Die for You

Chapter 53

"Freen, is he talking to you?" Becky asked as I slowly turned towards the voice that had called across the car park. "Who's Snowy?"

"I'm Snowy, love," I said quietly as my eyes locked onto a familiar face that was approaching us apace, "but no one's called me that for quite a while now."

"Snowy?" the voice said as the stick thin figure of Andrew McHale walked across the car park towards me, "fuck me it is, Sarge, Jesus fucking Christ, how are you?"

"Chunks," I said shortly wishing he would turn around and fuck right off, a figure from the past that I wasn't prepared to deal with right now.

"Freen, who is this?" Becky asked, he voice filled with confusion.

"Sergeant Andrew McHale ma'am," Chunks said holding out his hand and shaking Becky's when she offered hers. "My friends call me Chunks. I used to serve with Snowy here. She was my Corporal when I joined the Close Protection Unit in Afghanistan. I haven't seen her since I left, and she got promoted."

"Nice to meet you, Chunks," Becky said politely, "I'm Rebecca, Rebecca Armstrong. I'm pleased to meet someone else that knew Freen here. I've only ever met a couple of her friends."

"Yes, well, I think we need to get you back in the car, Miss Armstrong." I said a little rudely, hoping that she'd get the hint. "I think we should be getting you safely back to London. If you'll excuse us, it was nice to see you again, Chunks." I added turning away and gesturing for Becky to step towards the car. She didn't take my hint, instead looking over Chunks' shoulder at an approaching figure.

"Andy?" a very familiar voice said from behind me, "who've you bumped into now?"

I found my body turning involuntarily, the movement slowed down like that of a high motion camera. My stomach churned as they met the dark blue eyes of a woman I knew all too well, a woman that I'd spent a lot of time talking to, a woman that had, for an all too short period of time, made my best mate very happy.

"Freen," Jill said flatly, her jaw dropping as she stared at me, "what are... why..."

"Jill," I said, greeting her as calmly as I could with my heart racing in my chest, this was awkward, more than awkward in fact. Of all the days I could have chosen over the years to come and visit the grave of my best mate, I had to choose the one when his ex-fucking-fiancée came to fucking visit. What where the odds of that?

"You look... different," Jill said politely, staring across at me her eyes unwavering, "I like your hair, it suits you."

"Thanks," I replied my eyes flicking down involuntarily as I saw her link hands with Chunks. "Look, I'm sorry but if you'll excuse us we really need to get back now. It was nice to see you both." I turned away from the pair of them and opened the rear door of the car. "Miss Armstrong, if you wouldn't mind..."

"Freen," Jill called out as I tried once more to usher a subtly resisting Becky into the back of the Range Rover, "why didn't you return my calls? When I saw you on the news I called your company and they told me they would forward my number on to you." 

I sighed and flinched slightly as Becky slammed the car door forcing me to confront her question head on.

"You know why, Jill" I said sadly, "you know very well why."

"I tried to call you, you know?" Jill said, "afterwards, but the base said your unit was off in Canada on an exercise or something."

"Yeah, I was, we didn't ship out until July, though," I said thinking back to that painful period, my first time away from base without Paul.