Part one
Holly paced nervously round her flat. Muttering to herself.
"Hi Patrick. No, no, that'll never do. I'm back! No way! Remember me? No! Hi again, hello, how are you, wazzup! God I'm never going to get any where with this."
Annoyed with herself Holly sat down and tried to right a letter and every two minutes she'd mutter various swear words, kick the table, screw up the piece of paper, throw it over her shoulder and start all over again. This carried on for around an hour before she ran out of patients and paper. Then she got up, grabbed her keys and phone and left her flat, slamming the door behind her.
Half an hour she was sitting in her car out side Patrick's house having no idea how she got there or what she intended to say to him. She stared at his front door for what felt like a lifetime but was actually only 15 minutes. Finally she got up the courage and slowly walked towards the door. When she reached it her hands were shaking so violently that she couldn�t press the bell.
"Come on Holly" she told herself "this is Patrick. Pa-trick you know, the one you'd trust with your life and the one you'd spend the rest of your life with. You have no reason to be worried about ringing the bell." How wrong she was.
So after a few deep breaths she lifted a, still shaking, hand and rung the bell. The wait seemed to last for eternity and she wanted to run home all the way through. She felt an over-whelming sense of dread and when the door opened she felt glued to the spot.
"What the f�"
Part two
Holly stared at the woman who stood before her. She was barely dressed and looked sleepy even though it was nearly 2 in the afternoon. She had blond hair (which Holly thought looked suspiciously like it had come out of a bottle) green/brown eyes and she was about Holly's age, height and size. And, now this may have been Holly being paranoid, she looked allot like Holly just with a different haircut. She smiled at Holly. Not in a nice way but in a patronising, I'm better than you, look how great I am kind of way. Holly gazed blankly at her, opening and closing her mouth like a gold fish.
"Sorry but is there actually some thing you want or are you trying to make me freeze to death?" The woman asked. Looking her up and down Holly realised that the woman could quiet easily freeze to death as all she was wearing was a baggy t-shirt and shorts. And it was the middle of winter. Holly smiled a smile that was as near to a real smile as she could manage and replied sweetly:
"Sorry dear. I thought you were some one else." And then she added to herself "like a human being rather than a talking Barbie!" She turned round and walked, rather shakily, back to the car, whishing with all her heart it wasn't Patrick's house. But she new him to well to be that na�ve, she new the whole 'blond-without-a-brain' thing was exactly his style. Plus she new that it was his t-shirt she was wearing and that made her even madder.
Part three
"Hi! Is that Patrick?"
"No he's at work at the moment, can I pass on a message?" Came the reply in an Australian voice that brought back far too many meromys of the day before for Holly's liking.
"It's ok I'll call him at work." Holly said trying to be pleasant.
"Ok then� do I know you by any chance because your voice sounds really familiar?"
"Oh no, no, umm� no you don�t know me!"
"Yes I do it was� oh when was it� oh yes! Yesterday, you were the one who came to call weren�t you."
"Oh yeah. It must have slipped my mind." Damn thought Holly, she had counted on the bimbo not having enough brain sells to remember as far back as yesterday.
"So, who exactly are you?"
"I'm Holly, me and Patrick are� well we were� we� umm� me and Patrick go back a long way. So who are you?"
"I'm Lara. Lara Stone. Patrick's� Partner!"
"Oh right umm ok, bye." Holly hung up the phone in disgust. Partner! Is that really what she thought she was? Quick shag was more like it. She stared down at her hand and saw a ring. A promise ring. She remembered what he had told her before she got on the plane to Germany.
"Holly. This is a promise ring. It means that one-day, when we meet again, (and we will meet again) that I'll marry you. Now, as I'm sure you know, I don�t make speeches like this for all the girls but your different� in a good way. You're special. And I'll wait for you. However long it takes. Because their will never be anyone who even comes close to what we have together." She had believed him as well, that was the worst bit, she had known him all these years and yet she still let herself believe he would wait the rest of his life for her if need be. And now? Now she didn�t believe a word he'd ever uttered. He was Patrick spiller, remember, the man who didn't know the meaning of the word truth and defiantly didn�t do commitment! How she could have thought she could rely on him or even trust him she didn't know. Now she'd have to do this all alone. She tugged hard at the ring but all she got for her efforts was a red mark and a small cut from one of the diamonds. It was stuck. "Great!" she thought, "that�s all I need, another constant reminder of Patrick bloody Spiller!"
Part four
Lara was not pleased about having the phone slammed down on her and in any other situation she would have done 1471 and demanded an apology but some thing about this situation bothered her. The fact that this Holly had been perfectly fine with her until she mentioned she and Patrick were together then she had hung up with barley a goodbye. Very strange! She decided that she'd have to get the truth from Patrick as soon as she saw him. Presuming Holly didn�t get to him first. She sat back and made the most of her last few free hours watching trashy mid-morning TV. Slowly her mind drifted back to Patrick as it often did in these situations. She thought about what her mother had once advised her:
"Never trust a man who's past suddenly pops up unexplained." Now she realised why people said that you should always listen to your parents. God she hated her mothers ability to predict the future!
She went back to trying to watch the TV for hours, constantly watching the clock and shaking her watch because she thought it was fast (really it was she didn�t want to admit Patrick was late.)
***
9:00 pm
Patrick enters
"Where the hell have you been? I have been worried out of my mind!" Lara yelled as soon as she heard the door close.
"I had to work an extra shift, we had an r.t.a come in!"
"Don�t bloody lie to me! You've been to see her haven�t you?"
"How did you know about her?"
"She phoned Patrick, let your little secret out. God I knew there was something going on!"
"She phoned? Rachel called you?"
"Rachel?? I'm talking about Holly, god Patrick how many are there?"
"Sorry did you just say Holly phoned? Holly as in my Holly?"
"Your Holly? Christ above Patrick! You have got A LOT of explaining to do. First call your Holly and arrange to meet. Then we'll call your Rachel."
"She isn't my Rachel."
"What do you mean by that?"
More ->