‘Go on. Say it.’
‘I came to ask if… if you’ll wait for me.’
‘Wait for you?’
‘To get completely better. To reach a point where I know we could start again.’
A tear escapes and slides down her cheek.
‘Cody, how long am I supposed to wait? It’s already been about nine months since we split up.’
‘I know, but—’
‘Cody.’
There is something in the way she says his name. It carries a sad finality. Anybody else might not detect it, but he hears it clearly.
He stares at her for a long time, while she avoids his gaze.
And then he says, ‘You’ve met someone.’
Her eyes flicker towards him again, and they tell him everything, even though there are no words.
He says, ‘Can I ask who?’
A long pause, and then, ‘Simon.’
‘Simon Teller?’
‘Yes.’
Cody doesn’t know why, but he would have preferred a stranger. Someone he has never heard of. Someone he can’t picture.
Simon Teller is the orthodontist who owns and runs the dental practice on the lower floors of Cody’s building in Rodney Street. Devon knew him long before Cody did; in fact, she was the one who introduced them at a party.
Cody has always had mixed feelings about Simon. The man is tall and irritatingly handsome, with perfectly aligned white teeth that are the ideal shop window for his business. But as far as Cody has been able to tell, Simon’s passions in life have always been money, fast cars, golf, and working his way through as many women as he can. It is that last item on the list that causes Cody to doubt his credentials as a match for Devon.
At the same time, Cody has much to thank him for. It was Simon who offered him the Rodney Street flat at a bargain rate after he broke up with Devon. He could never have afforded it otherwise.
He wonders now whether it was a ploy of Simon’s to get into Devon’s good books.
But maybe that’s unfair, Cody thinks. Maybe Simon never thought that way, and it’s just me being cynical. Maybe Simon has mellowed and wants to settle down.
I still want to punch him in the face, though.
‘Are you… are you okay?’ Devon asks.
‘Yeah. Just a little surprised.’
He remembers now that Simon mentioned he was meeting up with Devon for a drink at Christmas, even though she couldn’t seem to find time to get together with her ex-fiancé. He wonders if that’s when it all began, or if it had started way before then. He wonders how serious it is, whether there is any talk of living together or an engagement or…
He doesn’t want to know.
He just wants to get out of here.
‘I should go,’ he says, making a show of checking his watch. ‘I’m supposed to be working.’
‘Cody…’
He gets to his feet. Stands there not knowing how to say goodbye.
She rushes to him, takes him in her arms.
‘Cody, I’m so sorry.’
Not half as sorry as I am, he thinks.
27
I’ve Got Love on My Mind
– Natalie Cole
There’s something bothering Cody.
It’s not Devon. That’s behind him for now. He spent the whole journey back to the station thinking about her. In the Mersey tunnel, a car was uncomfortably close behind him, and Cody tried to catch sight of the driver in his rear-view mirror. He hoped to see the evil mask of Waldo, just so he could slam on his brakes and then haul his macabre pursuer out of his car and beat him to a pulp and throw him in jail, and then he could dash straight back to Devon and tell her his problems had finally been solved and she could ditch Simon and come back to him, and then they would live happily ever after.
But the man in the mirror wasn’t a clown, or at least not one of the evil, bloodthirsty type. He was just a regular guy who don’t know how to drive properly. All of which only confirmed to Cody that there are no fairy-tale endings. Good things happen and bad things happen, and most of the time you can’t do anything about either.
