ELLIE
Parking in her parents’ driveway, Ellie sat for a few moments physically unable to summon up the energy to actually get out of the car. Gripping the steering wheel, she banged her head against it in despair. God what a twenty-four hours. Job and home gone simultaneously.
In one way she was relieved her parents were away and she didn’t have to face them, but on the other hand she longed for a hug from her dad and a gruff ‘It’ll sort itself, pet,’ his answer to everything that had upset her throughout life. Mum would give her a quick cuddle and make her a hot chocolate before sitting down, prepared to listen to all the ins and outs of what had gone wrong this time.
She was stiff when she finally got out of the car and went into the house. She’d unpack the car later. Not that there was a lot of stuff. Mainly clothes and a few personal items that were lying about. She’d literally flown around the flat pushing things into her large rucksack, knowing deep down she was unlikely to see anything she’d missed ever again. She sighed deeply. Right now, she needed a coffee.
Once in the kitchen, she switched the machine on and heaped coffee into the filter. Waiting for the water to drip through, she wandered upstairs to her old room. Now technically the guest room, it lacked the funky wallpaper and posters she’d pinned up everywhere in her teenage years before leaving home. For the past five years the walls had been covered in a bland cream paper with nondescript twirls on it. The old-fashioned kidney-shaped dressing table still stood in front of the window, the ruched material concealing its drawers and central shelf the same toile de joy pattern that hung at the window. Rod had been scathing: ‘God, this room belongs in the last century.’ He’d been dismissive of everything else in the house too. Oh, not to Harriet and Frank. To them he was charm itself. It was just to her in private that he poked fun. When she’d protested he was being unkind, he’d just looked at her and shrugged.
Ellie went back downstairs. Pouring her coffee and helping herself to a couple of biscuits from the tin, she went into the sitting room and flopped onto the settee. How naive she’d been to waste nine months of her life with him, thinking they were good together. That he might actually love her. She should have known when he didn’t introduce her to his parents for months.
‘Plenty of time for that,’ he kept saying, as if he didn’t want to introduce her to them. When he had taken her home, the visit hadn’t been a success. The family had treated her like a difficult guest for the whole visit.
Rod had met Frank and Harriet early on in their relationship – and that hadn’t been a great success either. Mum hadn’t taken to him at all, and as for Frank, he’d been a typical growly dad thinking nobody was good enough for his girl. Thinking back, from the time she’d moved into the flat, their relationship had changed. Rod always busy at work, their social life non-existent except for the occasional cinema visit and then it was always his choice. How had she failed to notice just how self-centred Rod was? How selfish. Clearly she’d been useful to pay the rent. She hadn’t just been naive – she’d been plain stupid. How had she failed to notice just how self-centred Rod was?
At nearly thirty years old, you’d have thought she’d have known better. She’d been so desperate for a relationship, the chance to finally settle down and maybe start a family, she’d overlooked so much. Was she destined never to find her soul-mate? Never to have a lasting loving relationship? Her track record wasn’t good in that department, that was for sure. Mum had once told her she was too trusting. Well, not any more. This was the last time she was going to jump into any relationship without first analysing every single aspect of the man in question.
Draining the last of her coffee, Ellie got to her feet and stretched. Time to get her stuff out of the car. Tomorrow she’d start the dual business of job and flat hunting. By the time Mum and Dad came home, she’d be organised and on her way to sorting her life out.