Chapter 13

Mel

Stupid shit. I pocketed the phone, grabbed my jacket and closed the door behind me. What did he want this time? I walked down the stairs but didn’t look where I was going and almost collided with the neighbour at the entrance. I heard him murmur ‘Sorry’ as I continued out the door. Idiot.

I turned left as I came out to the street and headed towards the city centre. Stupid shit. As if I didn’t have better things to do today. He could have just told me what he wanted, but he’d only asked me to “pop over to the art gallery”. I hope they hadn’t screwed anything up.

I tried not to think about last night as I continued down the street. I couldn’t remember how many spliffs I’d had in the end, but at least it had stopped the worst of it. Stupid shit. I hated those evenings. I’d managed not to text Nina as well, so she was out of my life. Just as good. With my track record, there was only one way that could have gone.

I turned the corner and slammed into a passerby. Dammit! I stumbled, and the person grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

“I’m so sorry!”

I swayed for a moment, then steadied myself and turned around. I froze. Nina... She dropped my arm, staring at me.

“What… are you doing here?”, I asked.

“I’m… doing some shopping.”

I looked around. I had already come to the city centre.

“Oh…”

I tried to think of something to say. Dammit, of all the people, I would bump into her. Mentioning that she hadn’t texted me back was out of the question, of course. I couldn’t cope with more drama right now.

“So… How you doing?”

She stared at the ground.

“Good…”

I should just leave, but somehow I couldn’t manage to get my feet moving.

“You… had a good week?”

Dammit, stop talking and just leave already. She nodded in reply, still staring at the ground, and silence fell between us. I turned to continue down the street and then hesitated.

“You… want to go for a coffee?”

Stupid shit, what was I doing? Why did I have to rip this open again? She looked up at me and then nodded, and I stared at her for a moment. She’d said yes? I glanced down the street. Dammit, I still had to meet the director.

“I just need to fix something first. You want to come?”

“Okay…”

What was I doing? Why couldn’t I just have shut up and left it? I stared at her for a moment. Damn, it was too late for that now. I gestured to her, and she followed me without a word as I walked down the street.

“So… You were out shopping?”

What kind of idiot question was that? Stupid shit, this was such a mistake. She nodded next to me, but luckily, we arrived at the exhibition hall just then. I gestured for her to follow me.

“Mel, darling! I’m so happy you could come.”

It was the director coming out of the other room. He was as gay as they came.

“I just had one teeny-weeny idea I wanted to go through with you.”

He pulled out a stack of papers, flipped through them, and then began pointing out how he thought the flowers should be arranged instead. Stupid shit, but dammit, he was good at what he was doing.

I glanced at Nina as he was talking. She was still standing in the same spot, staring down at the ground. Had she said yes simply to be polite? But she could have said no. Or did she really want to see me?

“So, what do you think, darling?”

I turned back at him.

“Yeah, do it.”

“I knew you would love it, darling!”

He snapped his fingers and called out to the workers. I turned to Nina. She didn’t meet my gaze.

“You still want a coffee?”

I had probably blown my chances by now, but she nodded in response. Dammit, what had I done?