enola_hold-me-3

HOLD ME IN YOUR ARMS by Enola <<< Part 2

PART 3

Nicky and Sean looked at each other apprehensively when they saw that Emma went and welcomed Brent Davenport with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. They wondered why Martin had invited him after all that had happened a couple of years ago. But the thing that worried them even more than that, was how James would react seeing him around Emma. Brent used to work for Martin, but he and James had never got along together, they hardly spoke to each other and had had various vehement arguments, most of times because of ridiculous reasons. They just couldn’t stand each other. Once they nearly fought, but Martin had managed to part them before it was too late. After that episode, Brent decided to leave making both himself and James happy.

Brent walked towards the small gothic church in the Winchester country with Emma on his arm, both smiling happily. Brent waved at the guys when he saw them standing at the entrance with their wives. Nicky showed one of his famous huge grins and greeted him shaking his hand.
“I didn’t know Martin had invited you too, Brent,” said Nicky.
“He didn’t,” he giggled, then he glanced at Emma and added, “actually, she did.”
Nicky looked at Sean whose face said it all. That made things even worse. Was the rope he kept in the boot of his car resistant enough to tie his cousin up with?
“So the two of you have been in touch during the past couple years,” said Nicky surprised.
“Actually, we met just six weeks ago,” said Brent. “We got her CV, I told my boss I had already worked with her and that she was bright. We arranged an interview, my boss saw her excellent reference given by Martin and you can guess what’s followed. We’re glad to have her with us.”
“You’re very lucky indeed,” smiled Nicky.

Nicky saw Martin’s car approaching and gestured to Sean who shook his head worried. Martin and James got off the car and came closer. Nicky and Sean saw James stopping abruptly and going pale when he saw Emma with Brent. They were talking to each other and laughing, his hand on her back, and hadn’t realised that Martin and James had arrived. James turned around and strode away. Martin went on walking alone and waved at his friends smiling, though unable to hide his concern for his friend. As Emma turned round to greet him, she took a look around and she then saw James looking at his shoes by Martin’s car, his hands on his hips. Lydia had said he promised not to bother her, now Emma was wondering whether he would keep his word.

Waiting for his future wife to enter the church, Martin stood by the altar with his best man by his side.
“Are you alright?” inquired Martin worried for his friend,
“If I told you I am, would you believe me?” James’s voice sounded cold and distant.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to. Please, don’t worry about me. I’ll behave.”
At the very moment the door opened and Emma entered, Lydia and her father behind her. James stared at Emma as mesmerised by her beauty as she walked in with slow light steps. Damn, she was pretty. She was just stunning in her strapless peach satin dress till up her knees and new hairdo. Her hair had been straightened, layered and dyed reddish. He watched at her intensely as she came nearer and looked and smiled at Martin, but she was clever enough to avoid the least eye contact with him. He then saw her smiling at Brent Davenport and he could clearly read a ‘you’re beautiful’ in his lips. It was going to be hard, a lot harder than he would have ever thought possible.

After the religious ceremony, Mrs and Mr Hall gave a party for their relatives and friends in an 18th century mansion which they reached in a five-minutes walk. Emma strolled next to the bride and groom with Brent beside her. As everybody had left the church, Martin had asked Nicky and Sean to keep an eye on James and so they did walking behind him at the bottom of the guests flock. They didn’t dare talk to him. They knew that the best thing to do was leave him alone.

James spent most of the time in the porch smoking his cigarettes one after the other. Martin could count a dozen of fag ends stubbed out at his feet. He went closer to his friend and best man without saying a word and they both kept silent for a while, both staring at nothing before them.
“You should be inside with your wife,” grunted James taking another cigarette out of his packet and lit it up. Martin took his words as a polite way to say ‘why the fuck don’t you all leave me alone?’
“I shouldn’t have insisted, I’m sorry. Me and Lydia told Emma she could bring someone with her, but we didn’t know who he were.”
“I’ve already told you that you don’t have to worry about me. So, please, cut it out.”
Martin turned around to leave, but before entering the house he said, “Feel free to go away whenever you like.”
“I will,” said James without looking at his friend, “Thanks.”

