30
‘What about your parents, Harriet, are they in Leeds?’ Cal’s mum said, pleasantly, as the mains were cleared away.
Harriet wished she had been in a better condition to enjoy an indulgent blowout at The Reliance – Bicicletta cocktail, bruschetta, roast beef and red wine. Cal was putting on a brave front, but Harriet suspected she knew why he was so discomfited: whatever gloss was put on it, it was far too much like her being his date. Cal’s dad had bombarded her with so many questions, she feared he thought she was the new girl, and Cal was simply being coy.
‘No, they’re both no longer with us,’ she said, with a small smile. She was so used to this conversation, she knew its beats off by heart. Cal’s head snapped up and he looked at her intently, as if this was something he should’ve known. Lodgers were hardly likely to have brought up their origins story, surely.
‘Oh, I am sorry,’ his mum said.
‘Thank you, it’s OK.’
‘You’re young to have neither parent around,’ said Cal’s dad, putting his hand over hers, and leaving it there a moment too long for Harriet’s comfort. She glanced at Cal and he looked silently aghast: she was an unwanted invader and now she was pulling their heartstrings with tragedy? She was making other people’s feelings her problem again, but surely Cal could see she’d not intended any of this?
‘Yes. Not everyone’s as fortunate as Cal,’ she said, with a smile towards him, trying to lighten things. His brow was still furrowed in consternation.
‘Hah. Not sure that’s how he sees it,’ Andrew laughed.
‘Do you mind me asking, did you lose them in recent years?’ Sandie asked, and Cal admonished, ‘Mum!’ through gritted teeth.
‘It’s fine. My dad died when I was five and my mum when I was six,’ Harriet said. ‘Cancer in both cases. My late grandparents – on my mum’s side – raised me.’
‘Oh my goodness! Oh, Harriet,’ said Sandie, and now she rubbed her arm.
Cal said nothing.
‘Do you have a boyfriend, someone looking after you?’ Andrew said, in gruffly paternal manner.
‘Not at the moment. My best friend Lorna who I’ve known since school is a force of nature and the value of three-and-a-half boyfriends, I think.’ (‘Like a Bull Mastiff in Ruby Woo,’ was how Lorna liked to self-describe, in fact, but probably best to omit that.)
Cal’s parents laughed and said ‘awww’ in unison, and Harriet was glad to have defused the tension.
‘You’ve got my son’s company,’ his dad said, changing the subject, and Cal rubbed his temples.
‘Cal, I meant to say, I should’ve found a room by now,’ Harriet said, in a snap of self-consciousness at having said she’d go, and instead ligging along for free Yorkshire puddings. ‘Apologies. I’ll sort some places to view from tomorrow.’
‘No fuss, whenever,’ he said, tightly.
‘What, you’re off, Harriet?’ his dad said, putting his dessert spoon down.
‘Yes.’ Oh. She’d stupidly blurted this without considering neither of them wanted to discuss the backstory as to why. ‘Thought I’d … uh … give Cal space.’
‘You don’t like the house?’
‘I love it.’
‘You’d still be renting? In the city?’
‘… Yes.’
Harriet, you idiot.
‘Stay with Calvin, then! It’s a good deal and he’s not too much of a pain to live with, I should know. Haha. We had our ups and downs, didn’t we? When you brought too many girls back.’
Cal cast a Satanic look at his dad.
‘Let them work it out, Andrew,’ Cal’s mum chided.
‘Oh, well,’ he said. ‘You two will stay in touch either way, I’m sure?’
They both muttered ‘of course, of course!’ while their faces said good God no.
Harriet was sufficiently agonised that she texted Cal on the journey home.
So sorry. Didn’t think a step ahead. Of course I’m going, I’m just disorganised. Didn’t mean to make that a thing!
Honestly, totally fine! You don’t have to go, I mean it. x
Having worried he was fuming at her, the kiss was nice.
Back at the house, after strenuous thanks for the Clarkes’ kindness, and hopes to see them again at some unspecified time, Harriet excused herself to her room. It was, rather poignantly, half packed up already, in anticipation of her departure.
She wished she hadn’t gone up, when the curse of the garden acoustics visited her soon after. It even began fast enough she had no time to put the radio on, as she planned.
‘What a gorgeous, good-natured lass. Very fresh faced, isn’t she,’ she heard Cal’s dad say.
‘Next time, can you check with me before you invite people on the spur of the moment like that?’ Cal hissed.
Oof. Harriet understood why it wasn’t what Cal wanted, family time is for the family, but it was still rather agonising to hear it starkly confirmed.
‘What’s your problem? She was a delight!’
‘She might be, but she’s my lodger, it’s a business relationship. You landed me in it over her moving out too.’
‘You’re being somewhat churlish,’ Cal’s dad said. ‘Her losing her parents. Imagine being an orphan as a little ’un.’
‘So sad!’ Cal’s mum agreed.
‘Again, not the point. Don’t put me in position of having to say I wanted her to stay.’
Harriet, on a tough day, felt a stab of physical pain at this. She lay there feeling hurt, and foolish, and when those emotions abated, also angry. He had tricked her into thinking they had a connection, even a spark. Why exploit someone like that? What was the point?
She’d started the day thinking Scott Dyer was no longer a bad guy she need worry about, and Cal Clarke was a good guy she could count as a friend.
She should resign from the predictions business.