‘Hello?’ He sounded unsure to Ros.

Darla took a deep breath. ‘Patrick, it’s Darla. I got your message. Given you have wrecked my life, how do you propose to fix it?’

‘Baby, it is so good to hear your voice. These past few months I’ve been—’

Ros feared Darla would be easily won over so she began miming cutting her throat in the hope that Darla got the message. Darla looked slightly alarmed at the gesture.

‘I don’t really care what you’ve been doing,’ said Darla into the phone. ‘I’m only interested in what you’re going to do now to put things right.’

Ros gave her a thumbs up.

‘Baby, I get that you don’t understand why I had to leave without warning but these people were—’

‘Again, not interested,’ said Darla. ‘If you don’t have anything that’s going to help reduce the shitload of debt you left behind, then I’m hanging up and blocking your number.’

There was a slight pause. ‘Maybe we should meet?’

Ros was frantically shaking her head.

‘Why?’ asked Darla.

‘Because I’ve got some of the money and I want to make things right between us.’

This was far too hard to mime so Ros grabbed a pen and paper and hastily wrote on it: You could pay the money into my bank account.

Darla read it out. ‘You could pay the money into my bank account.’

‘I could but I would really like a chance to explain and say I’m sorry,’ said Patrick, unhelpfully sounding sincere.

‘Thanks, but it’s only the money I’m interested in,’ said Darla, looking like she was trying hard not to be swayed.

‘But I really want to apologise so I guess that’s a stalemate.’

There was silence from both of them. Ros waved her hands about but Darla only looked alarmed by the gesture. ‘I’m away at the moment,’ said Darla. ‘So I couldn’t meet up even if I wanted to.’

‘Yeah, I heard that your mum seems to think you’re travelling around Europe but according to the last entry on our joint account you paid money in at a branch in Southampton two weeks ago.’

Darla covered the phone. ‘Shit! Now what do I do?’ she whispered to Ros.

‘Are you still there?’ asked Patrick.

‘Where? Southampton? No. You see what that was—’

‘Oh, it’s okay, I know you’re still in Southampton,’ said Patrick.

Darla gasped. This was not going well at all. ‘What makes you think that?’ asked Darla, her hands visibly shaking.

‘Let’s not get all testy with each other. I’d like to see you face to face and I’m happy to come to you. That’s not such a bad thing, is it?’

‘You tried to ruin my life!’ snapped Darla angrily.

‘No, I didn’t, and that’s why I want to meet, so we can sort this all out. Please let me put things straight. How about we meet somewhere of your choosing in Southampton, tomorrow?’

Ros was vehemently shaking her head. ‘And then you’ll leave me alone?’ asked Darla.

‘If that’s what you decide, then of course.’

Darla covered the phone. ‘He sounds like he’s being honest. This is such a dilemma,’ she whispered to Ros.

‘He’s anything but honest. He’s fooled you before. But it’s your decision.’

Darla bit her lip before uncovering the phone’s microphone. ‘There’s a café on London Road. I’ll text you the details,’ said Darla.

‘Great. I can’t wait to see you again, babe. I’ve been th—’

Darla ended the call and let out a huge sigh. She looked at Ros. ‘Don’t say it. I know I wasn’t meant to meet him but I can’t risk him spilling what he knows to my parents and there is a chance that he has the cash he owes me.’

‘I understand,’ said Ros. ‘I’ll take time off and I’ll sit nearby in the café so you have someone to call on if needs be.’

‘Thanks, Ros. You’re a good friend. I knew you’d have a plan.’

‘Always,’ said Ros, with a smile.

***

The next morning, Darla met Ros when her cleaning shift finished so they could go over the plan one more time. Darla looked her friend up and down. Ros had on threadbare leggings and an oversized shirt that had also seen better days. ‘Are you auditioning for a part in Oliver!?’ asked Darla.

‘I’m sorry, I don’t follow.’

‘What are you wearing?’

‘Oh these? Aren’t they great? I didn’t have anything suitable for cleaning so I got these for ten pence each in the charity shop where Cameron works.’ Ros looked thrilled with her purchase.

‘Great,’ said Darla, trying not to show her real feelings but Ros didn’t seem to have noticed and began going through the plan they had already mapped out.

‘And if you feel unsafe at all you say: it looks like rain,’ concluded Ros.

Darla nodded and tried to keep her breathing steady. She’d not slept much thanks mainly to the prospect of having to face Patrick but also due to having to feed the lambs every two hours as Elliott was still struggling without Lee. ‘What if there’s an embarrassing lull in the conversation and the weather is all we have to talk about?’

‘Unlikely, but then don’t talk about rain. I’ve also put Cameron on standby in case he cuts up rough.’ Ros sort of winced.

Darla laughed at Ros’s turn of phrase. ‘He’s not violent or anything like that,’ said Darla, wondering what Cameron would do in that situation.

‘It’s merely a precaution, and hopefully he won’t be needed as he’s got to hand a paper in to university so he may not be nearby. But worst case I’ll call the police.’

Ros had been quite keen to call the police anyway but Darla had explained that when it had all first happened she’d cried in front of a lovely police officer in Oxford who had told her that there was little they could do because everything was in joint names. ‘It won’t come to that. And I’ll meet you on the quay afterwards,’ said Darla.

‘We need to set off from here separately so we aren’t associated in case there’s ever a situation where we need to do this again. We can have a full debrief while we’re cleaning the yacht.’