Shay did, but no one ever came close.

His face lit up when he saw her, and he waved.

‘Oh, that’s convenient that she’s here,’ Brooke hissed.

‘You chose this place about ten minutes ago, how could she possibly know we were coming?’ Shay said.

‘She just has a habit of turning up wherever you are.’

‘Apple Hill Bay is a very small town.’

‘You see her more often than you see me.’

‘We practically work next door to each other,’ Shay said in exasperation. ‘I’m going to say hello.’

‘Of course you are,’ Brooke said, dryly.

Shay started coming over, with Brooke reluctantly following. That was one of the things all of Shay’s girlfriends had in common, they didn’t like her, or rather her relationship with Shay, no matter how nice she was to them.

‘Hey Orla, how you doing?’

‘Who’s this?’ Craig snapped.

‘This is my friend Shay and his lovely girlfriend, Brooke. This is my date, Craig.’

‘I didn’t know you were on a date tonight,’ Shay said, looking over at Craig suspiciously, giving him the once-over to see if he met with his approval. Clearly, by Shay’s expression, he didn’t.

‘First date. Craig was just telling me about his love of mushrooms. He grows his own.’

Brooke snorted and Orla felt bad for Craig, he’d quite clearly heard her laugh at him.

‘I’ve dabbled in growing my own mushrooms too,’ Shay said, and Orla smiled with gratitude at him. ‘Probably not to your extent, just chestnut and some shiitake. There’s something really oddly satisfying about it and it’s so easy to do.’

‘Some of them are easy, some like the porcini are a lot harder.’

‘Yes, I imagine so,’ Shay nodded.

‘Are we seriously going to stand here and talk about sodding mushrooms all night?’ Brooke said. ‘I’m hungry.’

‘Yes of course, let’s go and eat,’ Shay said, he turned back to Orla and Craig. ‘Enjoy your night.’ He looked at Orla and briefly touched her arm. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

She nodded and they walked away.

‘You’re seeing her tomorrow?’ Brooke protested.

‘Yes.’

‘It’s Christmas Day.’

‘Yes, I’m aware of that.’

‘Why are you seeing her on Christmas Day.’

‘Because she’s my friend and she always comes to my mum’s for Christmas Day. She has done since she was fourteen.’

‘I want to come.’

‘Sorry, it’s family only.’

‘She’s not family.’

‘Friends are the family you choose for yourself.’

They walked out of hearing distance and Orla let out a little sigh.

‘I don’t like him,’ Craig said.

‘Why not?’

‘He wants to get into your knickers.’

Orla choked. ‘I assure you that’s not the case.’ She resisted the temptation of saying, he’d already been there and done that.

‘I can tell. He looked at you like he wanted to devour you.’

‘I can promise you, sleeping with me is the furthest thing from his mind.’

‘You want to sleep with him too.’

Now she couldn’t really deny that. ‘Shay and I are just friends.’

‘Women shouldn’t have male friends in my opinion. If things get serious between you and I, you won’t be seeing him anymore.’

She suppressed a snort of laughter. There was nothing in the world that would stop her being friends with Shay. What she had with Shay was special and there was no one who could stop her from seeing him.

She looked over at Craig. This was clearly going nowhere. Not only was he quite possibly the most boring man she’d ever met, but the fact he wanted to control who her friends were was a huge red flag. So she could politely endure the evening and never see him again or get out now. She thought about the tub of her favourite mince pie ice cream in the freezer at home and realised she’d much rather be at home eating that than sitting here.

She picked up her bag and put some money on the table to cover the mushrooms she’d barely eaten and the main course that she’d ordered and was no doubt on its way.

‘I’m going to call it a night.’

She stood up and pulled on her coat.

‘We’ve not finished our meal yet,’ Craig said, clearly shocked.

‘I know but I don’t think either of us are going to get what we want out of this. Hope you have a lovely Christmas.’

With that she walked out before he could say anything else. She looped her scarf round her neck and walked the short distance to her flat. Christmas lights sparkled from every house and shop and it made her smile, she loved this time of year. She rounded a corner and stopped as there were carollers singing in front of the town fountain. She stopped and listened for a few minutes then dropped some money in their bucket and carried on. There were lots of people doing last-minute shopping, people running past with rolls of wrapping paper in their arms, other people with boxes of chocolates and flowers. Fortunately, all of her presents were wrapped and ready to go.

She let herself into her little flat, turned on the heating and changed into her Christmas pyjamas. She heated up a bowl of her favourite turkey soup which tasted of Christmas and sat down in front of the TV, putting on the Christmas movie channel and finding something gloriously cosy and cheesy to watch.

