Page 36 of Friend of the Family

She had almost reached the corner when a dark figure appeared out of a doorway. Heart jumping, Karen stepped into the road to avoid him, but he moved to block her.

‘Go

ing somewhere?’ he said.

Karen looked up, her mouth open.

Lee.

Chapter 9

‘Lee, what the hell are you doing here?’

‘I could ask you the same thing. Nice dress. Bet that cost an arm and a leg.’

‘What? It’s Amy’s friend’s.’ She shook her head. ‘No, I mean why have you come here, to Oxford?’

‘I came to get my girlfriend – at least that’s what I thought I was doing. Looks like I was wrong.’

‘Wrong about what?’

‘That you’re my bloody girlfriend!’ he shouted.

Karen flinched and stepped back, stumbling in the gutter, and Lee’s hand shot out and gripped her arm. ‘You’re not, are you? All that shit about wanting to move in together was just bollocks, wasn’t it?’

‘What the hell, Lee? Where’s this coming from?’

He dropped her arm, shaking his head. ‘Nah, screw it. I’m gone.’ He turned and stalked off.

Utterly bewildered now, Karen followed, but he was walking too fast. He crossed a road without looking, causing a car to brake and blare its horn. She hurried across, catching up with him as he passed beneath the forbidding stone carvings surrounding the Sheldonian. ‘Lee, where are you going?’

He turned, opening his arms wide. ‘Back to bloody Bristol,’ he said. ‘Why not? There’s nothing to keep me here, is there?’

When Karen didn’t respond, he swore under his breath and turned away.

‘Stop,’ she said, catching his hand. ‘At least talk to me.’

He resisted, but she dragged him up the stone steps into the courtyard surrounding the theatre. At least it was a little more private.

‘How long have you been here?’

‘I went to see you at the florists and they said you’d booked a couple of days off and had gone to Oxford. So . . .’ He looked away, embarrassed.

‘So what?’

‘So I was worried, wasn’t I? Wondered what you were doing here, so I came to find you, and now you’ve made me look such a prick.’

‘And what about how you treat me, Lee? Have you forgotten what happened last week?’

‘I came here to tell you that I missed you! That I . . . I bloody loved you. And what do I see the moment I get here? Saw you in the queue with some posh twat, his hands all over you. I tried to follow you but the bastards wouldn’t let me into the party.’

Oh crap.

‘Lee, it’s not like it seems, honestly. I just went with Max because he had a tick—’

‘Of course he’s called Max,’ he sneered. ‘Rich wankers are always called Max.’

Karen bristled. Her first instinct was to defend Max, then she remembered leaving him on the floor and bit her tongue.