Lovers of Freedom

Chapter 11- Like a lonely snowman

One fine afternoon I was standing in Piccadilly Circus, just in front of Swan and Edgar's where the buses stopped. I remembered reading "Young and Enchanted" by Hugh Walpole and it reminded me of the opening scene of the book.

It was cold as fuck. The wind was freezing. There was no snow yet, and I felt betrayed. No white December yet.

This time I was heading to Matt's birthday party.

I know what you're thinking.

-Annie you can't possibly go to that party! I thought you hated the Houben family!

but...

Andreina had convinced me to join her. Peter was picking me up from Picadilly to head to Matt's house outside London. I knew we were going to arrive late because as every fucking Friday: London was busy. The only thing, in particular, that had me without worrying too much was the fact that Tom was in a photoshoot in Germany. There was not going to be any drama. Thanks fuck for that.

We arrived at Matt's place and we gave him some gin as a birthday present. Matt was a Gin person so we expected him to like it. I had another gift for him. I had bought him a nice watch. My friends got wasted that night so I had to drive at the end of the party. I no longer consumed alcohol so Peter put me in charge of driving.

What a bad choice.

The car slid on thin ice and the car in the opposite road crashed against us.

I was mortified. The police were going to arrive and they were going to test us all for alcohol. I hadn't drunk anything but the owner of the car was. Maybe this was my stain in my perfect record?

I left the car coatless. I check the damage: both cars are fine. A man leaves the other car and approaches the front. It is from Tom. He hadn't shaved in a while and he looked like he had lost weight. It was worse than I imagined. He didn't recognise me in the darkness.

"You're so lucky, so fuucking lucky," he says with a laugh. Then looked at me. "Annie?" I gave him a tiny smile. "I didn't know you could drive..." "Aren't you freezing?"

Soon enough Peter leaves the car. He puts his coat in my shoulders.

"Nutting happened alright. Let's go home Ann's" said Peter. He then looked at Tom.

"Thomas Houben! My mate..." he yelled, he then hugged him deeply. "I thought you were out of the country..."

"I was just going back home. Nice to see you," said Tom. I walked towards the car. Nothing happened. This was no fate. I entered the car, I tried to turn the engine and...nothing. I saw Andreina asleep in the back seat. I sighed. FUCK.

I left the car again.

"Could you...I don't know...fix it," I said. It was 2 am. I wanted to go home. I was so done with everything, and now I had to see homeless-looking Tom.

We tried for thirty minutes or so but nothing worked. The car needed a crane or something. Together we moved the car out of the highway to the side. It was too early in the morning for anybody to rescue us so the only choice we had was to return to London with Tom.

I went to bed at five in the morning and tried not to think of my enemy again. The next morning I felt tired, it was 11 am and I didn't have anything planned. As now and then I called my mother and we had a long conversation about Tom. My mother didn't like him, and we had decided never to speak of that name. It seemed impossible now that he had re-entered my life by accident. However, 2 months were no longer enough for me to forget what he had done to our relationship.