“Have I already told you that I love your new haircut, Emma?” asked Nicky whilst chatting to her in one of the rooms of the mansion.
“Um, yes Nick! You have already. And you’ve also expressed how much you appreciate my dress.”
Nicky giggled digging his hands into his pockets, “I guess you already know something about my weakness for dresses and female stuff in general, don’t you? I really can’t help it.”
“Yes, I do know. Have you ever wondered why I’ve never come to any of your gigs?” Emma lowered her eyes pretending to be ashamed.
“What? Is this the reason?” said Nicky getting playfully angry, “I should be offended.”
“Try to understand. I wouldn’t manage to sleep later.”
“OI! You mean that I’m scary wearing dresses?”
“The problem aren’t the dresses, Nick. Your make-up is!”
“What’s wrong with my make-up now?”
“You can’t simply put it on well. You should ask Rachel to show you how to once and for all.”
“I can’t. I’ve told you what she would do, haven’t I? She’d laugh at me.” Whined Nicky shaking his head.
“See? I’m not the only one.”
“But she’s my wife, then she’s allowed to.”
Nicky’s mobile interrupted their amusing conversation. Chatting with Emma was a pleasure even though she enjoyed taking the piss out of him, but honestly, he did not mind her to. When he took his phone out of his pocket and saw in the screen that it was James that was calling him, he wondered why he was doing it. Nicky made up a lie telling Emma that it was his mother and left the room.

Emma got up and walked towards the window waiting for Nicky to return. Since they had got to the mansion the weather had worsened. The sky was now grey and it was going to start raining anytime.
“Do you go to bed with him?” said James behind her.
Her eyes nearly popped out of her head at the sound of his voice. She was fuming. How dared he? She didn’t knew how he had the nerve to ask her such a thing. She took a deep breath and, turning round, she spat without looking at him,
“That’s none of your bloody business. Who do you think you are? Who gives you the right to ask me that? Why don’t you live me alone and go and look for someone to shag?” Out of the corner of her eye, she him standing just on the threshold of the door. She knew he would let her walk away easily.
“I thought you knew me well enough to know that I don’t shag every woman in sight as they say. For fuck’s sake, I made a mistake. A stupid mistake. I shouldn’t have slept with her even though I was sure it were you. But it happened. I wish I could go back, but I can’t.” The tone of his voice was angry and desperate at the same time. Every single word sent a shiver down her spine. She felt his eyes on her but she didn’t dare watch him. She couldn’t meet his eyes. “But you can’t understand ‘cos you’re perfect, you’ve never made a mistake, haven’t you? Well, excuse me if I’m not perfect like you, excuse me if I’m too human for you.”
She took a few steps towards the door and without looking up, she said: “Move over. Let me pass.”
“No,” he grunted, “I haven’t finished yet. I’ve made many mistakes in my life, but I’ve always faced the consequences and taken my responsibilities. I never run away from problems like you do. That’s typical of you. You did it fifteen years ago when you went to live with your grandparents, you did it with Pete, and you’re doing it now again. Say something. Anything. Say you hate me, say you don’t want to see me again, but have the guts to say it looking into my eyes.”
Emma kept still and silent, her heart throbbing in her throat, her eyes down looking at nothing. She shoved him away and rushed off repeating in her mind ‘to hell with you, Bradders. To hell with you.’

Entering the toilets, Emma found Lydia and Terri chatting. She then joined her friends and touched up her make-up in the mirror. As soon as Terri left a couple of minutes later Lydia asked her friend,
“Why haven’t you told me about Brent?”
“Simply ‘cause there’s nothing to say,” answered Emma putting some lipstick on. “You said I could bring someone, that’s exactly what I’ve done. End of story.” Emma founded hard to control her voice. The encounter with James had affected her deeply but she didn’t want her friend to notice that. Lydia didn’t have the time to speak anything more since Terri came back to call her, James was ready to propose a toast to the bride and groom, so they left together. Emma told them she would come in a while, but she didn’t. She stayed in the toilets looking at herself in the mirror. She felt like crying and she hated that.

