Die for You

Chapter 54

"Come on in," Jill said as she opened the door, the door I'd last seen one snowy night as it slammed behind me. I gestured for Becky to go in front of me, before following her and wiping my feet on the mat. We'd driven around for another three quarters of an hour before I'd worked up the courage to drive to that small house, another three quarters of an hour of driving around in virtual silence.

"Take a seat, Andy's just putting the kettle on," Jill said gesturing to the sofa. "I'm afraid I didn't get your name," she said pointedly to Bec.

"I'm Rebecca, Rebecca..."

"Armstrong," Jill interrupted with a smile, "Of course, I remember you now from the news, Freen was hired to keep you safe wasn't she; looks like she's doing a good job."

"She's doing an excellent job," Becky said with a polite smile, "she's very professional."

"Talking to the wrong person, Miss Armstrong," I said bitterly, "Jill doesn't think I'm capable of doing a good job."

Jill looked past Becky at me, a sad frown on her face. "That was a long time ago, Freen," she said actually managing to pull off an apologetic sounding voice. "I said I was sorry for what I said to you that night and I am, I'm really very sorry."

"Doesn't matter," I said as Becky rested her hand on my leg supportively. I felt my thigh muscle tense involuntarily as she touched it, and pressed on trying to ignore it. "Water under the bridge and all that," I said as I tried to calm myself once more. We'd driven round and round until I'd been able to bring my messed up emotions back under control, looks like I hadn't really succeeded.

"Does to me," Jill said sitting down on the small two seater sofa that was opposite ours. "I realized  how unfair I'd been almost as soon as you'd gone; I just wasn't prepared to deal with it, you have to understand that, Freen. I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't mean to be such a bitch."

"No one ever does."

I felt Becky's hand flinch as I spoke, a warning perhaps? I tried to relax and stop sniping, but the resentful pain that had surfaced with our meeting hadn't totally gone away. We sat in an awkward silence until Chunks appeared carrying a tray, cups and saucers precariously balanced.

"Right then, who's for tea? Rebecca?"

"Please, Andy, and please call me Becky," Becky said, her charm offensive in full swing.

"Snowy?"

I nodded, looking on as Chunks poured from the tea pot into the cups.

"Why do you call Freen 'Snowy', Andy?" Becky asked as she took her cup.

"Same reason she calls me 'Chunks' Becky," he replied handing me my drink and pouring his own, "they're nicknames we picked up in the army."

"'Chunks' doesn't sound like a very nice nickname, Andy," Becky said accepting a biscuit from the plate Jill offered across to her.

"It's not," Jill said as I refused the plate with a wave of my hand, "you really don't want to know how he earned it, trust me on that; especially not over biscuits."

"Why do they call you 'Snowy', Freen?" Becky pressed, turning to smile at me.

"Old story Miss Armstrong," I replied formally, taking a sip of my tea and avoiding the question; diving back into that familiar public façade as my defense against what I was facing.

"Seems to be a lot of those, Freenky," she said, ignoring my hint and causing me to glance at her and frown.

"Sarocha here's the 'Snow Queen' Becky," Andy said with a grin, "Whitey told me she earned it when she ran across a street under fire, lobbed a pineapple through a window and kicked a door in to kill a unit of insurgents that had her team pinned down. For some reason, she didn't like the 'Ice Maiden' moniker Whitey tried to give her and decided to change it to something she preferred."