She loved her little flat: two bedrooms, one that was used to store all her stuff, a tiny lounge diner and a kitchen. She loved the Christmas decorations, the tree laden with purple baubles and trimmings and an abundance of wild animal ornaments dotted around the place wearing various Christmas hats and jumpers.

Her phone buzzed with a text notification. She glanced at the phone and saw it was a text from Shay.

Are you OK? I noticed you’d gone.

She smiled and replied.

I’m fine, the date was a non-starter, so I came home. I’m in my happy place.

She snapped a picture of her feet in her polar bear slippers and the TV with a Christmas movie playing and sent it to Shay.

Looks perfect.

Are you texting me in the middle of your date?

Sort of. I’m texting you from the bathroom so she won’t see.

She smiled.

Go back to your date, she seems nice.

That was obviously a lie, but she wasn’t going to tell Shay he was dating a moany bitch.

That’s probably a generous assessment. OK, I’m going, see you tomorrow x

She studied that kiss for a moment wishing it was something real before she put the phone in her pocket and snuggled down to watch the movie.

Orla woke a while later to a noise. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa; the movie she’d been watching had clearly finished as there was another one playing instead. She looked at her watch and it had just gone half eleven.

What had woken her?

Suddenly she heard another noise, a banging and shuffling coming from her spare room.

She got up and walked towards the door in confusion. Her flat was on the ground floor and sometimes there were cats outside trying to get in – had one of them succeeded somehow, despite her always keeping the windows closed?

She opened the door to see a man standing in her spare room, seemingly looking for something. He was silhouetted against the window so she couldn’t see his face.

She screamed, he screamed, she screamed louder and slammed the door. She quickly ran into her bedroom and locked the door then dragged her desk in front of it for good measure. She grabbed her phone from her pocket and called Shay.

He answered the phone on the third ring.

‘Hey, you OK?’

‘Shay there’s a man in my flat, he’s just broken into the spare bedroom,’ she hissed, though she didn’t know why she was whispering, the man already knew she was there.

‘I’ll be over in two minutes. Lock yourself in your room and try and arm yourself with something heavy to hit him with if he tries to come in.’

With that he hung up.

She stood trembling, straining her ears to listen, wondering if the man was currently ransacking her house while she stood by and let him or whether he’d ran away as soon as he’d seen her. He certainly hadn’t been expecting anyone to be home. This was Apple Hill Bay, this kind of thing just didn’t happen here. She realised she should have called the police. Maybe she should have called them first, but her immediate thought had been to call Shay as he had always made her feel safe. But just as she dialled the number, there was a noise, which sounded like her front door being opened.

‘Orla!’

Relief coursed through her at the sound of Shay’s voice. He must have used the spare key she gave him.

‘I’m in here, I’m OK,’ Orla started dragging the desk out the way of the door.

‘Stay in there for a second while I check the place over.’

Surely they wouldn’t have hung around once they heard or saw Shay come in. It only took a minute before she heard Shay come back to her bedroom door. ‘We’re all clear.’

She unlocked the door and threw herself into his open arms. He held her tight and shuffled her back into her bedroom. He sat down and pulled her down on his lap, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

‘Oh my god, Shay, I can’t believe someone broke into my flat, I’ve always felt so safe here.’

‘The window is smashed in the spare room, but apart from the damage to the window, there doesn’t appear to be any other damage. I don’t know if he took anything, but my guess is you scared him off before he got the chance.’

‘He seemed really surprised to see me. I’m not sure who screamed loudest, me or him. God, I can’t stop shaking.’

Shay stroked up and down her back. ‘OK, you’re coming to stay with me tonight.’

‘No, I don’t want to leave the house with the window broken open like that. He might come back, or some other opportunist thief might use it to his advantage.’

‘OK, then I’ll stay here. Tomorrow I’ll get some tools and secure it as best as I can with some wood, and you can stay at mine until we can get the glass fixed.’

‘OK.’

She climbed off him.

‘I’m just going to drag some furniture in front of the window to stop anyone coming back in and then I’ll be back,’ Shay said.

She nodded and climbed into bed and he left the room. She heard him shifting furniture around and a few minutes later he came back, stripped out of his jeans and t-shirt, so he was just wearing his tight black boxers and climbed into bed next to her, immediately taking her in his arms. She snuggled into his chest. She was still trembling, but she felt that slowly start to fade away as he held her.

‘Did you call the police?’ Shay asked.

‘No, I was so terrified, I didn’t even think to call them until after I’d spoken to you. And then you arrived so I didn’t get a chance. I’ll call them tomorrow.’ A thought suddenly occurred to her. ‘Oh god, Shay, did I interrupt your date?’