When she eventually joined all the others in the big room, she found everyone laughing at something funny that James had just said. He then went on speaking watching Mrs and Mr Hall.
“Martin, my friend, you are lucky. Oh yes, you really are. Now you are a married man, you’ve got a beautiful wife who loves you madly. Could a man ever ask for more? Just think of those who aren’t loved by anyone, or even worse, think of those men who love someone but aren’t loved back Can you figure out how they feel knowing that the person they love like mad despises them? Of course not.”
At the very moment, Emma felt as if all eyes were on her. She walked away slowly to avoid being noticed.

It was raining heavily now. Emma looked out of the window watching the sky going darker and darker.
“Here you are at last!” It was Martin this time, so she turned round and smiled at him. “I’ve just realised that I still haven’t had the pleasure of having a dance with the bridesmaid.”
“Guess we should make up for it then,” she smiled at him warmly, though Martin could see a veil of sadness in her hazel eyes.
“Are you okay?” inquired Martin,
“Yes”
“You haven’t eaten anything. Do you feel sick?”
“No, my head aches a bit, just this.” She paused for a moment. “He wanted me to speak to him but I couldn’t manage to say anything.”
“Ah, I didn’t know. Don’t worry about it now. He’s gone away. He asked Sean to drive him to the station after the toast.”
The two of them returned to the big room and started to dance, but after a short while Emma brought her hand over her forehead and felt like fainting for a second. Martin helped her to sit down and fetched her some water.
“Don’t look at me like this,” said Emma in a reproaching tone. “You yourself heard the doctor at hospital last week. Everything’s fine.”
“I know, but I can’t help it. It’s been happening too often lately.”

“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, anything.”
“Has he seen her again?”
“Emma! How can you think such a thing?” Martin shook his head in disbelief. “Let me tell you how things really are once and for all. The last seven weeks have been hell. He’s spent all the time in alone drinking and smoking heavily. I’ve done the shopping for him twice a week, I’ve gone to him every day and I haven’t ever left him before he ate something in front of me. Excuse me if I’ll sound rude, but I’ve got tired of it. I’m sick tired of seeing two of my dearest friends looking so miserable when they could be the happiest in the world together.”
Emma cupped her face in her hands and shut her eyes. Then, shaking her head, she said sadly, “I don’t know what to do!”
Martin grabbed her hand and spoke softly, “There’s just one thing you have to do. Put aside your stupid pride for once and deal with your true feelings towards him. Give up repressing them. You’ll feel a lot better later.”

Later that day, Emma entered the building where James lived and saw Oswald, the porter, talking to a man who left shortly later.
“Miss Wright, it’s such a great pleasure seeing you again,” said the man approaching.
“Same to me Oswald,” said Emma smiling weakly at him. She had already been then several times in the past for questions of work and Oswald knew her well. He was a nice good man, so James used to say.
“I’m so glad to hear that miss,” said the man relieved, “especially after the way you stormed off the last time you’ve been here…without even say bye…”
It was clear that Oswald was talking about Ethel. What had she to say now? That that wasn’t her but her identical twin? It would sound ridiculous.
“Yes, I know,” she said looking mortified, “it wasn’t just like me at all. Excuse me for that.”
“Oh, it’s no problem.” His reassuring smile relieved her. “Let me say miss, that you look gorgeous. You went to Mr Hall’s wedding as well, I suppose.” Emma nodded. “That’s weird,” said Oswald perplexed, “didn’t Mr Bradfield tell you he was leaving?”
“Has he left?”
“Yes. He came back one hour ago or so and went up. Ten minutes later he came down with a bag. He said he would stay in Wales for a while.”
“Oh, I see”
“By the way miss, I wouldn’t sound nosy, but I wouldn’t ask this if I weren’t worried for him. I’m asking you because I know you’re one of his friends and perhaps you know what’s wrong with him.”
“What do you mean, Oswald?”
“It’s just that he’s looked so miserable lately, for a couple of months more or less. He’s such a kind lad and I’m so sorry to see him so down.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t know what to say. He’s very reserved. He doesn’t like talking about his problems.”

Emma walked back to her car totally absorbed in her thoughts. Putting off the confrontation with James upset her. She had so many things to tell him. Martin was right, she had to get rid of that burden.

Part 4 >>>

<<< Enola’s stories