J & P Book 3 - Please Don't Leave Me

Chapter 8

He waited anxiously by the reception desk for a few minutes, his phone in his hand. He wasn't sure how she knew he was here, and what she knew about why he was here, and he wasn't sure how much he wanted to burden her with.

Linda was in a bad place right now. Her father was seriously ill, and he was not expected to live much longer than a week. Linda hadn't been herself for a long while, and their relationship hadn't been right for longer than that. All of this wasn't going to help. But then, he owed it to her to be honest with her, didn't he? After all, they had been together a long time now.

The automatic doors opened and Linda dashed in. The male receptionist looked up at her, clearly noting her features, because she, like Jenny, was very attractive. She was tall, in fact she was slightly taller than Paul when she was in heels, blonde, curvy and had pretty features. It had been pointed out to Paul on many occasions by their friends that he was punching above his weight by being with Linda. But then he'd had similar comments when he and Jenny were together.

She walked up to him. "I need to talk to you, Paul. What's going on?"

He kissed her on the cheek. "Come on, we'd best go to my room. We can talk there."

She nodded, and followed as he set off down the corridor to his downstairs hotel room. He took his keycard out of his jacket pocket, inserted it into the slot on the door and opened the door. He held it open for Linda, who walked in, glancing about the room as she did so. Eventually she sat on the bed, stretching out her legs, and kicking off her high-heeled shoes.

Paul took off his jacket, hung it up by the door, and sat next to her, waiting for her to speak.

Eventually, she did.

"You're not here for work, are you?"

He shook his head.

"So.. What are you here for, then?"

He rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses. "How did you know I was here? Did Mum tell you?"

"Yes, I was worried when I couldn't get hold of you, so I rang her."

"What did she say?"

"She said you'd gone to Jenton, and that I should talk to you about the reason why."

"Wow," Paul said. "She did what I asked her to for once."

"So when you still didn't answer when I rang you this morning, I thought I'd get the train from home to find out what was going on."

"How are things with your dad?" Paul asked, genuinely concerned. He was worried about the effect that his news would have on an already fragile Linda.

"What do you care?" Linda sniffed, looking downwards.

"Of course I care," Paul said, putting his arms around her, looking into her blue eyes. "I know what you're going through, remember?"

"I thought you would be there for me," Linda said, sadly. "I thought you would be my rock when all of this happened. But you're.. here?"

"Linda.. what's happened?"

"Oh he's still alive," she said with a glare. "Just about. I have to get the next train back. I just needed a break and.. I needed to find out what was going on."

Paul shook his head. "I offered to come down with you, didn't I? You said you wanted me to stay and look after Beano, so that's what I did."