I couldn’t wait to see Thomas when he eventually got home four days later. Despite his promise to go to his flat, he asked if I could just be patient for a little while longer as it was in a bit of a state, and all the time his arm was in a sling, he wasn’t able to get it ready for me.
“You deserve more,” he said on the phone. But I didn’t care where we met by then, I just needed to see him.
I jumped up onto him as I opened the door, wrapping my legs tightly around him, breathing him in, not wanting to ever let go.
“Steady on,” he laughed. “Watch the arm.”
“I love you,” I whispered, in between kisses. His mouth broke into a wide grin, and all the pent-up emotions I’d unknowingly held within were released. Like a flock of birds taking flight.
I’d prepared dinner, but knew that our sexual appetite would probably need to be sated before our desire to eat kicked in. Without breaking our kiss, and somewhere between his T-shirt coming off and my jeans being unbuttoned, I guided him into the kitchen and deftly turned down the temperature on the oven.
“You are incredible,” he said afterward, as we lay spent on the bed.
Still out of breath, he lifted himself off the pillow and leaned in to give me the softest of kisses. “I love you and don’t ever want to be away from you again,” he whispered.
I felt a knot in my stomach as I realized I’d have to remind him that I was about to go away for five days. I wondered if there was any way I could get out of the school trip. For the first time in my life, I seriously considered throwing a sickie. My yearning to be with Thomas clearly overrode my normally resolute conscience.
“You haven’t forgotten I’m going away on Monday, have you?” I said quietly, not really wanting him to hear me. Because if he didn’t hear me, I still had time to think of a reason not to go.
He pulled away from me. “Shit!”
It was hard enough as it was, I didn’t need him to make it even more so.
“But it’s only for five days.”
“Shit, I’d forgotten all about that.” He leaned back heavily on the headboard and ran a hand through his hair.
Don’t say it. Please don’t say it.
“Do you have to go?”
He said it.
“I can’t let the kids down, can I?” I didn’t know who I was trying to convince.
“But there are other teachers going?”
“Yes, of course, but there’s a very strict adult to child ratio and I’m supposedly the team leader, so it’s not easy to pull out, especially when I haven’t got a valid reason.”
His brow furrowed. “Aren’t I a valid enough reason?”
I couldn’t tell whether he was being serious or not and swung my legs off the bed in a bid to change the atmosphere.
“It killed me being away from you this week,” he said. “I don’t want to do it again.”
I knelt on the bed and kissed him. “It’s only five days,” I said, half laughing. “You’ll manage.”
He sat himself up even straighter. “Listen, I’ve been thinking.”
This sounded ominous. I sat back down next to him.
“I want us to live together,” he said. “Because when I’m away from you, all I can think about is how quickly I can get back.”
My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. “Seriously?” I squeaked. “What, here or at yours?”
“I can work from anywhere,” he said, “and Mum’s not too far from here—it’s manageable. But you’ve got your whole life here and if you came to live with me in Maida Vale, you’d have to change jobs and be farther away from your friends and your mum. It makes sense for me to live here. I’ll contribute toward your mortgage—assuming you have one?”
I nodded. “Yes, unfortunately I don’t share my mother’s school of thought on debt. Well, I would if I had the choice, but…”
“Okay, so I’ll pay the mortgage and we can halve the bills and food—what do you think?” He sounded excited, but unsure—as if he didn’t want to show too much emotion in case he’d called it wrong. I couldn’t wait a second longer to put him out of his misery.
“Yes, yes, yes,” I screamed, straddling him and kissing him deeply. If I’d ever been as happy, I couldn’t remember when. “When shall we do it? As soon as I get back? What about next weekend?”
He laughed and rolled me over, his weight pinning me down on my back. “I’ll move some bits in while you’re away if you don’t mind. And when you come home on Friday I’ll run you a bath, make love to you, and cook you the best meal you’ve ever had.”
I squealed. “In that order?”
“Absolutely! You’ll have spent a week in a hostel with no running water by then!”
I swiped his tattooed arm and he fell on me, nuzzling my neck and tickling my sides until I could barely breathe.
“Did you tell your mum the good news?” he asked, when I eventually begged for mercy.
“Oh God,” I said, pulling myself up and pushing my hair out of my face. “In everything that was going on with you this week, I totally forgot.”
I wish I’d lied and told him that she was thrilled, because the very next morning we were sat round at hers instead of being in bed, so excited was Thomas to tell her.
“Oh, my goodness, that’s wonderful news,” Mum said, clapping her hands together. “Who’d have thought that a few dusty old bottles languishing in a cellar could be so valuable?”
“It’s gone a bit crazy,” said Thomas. “I was in Spain this week and was offered some really exciting cases; there was a crate of Moncerbal and a dozen Les Manyes which will be gold dust to investors. I already know that I’ll be able to sell them for five times as much as I buy them for.”
“So I assume you’re going to buy them?” asked Mum. “If you know you’re on to a sure thing.”
“Absolutely,” he said, smiling. “It’s too good an opportunity to turn down. I’m already being chased by a few people who have heard the word through the grapevine.”
If he hadn’t looked at me expectantly as he delivered the punchline, I would have missed it altogether.
“That was awful,” I groaned.
“The old ones are always the best,” he laughed.
“So you’ll not be holding on to them for very long?” asked Mum.
Thomas shook his head. “Unfortunately, I doubt I’ll have them in my possession at all. I’ll sell them on, probably the same day that I buy them.”
“How much will you be buying them for?” asked Mum, suddenly forthright.
“One hundred and fifty thousand secures the deal,” said Thomas. “And I’ve already been offered four hundred and fifty thousand by a client in Russia. But I’m going to hang out for more.”
“So an investor is going to buy them through you and you’re then going to sell them on to someone who is honestly going to pay that kind of money?” I found myself asking.
“Pretty much. I’ll take my ten percent commission on each transaction and everybody’s happy.”
I looked to Mum, trying to read her mind.
“Why can’t we buy the wine?” I don’t know if I meant my thoughts to be aired publicly.
“What?” exclaimed Thomas, though I noted Mum stayed silent. “Where are you going to find that kind of money?”
I glanced at Mum again and she gave me a nod.
“We can do that,” I said. “It will pretty much wipe us out, but if it’s only for twenty-four hours, and comes back fivefold, it would have been a very good day’s work.”
“It would certainly mean I could get all the work done and not have to worry anymore,” chipped in Mum.
Thomas looked from Mum to me and back again. “This isn’t the right deal for you, Mary. It needs to happen faster than you would be able to manage and, I don’t know, it just feels…”
“I can make the transfer first thing Monday morning,” she said, sitting up straighter in her chair, as if she really meant business.
“I think you should start smaller,” he said. “There will be plenty of other opportunities. I’ll know the right one when I see it.”
Her whole body seemed to shrink, as if somebody had released her air valve.
“We want to do this one,” I said adamantly. “If you’re absolutely sure that we can double our money…”
“At the very least,” he said.
“Then I want to do it,” I said. “We want to do it. Mum?”
“If you’re happy, then I’m happy,” she said.
Thomas smiled and shook his head. “You two have enough chutzpah to serve an army.”
Mum and I looked at each other, taking it as a compliment.
“But if that’s what you want…”
“Absolutely,” I said, before turning to Mum and laughing. “And if it all goes wrong, I’ll sell the flat and reimburse you.”
“I might hold you to that,” she said, smiling.