Flora
The large faced clock behind the station’s front desk reads a quarter to seven.
‘Where is he?’ I demand, impatiently tapping the wooden counter top.
‘How should I know?’ answers Scott, dressed in his uniform, from behind the perspex screen. ‘I haven’t seen him since last night. I’m not his keeper, you know.’
A second officer turns round and watches our exchange.
‘Last night?’ I echo.
‘He turned up in a taxi for a few bevvies at ours,’ he said, adding, ‘What’s it to you anyway?’
‘It’s his day off, right?’
‘That’s the pattern before a night shift.’
I wave a finger up and down questioning his presence at this time of day.
‘I’m doing an extra shift… hey, I don’t need to explain myself to you!’ he spouts.
I’d wasted enough time being polite to this guy. He’d been brewing for an argument since the night of my arrest, but now wasn’t the time.
‘Goodbye.’ I smile sweetly at the second officer, ignore Scott and take my leave.
‘Boy, she hates you,’ whispers the second officer as I march away from the front desk.
‘Only because I arrested her – she’d fancy me otherwise.’
‘No, I wouldn’t!’ I shout over my shoulder as the glass doors gently close.
I climb into my Mini, parked between two police cars, and switch off the radio so I can think.
Where would he be? The weather is dismal, there’s a promise of more snow, yet he’s out and about with the larks.
I call his mobile: no answer so I leave a message.
‘Joel, it’s Flora, call me as soon as you get this.’ I throw my mobile onto the passenger seat.
Where the hell is he?
*
Her black BMW shoots past the police station frontage, its windows scraped in mini arcs, it doesn’t hesitate to pull into the car park but darts past in a blur.
Veronica knows where he is!
Instantly, I know where Joel is too: the maze.
I fasten my seatbelt, turn on the ignition and put the pedal to the metal.
It takes less than a few minutes for me to catch up with and start to tail Veronica.
We zip through the narrow country lanes and the snowy hedgerows flash by as my Mini races towards the maze behind the sleek BMW.
Please let him be there otherwise I’ll look like a raving nutter charging after Veronica as she drives home to Major Matthews.
My Mini sweeps into the gated driveway of the Manor house and at the forked road I eagerly take the right-hand turn towards the maze in Veronica’s speeding wake. She hasn’t turned left towards the manor house.
The maze stands proud against a backdrop of lilac sky and snow as daybreak begins. The car park is empty. Has a taxi dropped him off here?
I park, then leap from the car, slam the driver’s door and charge towards the maze, which has a thick frosting of snow. Veronica does the same. I enter the maze in a galloping fashion. Not my favourite puzzle but now it has new meaning, there is a purpose in getting to the middle. I have to speak to Joel, tell him how I feel.
My feet eagerly crunch along the snow-covered gravel as I practise my lines in my head.
‘Veronica’s been sneaking into your flat!’ Or, ‘I wasn’t snooping but Veronica’s been sneaking into your flat!’
Nothing sounds right, everything that I say makes me sound like a seven year old snitching on a classmate in a maths lesson.
I hear the steady crunch of feet alongside me on another unseen pathway: Veronica.
‘Shit!’
Where am I? I haven’t been concentrating and now for the second time I am passing the spikey branch that forced me to duck my head – I am lost, again.
I jump up and down in a poor attempt to see over the tall hedging. Not a chance. I don’t want to resort to the damsel in distress routine like last time but hey, if it means I get to him before she does…
‘Joel!’ I holler, hands cupped to my mouth as though I’m shouting through a mountain pass in the Alps.
‘Flora?’
‘Joel, I need to speak to you urgently!’
‘Joel!’ shouts Veronica, unseen but a short distance to my right. ‘I need to speak to you!’
‘Say that again,’ shouts Joel, sounding confused.
‘Veronica is here too,’ I shout, as I change direction in a panic. ‘Joel – I’m stuck again but I need to talk to you – it’s urgent.’
‘Flora, do the hand on the wall routine – it’ll work, I promise.’
‘Will it work part way in?’ I know the answer before he replies.
‘No!’
‘How do I go back?’ Duh, stupid question.
‘I can’t direct you without knowing where you are?’
‘Joel?’ shouts Veronica’s voice.
