Page 51 of Sit, Stay, Love
‘Unless you plan to stay single and keep playing best friends with Toby for the rest of your life, at some stage you will leave him behind. It’s inevitable. You’ll meet someone, and they will take Toby’s place. I’m not saying you’ll cut him from your life, or that you won’t still be friends, but your relationship will change. And you may be okay with that, but I doubt Toby is.’
A sob burst from Sera. ‘He said I walk all over him.’
‘I don’t think that’s true, darling. You’re too kind for that. Though maybe you don’t appreciate him as much as you should.’ Her mother sighed again. ‘It will be fine. He loves you, and I’m sure you’ll both work it out. Anyway, I didn’t call to make you cry. I called to tell you I ran into Linda Watkins.’
Sera took in shaky breath. ‘Linda?’ she said in a tiny voice. ‘How’s she going?’
‘She’s good. She’s six months pregnant and glowing.’
‘Oh, right. I always forget she got married.’
‘Mm. I think she’s still a little disappointed you didn’t go to her wedding.’
Sera cringed. She’d turned down the invitation, dreading seeing old school friends and having to explain that she was still not sure what she was doing with her life. This was before she’d established Rose’s Rescue, during what her mother politely called her ‘aimless years’, when she’d bounced between jobs in advertising and the media, trying to figure out how to use her degree.
‘Anyway, darling, she was so lovely about you. And so excited when I told her about the rescue and how successful you are…’
Sera brightened, sat up straighter and smiled. Her mother calling her successful was a new experience.
‘… I embellished a little, of course,’ her mother carried on. ‘She asked me to give you her number, so I’m going to text it to you. Why don’t you organise a nice lunch or something with her? It would do you good to have a girlfriend. Someone you can talk to properly, about your… boy troubles.’
She could almost see her mother’s perfectly threaded eyebrows raise as she waited for her daughter to answer.
‘I don’t have…’ She puffed out a breath. ‘Okay, Mum. Send it through.’
‘Call her, darling. Or text her. Don’t be rude.’
‘I will. I have to go, I’ve just got home and I’ve got a carful of newborn kittens.’
‘How lovely. Maybe your father and I could take one. I’ll talk to him.’
Sera chuckled. ‘Good luck,’ she said, knowing her father’s thoughts on cats.
‘And darling.’ Her mother’s voice was gentle. ‘Be nice to Toby. His heart is probably breaking.’
Sera threw back a couple of painkillers, kicked off her boots and dropped onto her bed. Her head pounded and her stomach ached, and there was a sharp pain in her chest that she kept rubbing.
She just needed a couple of hours of peace before she had to think about going to see Ethan, something she didn’t want to do anymore, but also really, really wanted to do. She groaned and rolled her eyes.
She’d almost driven back to see Toby. Gone back to give him a hug, to wrap her arms around him and pull him into her. To hold him close and feel the warmth of his body and his strong, steady, reliable heart beating against hers. To feel like everything was going to be okay.
But she hadn’t, because she didn’t want to see the hurt in his eyes again. The hurt she’d caused. She couldn’t stand to see that again.
Anyway, Ethan would be gone in a few weeks, and she and Toby could go back to normal. Movies, pizza and foot-stroking-free normal.
Her phone dinged and she grabbed it, hoping it would be him. But it was just her mother with Linda Watkins’s phone number, as promised.
She typed out a quick text to her old friend, before talking herself out of it.
Sera: Linda! Its Sera Madden here. Mum passed on your number. How are you, stranger?
She tossed her phone onto the bed beside her, then jumped when her message alert dinged almost immediately.
Linda: Seza! I was just talking about you to Tom! Fancy a coffee and catch-up next week? Did your mum tell you I’m preggers? Weird, huh? LOL.
Sera laughed. No one had called her Seza for years.
Sera: So weird. But also, amazing. I can do Tuesday if that works?
