‘I thought you wanted to, and I quote, “Batter him senseless and then batter him again to balance things up.”’
Darla flopped into a chair with an oof. ‘I don’t know. I was angry. I guess I thought I’d never hear from him again and now he’s back in touch. Shouldn’t I at least hear him out?’
‘Considering he ignored all the desperate messages you sent him when he left you to sort out the unholy mess he made, I don’t think you owe him anything at all.’
‘True. I know he doesn’t deserve a second chance but—’
‘I think a second chance would be extremely unwise,’ said Ros.
‘Don’t worry, I won’t let him swindle me again. How about I call him now and we both listen to what he has to say? What harm could that do?’ Ros was quiet. ‘Are you risk-assessing all the options and the level of harm Patrick is capable of?’ asked Darla.
Ros didn’t respond, she simply gave her a look. Even-tually she replied, ‘As long as you don’t provide him with any personal details and don’t agree to anything other than him returning what he owes, I think it might be okay.’
‘Great, let’s call him,’ said Darla, whipping out her phone. She paused. ‘For all the times I’ve had this conversation in my head I should know exactly what I want to say to him, or shout at him, but right now my mind has gone blank.’
‘Have you changed your mind?’ Ros was looking hopefully at her.
Darla visibly steeled herself. ‘No, I need to do this.’ She pressed Patrick’s number and waited.
‘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.
