Page 38 of Love or Your Money Back

CHAPTER

Freddy lifts me cleanly into his arms with ease, and I immediately doubt his story about ‘only three sessions a week in the gym.’

Luckily, I don’t need to hold onto my hat. Because it’s pinned on.

‘Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. Mind your backs.’ Freddy carries me out into the sunshine, shouldering his way through the crowd. ‘Crippled lady coming through. She can’t walk, bless her. Multiple Sclerosis. She’s not drunk. Repeat. She’s not drunk.’

Freddy’s chest feels like a lump of shaped granite. I rest my head on his shoulder. By the time we reach the taxi rank, my joints feel warmer and less painful. Freddy lowers me, holding me steady. His eyes are sort of sparkly, like we’re sharing a joke.

‘Thank you,’ I say. ‘See you back in London?’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ says Freddy. ‘I can’t just put you in a taxi and leave. I’m coming with you.’

‘No you’re not,’ I say. ‘I’ve had MS for ten years. I travel by myself all the time.’

‘I’m going with you.’

‘Back to London? When there are so many good-looking women to flirt with? Come on.’

‘I don’t care about those women, darling. I care about you.’

It’s such an odd thing for Freddy to say that we both stand in awkward silence for a moment.

Then Freddy says, ‘Oh what am I talking about? You’ll be okay.

You’d be okay in a pond of crocodiles. In fact, it’s the crocodiles I’d be worried about.

’ He leans over me to bang the roof of a taxi.

‘Bloomsbury, my friend. As fast as you can.’

Freddy helps me into the taxi and pushes my cane into the footwell. Then he hands the driver a sheaf of banknotes. ‘Take care of her, driver. If you don’t, I’ve got your registration number and an illegal firearm.’

The driver laughs uneasily, because it doesn’t sound like Freddy is joking.