‘Veronica – sod off!’ I shout in annoyance. ‘Joel, she was asleep in your bed – she’s been there all night!’
‘Veronica?’ calls Joel.
‘It’s not how it seems… I can explain,’ she calls.
‘How, Veronica?’ I shout, turning in a circle to cover all directions.
‘What’s it to you?’ calls Veronica, from behind me, nearer than she was a moment ago.
‘You’re playing games, that’s what it is to me!’ I shout defiantly at the green hedging.
‘Flora, keep heading towards my voice, you’ll get to the middle,’ shouts Joel. ‘And Veronica, you have no right to enter that flat without my permission.’
‘How dare you!’ she shouts.
‘Who me?’ I ask.
‘No, me,’ shouts Joel, somewhere to my left.
‘Both of you, you’ve got a nerve suggesting that I’d steal anything from that apartment, and you, you need to grow a back bone where she’s concerned – she’s walking all over you!’ Her voice now sounds as if it is in front of my position.
‘Look who’s talking!’ I retort.
‘Hold your horses, Veronica… you’ve got a nerve calling the shots,’ laughs Joel.
‘It doesn’t have to be like this Joel, we could have done this amicably, made sure that both of us were looked after but no, she pokes her oar in and now you don’t even return my phone calls.’
‘Bloody cheek!’ I shout, for good measure.
‘We were over long before Flora showed up and I’ve given you plenty of chances to sit down and talk… but you said no. Fair’s fair.’
‘That’s not true… you said…’
‘Veronica, you wanted out and you decided we were over and now… you seem to be forgetting that.’
I pause and turn as the two voices appear to be switching sides, left, right, behind and in front of my static position.
‘Will everyone stop moving,’ I yell. ‘This is giving me motion sickness.’
‘If you can’t handle the heat stay out of the kitchen,’ sneers Veronica, somewhere to my left.
‘Frig off Veronica! You’re only interested now because I’m on the scene so sod off and get your claws into someone your own age.
‘Flora!’
‘But Joel, she…’
‘But Joel…’ mimics Veronica, in a slushy tone.
I turn a corner and there she is. Veronica Sable in all her cougar glory blocking my path like the Ice Queen of Narnia.
How has she got ahead of me or was I going backwards?
‘Not as clever as we thought, hey?’ she sneers, her bright red lips contorting.
‘Ditto. You lost your man and now…’ I retort with venom.
‘Ladies, as lovely as this is – I’d prefer to discuss this face to face rather than shouting over the top of hedges.’
‘Joel, stop playing games – send this one packing and we can pick up where we left off,’ calls Veronica, thrusting her breasts forward.
‘You think!’ I say, looking her up and down.
‘Believe me, sweetheart, I know,’ she purrs.
I fix my gaze at her and stare. I was world champion of this as a kid. She knows nothing. She doesn’t know how to get to the middle, she doesn’t know what Joel truly likes, she doesn’t even know that he’s well and truly over her. She. Knows. Nothing!
So why is my faith waning?
‘Are you going to move out of my way, or am I going to have to move you?’ growls Veronica, her voice low and husky.
‘Make me.’
Where the hell did that come from? Am I eight years old at primary school?
Veronica’s right eyebrow lifts in response.
‘Or else you’ll head butt me, is that it?’ she snarls.
Shit, she means it. I’ve never been physical in my life, apart from head butting Joel – there’s never been a fight or a cat scrap in my history but now, is this the answer?
Her shoulders straighten, her breasts lift and her stance widens. I copy; not knowing what to expect or what to do. Do I punch first or wait and punch back harder?
Without warning she charges at me, hands outstretched and features twisted. As she nears, I close my eyes. She doesn’t hit me, as expected, but barges me aside. I fall sideways into the prickly hedging causing a flurry of snow to cascade down.
‘Oy!’ But she’s gone, the pathway is empty and I can hear her feet crunching rapidly on another pathway.
‘Flora?’ shouts Joel. ‘Are you OK?’
‘She’s ahead of me, she barged past…’
‘Sod off and go home, little girl,’ shouts a breathless voice.
Little girl? Go home? Who the hell does she think she’s talking to? The fire in my belly ignites. That’s it, she’s asking for it!
