Christopher Columbus took over. I did a quick calculation in my mind and then reeled it off.
‘I would only come for a year, I couldn’t come until February, because I can’t leave Ray in the lurch at the club. I need to give him time to replace me. Also, I’d need accommodation, full board, flights and all other expenses paid for my fiancé and I, and on top of that you’d have to pay me twenty grand a year after tax.’ On top of expenses, I reckoned that was a forty or fifty grand package. There was no way he’d go for that.
He put out his hand and shook mine.
‘Done,’ he exclaimed.
Damn, I should have asked for twenty-five.
‘My people will call you tomorrow with the details.’
He had people. And it seemed I was off to Shanghai to meet them.
I bit my bottom lip as I showed him to the door, before rejoining Tom in bed. He rolled over and cuddled me, as I lay willing him to wake up so that I could tell him our news.
It took about twenty minutes for the euphoria to wear off. What if he didn’t want to go?
I shrugged the doubt off. This was Tom! My soulmate. Of course he’d want to go. He was a kindred spirit who loved adventure just as much as I did. Didn’t he?
Apprehension set in. I switched on the radio, hoping that would wake him. Bad idea. Queen were belting out ‘Another One Bites The Dust’.
‘Who was that you were talking to earlier?’ he asked sleepily.
‘Er, it was, em, well, it was my new boss,’ I stammered.
‘Your what?’ he asked groggily.
‘My new boss. I think I just accepted a job in China.’
That woke him up. He sat bolt upright. ‘Tell me you’re joking?’
My optimism drained as his horrified expression told me this might be a harder sell than I’d hoped.
I tried to explain. It’s only a year. Think of the money, the excitement, the people we’d meet. It would be a whole new chapter for us.
But no amount of pleading would win him over. He argued every point I made, and the more stubborn and angry he got, the more I dug my heels in.
It escalated from discussion, to debate to raging argument. That’s when he got out of bed and pulled on his jeans.
‘I don’t believe you, Cooper. I just don’t believe you. How could you change our plans without even speaking to me?’ he bellowed. He was furious and turning pink.
‘I’m speaking to you now.’
‘Yeah, AFTER you’ve accepted the job. You can’t do this. Why would you even want to?’
‘Why wouldn’t I? It’s a brilliant opportunity for both of us,’ I countered, every bit as riled as him. If he wanted me to spend the rest of my life in wellies, then the least he could do was hear me out. I’d agreed to change my whole life for him, and he couldn’t even consider making some temporary adjustments for me?
‘But what if I don’t want to go. Will you knock it back?’
That stunned me into silence. Would I?
The silence grew longer.
‘I guess that tells me everything I need to know,’ he said, pulling on a T-shirt. He grabbed his jacket and picked up his holdall from the floor. He’d only arrived yesterday, so he’d barely unpacked. Part of me wanted to ask him what he was doing, tell him to stop, use calm reason, but I was furious and I’d be damned if I was going to give in on our first full scale blazing row.
‘You’re definitely doing this?’ he asked, one more time.
My fury and frustration were calling the shots as I nodded, then watched him turn and leave the room without another word.
His footsteps pounded down the stairs and then came the slam of the front door.
I raced to the window, to see his back as he stormed away, a black cloud hovering above his perfect head. Tears pricked my eyes and a gobstopper formed in the back of my throat.
He’ll come back, I thought. Surely he’ll calm down and realise what a great idea it is.
Luckily, I didn’t hold my breath.
No, I never did see Tom McCallum again.
9 Should I Stay Or Should I Go? – The Clash
I’m sitting in Kate’s kitchen, dropping cookie crumbs on her spotless tiled floor. We met here for breakfast this morning, but I’ve already scoffed my bacon roll and I’m on my third choccie biscuit and it’s only ten o’clock.
‘C’mon, Cooper, spill,’ Kate urges as she does a dive to my feet with a shovel – admirable in her condition.
‘Spill what?’ I ask innocently.
Jess lifts her head from the International Herald Tribune. Since she started working for the government, her choice of reading material has gone seriously downhill.
Carol puts down her OK! Now that’s more like it.
‘Carly, you’re totally distracted and you’re inhaling Hobnobs.’
I sigh pathetically. ‘Sorry, Kate. I guess I’m just having a bit of a panic.’
‘About quitting your job?’ Jess asks.
‘No, not really.’
Kate pipes up, ‘About leaving your flat?’
‘No.’
Carol now. They’re like a tag team. ‘About spending every penny you have and ending up in a cardboard box in Leicester Square?’
This is getting too graphic. I pause while my overloaded grey matter struggles to formulate a sentence.
‘It’s just about the exes. What if they all hate me? I wouldn’t blame them. I was a complete cow to most of them in the end.’
Kate smiles and