‘Ah it’s OK. I was starting to wonder what I was even doing with her. I was just trying to think of an excuse to leave her place and go home. Thankfully we hadn’t got as far as the bedroom, but I think she was heading that way. Anyway, we broke up.’

‘Because of me?’

‘Well, she didn’t like our relationship, so it was going to come to an end at some point soon.’

‘I’m so sorry, I’ll call her to apologise.’

‘You have nothing to apologise for, someone was breaking into your house and you called me for help. She screamed at me that if I left then we’re over, as I ran out the door.’

Orla sighed. ‘I don’t know if we’re ever going to find someone that’s comfortable with our relationship. I walked out on Craig because he said if me and him got serious, I wouldn’t be allowed to see you anymore. Quite apart from the fact that someone who wants to control who I see is definitely not for me, I’m not losing you for anyone.’

‘Well, you know the answer to that problem, don’t you?’

‘What’s that?’

‘We should just date each other.’

She sighed wistfully. ‘Wouldn’t that be wonderful if we both loved each other enough to want to turn our friendship into something more.’

‘Yeah, if only.’

They were silent for a moment as she thought how blissfully perfect that would be, two best friends who finally fell in love with each other.

Just then the church clock down the road chimed midnight.

‘Merry Christmas Shay, sorry I spoilt it for you.’

‘There is nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.’

Orla woke the next morning and smiled when she realised she was still wrapped in Shay’s arms.

She looked up at him and saw he was awake. He smiled at her. ‘Merry Christmas.’

He kissed her on the forehead and her smile grew even more.

‘Merry Christmas.’ She studied him as he gazed at her, wanting so badly to reach up and kiss him and start Christmas morning off with a bang.

Just then there was a knocking on the door and she let out a little groan before climbing out of bed.

She opened the front door to find Henry, her new neighbour standing on her doorstep, holding a bunch of flowers. She really hoped the flowers weren’t for her, she hadn’t even written him a Christmas card. They’d only said hello a few times when they passed each other in the hallway but he seemed nice enough. But flowers were a big step up from passing the time of day.

‘Orla, I’m so sorry.’

‘What are you sorry for?’

He stared at her in confusion. ‘For last night.’

Now she was confused too. ‘What happened last night?’

‘I broke into your flat.’

‘That was you? Henry, what the hell?’

‘I’m so sorry. I was drunk, I came home and realised that I lost my key and thought I would just break into my flat. It wasn’t until I was standing in your bedroom that I realised I had broken into the wrong flat. Then you came in and started screaming and I panicked and got out of there. I am so sorry. I’ll pay for the window to be repaired and any other damages and I hope these flowers will go some way to say how sorry I am. The last thing I’d want to do is scare you, I promise I’m not a weirdo.’

Orla let out a laugh of relief. ‘Oh god, Henry, you frightened me to death.’

‘I’m so sorry. When I went round the back to break in, I miscalculated which was my window. I can only blame the many pints of beer and possibly the three shots of whiskey. I’m not normally a heavy drinker but it was my birthday and the lads and I got carried away.’

Just then Shay moved behind Orla. Thankfully he’d got dressed.

‘Hey Henry, what’s up?’

‘Oh, hey Shay. I was, erm, just apologising.’

‘It was Henry who broke into my flat last night after he got drunk, lost his keys and thought he was breaking into his own flat.’

Shay burst out laughing. ‘You idiot, you scared the crap out of us both.’

‘I’m so sorry. I said to Orla that I’ll obviously pay for any damages.’

‘Well, if you know any glaziers that can come out over the Christmas break, that will be great.’

‘As a matter of fact, I do. My mate does it and he owes me a favour. I think today and tomorrow will be tricky with all the festivities but I’m sure I could get him to come out on the 27 th .’

‘If you can do that, then all is forgiven,’ Orla said.

‘Thank you for your understanding.’ He held out the flowers. ‘And Merry Christmas.’

He gave them a wave and walked off. Orla closed the door.

‘I know Henry,’ Shay said. ‘He wouldn’t have deliberately broken into your house. He’s a good man and normally quiet as a mouse. If he says he got drunk and broke in by mistake, then he’s telling the truth.’

‘I believe him, we’ve chatted a few times but he’s definitely not the type to break into someone’s home. I’m so relieved. I don’t think I would have ever felt safe here again if that had been a proper break-in. But I feel really bad now that I called you away from your date and it was just a big silly misunderstanding.’

He wrapped his arms around her. ‘You didn’t know that at the time and I will always be here for you. Always.’