I start running along the pathways, following her noisy footsteps, every now and then I turn a section quickly enough to see her backside flying round a corner.
My chest is on fire. This is the most exercise I have ever done in my life. If I catch her will I have the energy to barge past her or wrangle her to the ground?
I can’t out run her.
I stop running.
I look around for a plan B. I stare despondently at the tops of the hedges looming way above my head.
Could I climb over? Go under? Go through?
My heart skips a beat. I could barge through the hedging in the sparser areas of growth. My arms and legs are sufficiently covered with clothes; I could protect my face with my hands.
Let’s try.
I crash through the hedging, scattering the snow frosting in all directions, into the next pathway with relative ease and very little pain. Result!
‘Now, keep going,’ I tell myself.
After six hedge bursts, I fall into the centre section, joining Joel and a breathless Veronica, who is doubled over, panting like a marathon runner.
‘Joel!’ I screech in delight, trying to pick bits of broken twigs and snow smatterings from my hair, whilst kneeling in the snow.
I stare at Veronica. She stares back – taking in the glorious mess before her. Why couldn’t I have been the one that arrived panting and breathless but with my hair-style still intact. No, my style is literally dragged through a hedge, my cheeks decorated by a million tiny scratches and I’m picking debris from my hairline.
Joel stands between us like an adult version of piggy in the middle.
‘Joel!’ demands Veronica, her throat straining.
‘Flora, you made it!’
‘Joel!’ repeats Veronica, twice as loud and twice as stern as before.
A moment of silence lingers as he looks between us.
He’s in front of me in two strides, much to her horrified expression.
He grabs my upper arms and lifts me to my feet.
‘Joel, we can start over… how it once was, just you and me… we were happy Joel, remember?’
Joel pulls me up to my full height and looks at my scratched face.
‘I got lost, again… and I’m sorry about last night… what I said sounded so wrong.’
‘Me too… I never meant for that to happen and then you walked home refusing to listen to me. I needed to straighten my head.’
‘I’m sorry too. Scott said you went to his.’
‘I just needed somewhere to chill… I took a cab to his house, had a few beers and then hailed a taxi here,’ he mutters, gently stroking my thorn snagged face. ‘Happy Valentine’s day, Flora.’
‘Happy Valentine’s, Joel,’ I say, as my previous accusations melt guiltily away.
‘You’ve left the pub far too early for Kathy’s delivery schedule,’ he whispers, lifting his hands up into my hair. ‘So, you’ve ruined your flower delivery.’
Our faces move nearer; my next sentence is stifled by his lips finding mine. His arms wrap around my shoulders and pull me into his body. I kiss him as forcefully as he kisses me.
Veronica coughs.
‘Do you mind?’ she snorts.
Joel breaks his lips away first, his broad smile greeting me.
‘Actually, I do,’ he says, turning to view her snarling features.
Panting for breath, I drop my head forward to rest on his chest.
‘I do mind, Veronica, very much so. I mind that you think you call the shots around here, that you think you can say whatever you choose to Flora, and yet, have failed to get the message – we’re over! You made your bed – so go and lie in it.’
A giggle lifts to my throat, I gulp to suppress it – gloating would be too unkind.
‘She was in your bed!’
‘Caught red handed!’ he says. ‘You took everything when you left – so what could you possibly be doing there?’
Veronica shakes her head, her mouth keeps opening to speak but stalls before a word is uttered.
‘You were there too!’ shouts Veronica.
‘He gave me a key and yes, I used it as I was desperate to speak to him.’
‘At half six in the morning?’ she snorts, flicking her blonde hair.
‘You wanted to speak to me?’ mutters Joel, turning back to face me, a smile crossing his lips.
‘I wanted to talk about last night, and then Julian turned up.’
‘Julian?’
‘He arrived at the pub causing a whole load of drama.’
Veronica sidles alongside us, tapping her foot.
‘Are you actually choosing that over me?’ she blurts, pointing at me.
Subtle, Veronica, not a hint of desperation.
Joel looks deeply into my face, his dark eyes flicking back and forth across my scratched features.
‘As strange as this may sound to you, Veronica – yes, I am.’
‘You arse!’ she shouts, before storming out of the maze.