Many Miles Apart

24. Alfie

Once we had arrived at the place we were staying in, Rebecca and Eric went down to the hotel restaurant to get a drink.
"You coming Alfie?", she asked me, her green eyes sparkling. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Again.
"I don't feel very good and I'm really tired, I think I'm going to go to my room for a bit", I replied, throwing in a fake yawn for emphasis.
Her face fell as she handed me the keys, and I felt a momentary stab of guilt, then remembering what she was trying to do, and the feeling quickly subsided. I took the piece of metal from her hand, and headed over to the lift with my case.
I entered my room and dumped my bags down on the floor near the bed, before kicking off my shoes and climbing into the covers. I wrapped myself up into the warm duvet, and lay my head down on the pillow.
Hundreds of thoughts and emotions were running through my head, but despite this, within minutes I felt myself drifting off.

I woke to a loud banging that echoed through the room, each sound reverberating through my skull I was being hit on the head with a hammer.
"Zoe, what are you doing", I mumbled, rolling onto my stomach, moving my arm around, feeling for her small body next to mine, ready to pull her into a hug b
When my hand reached the edge of the bed, I was filled with confusion.
"Zoe?", I moaned again, beginning to come around. The banging was getting louder, and I opened my eyes to see the interior of the hotel room.
I groaned, realising where I was as I buried my head back into the pillow.
"Alfie open the door", an all too familiar voice called. Rebecca.
"Mmn", I muttered, still not opening my eyes.
"Alfie!", she shouted, knocking even harder. I grunted as I lugged my aching frame out of the bed, shuffling over to the wall and pushing on the handle.
The door swung open to reveal Rebecca standing on the other side, a scowl set into her face. Her brow was furrowed, and her sparkling eyes seemed dim. She suddenly seemed quote intimidating, and it shocked me how she could go from flirty to serious without even batting an eyelid.
"What have you been doing, I've been calling for an hour!", she shouted, throwing her arms up in annoyance.
"What time is it?", I yawned, fatigue hitting me like a sudden shock wave.
"One pm", she huffed. "You know we've gotta be at a meeting at three?", said Rebecca, a questioning look on her face.
"Oh, sorry", I mumbled, wishing I could just shut the door on her and climb back under the sheets.
"What were you doing?", she asked, having calmed down. She really was very pretty, with her accentuated cheekbones and tumbling golden locks. I felt a pang of guilt at the thought.
"Sleeping", was all that I said in reply.
"I can tell", she said smiling. "Your hair looks all funny." She let out a giggle and reached up to smooth it down, making me squirm and bat her hand away.
"You're too cute", she sighed.
That was it. This couldn't go on.
"I have a girlfriend, you know", I said, more sharply than intended. It didn't matter anyway, I needed to get my point across. "I'm going to go and get ready, I'll see you downstairs at half two", I said, a little too forcefully, closing the door.
I took a deep breath, and headed over to my bag. Pulling out my laptop, I placed it on the bed, and logged on.
I checked my phone, and there was one message.
Skype me
No kisses. No explanation. Weird.
Flattening my hair with my hand, I clicked on Zoe's icon to Skype her, and waited for a reply.
The call connected after a few minutes, and once the cameras sorted themselves out, I saw Zoe in the centre of the sofa, her laptop clearly balanced on the coffee table. She was sat upright, with her hands on her knees, as if attending an online meeting, and despite obvious attempts to cover up her makeup, I could tell that she had been crying. I suddenly felt a mixture of worry and nerves, I wasn't sure why, but I hated seeing her upset. It always hurt.
"Zoe what's happened?", I immediately asked, shocked and concerned at the way that she looked.
"Alfie", she said, her voice level and monotone.
"Are you ok?", I questioned. It felt like I was being interrogated.
"I will be once you've answered my questions honestly", she put bluntly. Panic washed over me like a tidal wave.
"Who is Rebecca Jones?"
I sat, stunned, staring at the screen. I didn't reply for a few seconds. How did she know who Rebecca was? And why was she asking now?
"She's a woman that I'm working with, why?", I stuttered, shocked at the question and trying to keep myself from sounding suspicious, even though I hadn't done anything wrong.
"How close would you say you are to her?", Zoe asked. Her voice was lined with a hardness, something that would only be present through anger. I don't think I've ever seen her like this before.
"Not very, I only met her yesterday", I put. "Look, Zoe, why are you asking me this?"
"Has anything happened between you and Rebecca Jones", she continued, ignoring what I'd asked. A slight wobble in her tone indicated that this was hurting her to say.
"No!", I replied instantly, not even bothering to hide the frustration that I felt. "No! Nothing! Why would you think that?!"
"Then what is this?", she questioned, holding up another laptop.
"Who's computer is that? Wait is Joe there?", I said, confusion spreading like a wildfire in my chest.
"Look at this, and tell me what it means", she said forcefully.
I waited for the camera to adjust to the brightness, before seeing a tweet form on the second screen.
Moments on a plane are always promising, the guy will be mine tonight :P
I quickly scanned for the username, and my eyes came to settle on 'JonesRebecca'. I felt sick to my stomach. Why did she put that up? What the hell did she think she was doing? And how the hell did Zoe find that?
"I swear I don't know what that is!", I shouted. "I didn't even know that she'd written that, and I don't know what she's on about!"
Anger and terror rampaged through me like a heard of angry bulls charging at a red flag. I wanted to scream.
"What happened on the plane Alfie?", Zoe asked, sounding hurt. It pained me to see her like this, and to know that I couldn't just give her a hug.
"Nothing, I swear! She started coming onto me but I told her to back off as I have you!", I babbled, hoping that she'd listen.
"Well that's clearly not what she thought", she stated. I sighed, planting my head in my hands momentarily.
"I swear Zoe!", I shouted again, looking up. "Please believe me! I would never do that to you!"
"Promise me that you genuinely haven't given any sign that would make her think that you wanted anything to do to with her", she said, sounding so upset. Her voice was wobbling, and it made me want to cry, hearing her like this and knowing that there was nothing I could do except plead with her.
"I promise Zoe, please!", I cried. "I've done nothing!"
She sighed, letting out her emotion. All that I wanted was to wrap my arms around her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.
"Okay, I'll believe you Alfie", she said, still not moving from her upright position.
"Thank you", I sighed, relief washing over me. "I love you"
"Yeah", she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Anyway, Joe wants to speak to you." She walked off of the screen, and Joe came on and carried the laptop into the living room, shutting the door behind and him.
"Hey man", he smiled once he'd sat down . "How's America?"
"Yeah it's good", I said, still in shock, unable to reply properly.
"Cool, it must be rubbish over here in comparison", Joe said, sounding uncomfortable. "Hey, look, I don't really know what's going on, and this is kind of awkward, and you're a great friend to me and a perfect guy for Zoe, I'm not great at all this mushy stuff, but I just wanted to remind you you're a lucky guy to have her, just like she's lucky to have you. You're not stupid Alfie, and to throw away your relationship would be ridiculous. I know you said that you didn't have anything to do with this Rebecca person, but I'm just telling you to be careful", he said. I groaned. This had gotten way too out of hand.
"I appreciate the concern Joe, but I swear that I haven't said or done anything and I'm not going to. I love Zoe way too much", I replied.
"Yeah, okay, I believe you man. Look, I'd better go, have a good time out there", he said.
"Yeah, bye", I muttered as the call ended.
I collapsed on the bed, pain smashing into me like a fist punching me in the stomach over and over.
"Why?", I muttered to myself. "Why?"