Romance | Series | Contemporary

Love Letters — Straight From the Heart [5]

What will be Revealed to Danni on Thursday?

A letter is a joint affair, depending almost as much on the reader as the writer ~ Margaret Irwin

Previously — Having processed Maisy’s advice not to fixate over the letters, Danni tries to return them, but can’t resist reading one more

“What did you do with the letters?” Maisy asked Danni, as they were walking towards the uni library.

It was their first chance to talk properly after their heated discussion on Sunday. Although using WhatsApp, they had messaged each other to apologise and had smoothed over the rift.

“I sent them back,” Danni shrugged.

“To the girl — Saffron?” Maisy remembering her name was impressive.

“No — that was a little odd, my landlord didn’t have a forwarding address. But I sent them back to Matt, he wrote them after all.”

“Oh — well, good.” Maisy bumped shoulders with her.

Danni smiled, hoping her friend wouldn’t ask any more questions.

Since posting the envelope containing Matt’s love letters, she’d been constantly vacillating between excitement and horror at what she’d done. Making an open arrangement to meet the young lovers was a bold step, and she was surely setting herself up for disappointment. Plus Danni hated being unable to make a clean break from her fixation.

The girls found an unoccupied table and laid claim to it with their textbooks and bags. Then for the next couple of hours, they knuckled down to work, only speaking in whispers about their assignment.

The next day was Thursday. So Danni was up and dressed in her hastily tidied room when Mr. Sharma knocked at the door. He came in and immediately opened his box of handyman tools, so she made him a mug of strong tea and left him to the task of fixing the coat hooks.

Danni had her air pods in her ears, so, when he was finished, Mr. Sharma stood nearby, waving a hand until he caught her attention.

“Want to take a look?” he asked, gesturing towards the brackets by the door.

Danni examined his work. “Much better, thank you.”

“Anything else you need fixing, while I’m here?” he asked.

“No, everything’s in great working order.” Danni replied.

“Good. When the previous tenant bailed, I gave this flat an overhaul. I must’ve overlooked the hooks.”

“Wait — Saffron bailed? She didn’t stay the whole year? Why?”

Mr. Sharma shrugged.

“You tell me. All I know is I had to clear out her stuff. It took me and my wife a whole weekend, taking trips to the dump.”

Danni felt almost winded by this piece of information. When she showed her landlord back out of the flat, she barely knew what else he’d said. Then she sat on her bed in shock, processing the news.

Saffron did not stay, something made her leave, without coming back for her possessions.

Danni needed to back-track using the calendar on her phone, to remind herself when she’d come to view the bedsit with a view to renting it. She found the appointment in April, but of course Saffi could have already disappeared by then.

Stop it! She scolded herself, no need to use words like disappear and make this into a big drama. A student did not finish the academic year — big deal. There were all sorts of plausible reasons for that to happen. But what about Matt? She couldn’t help worrying if Saffi left him high and dry too. Surely she would’ve told him where she was going, and why?

Danni had been sitting in the Prickly Pear Cafe since just after two o’clock. She’d settled at her usual table and put out books and her laptop to study, but her concentration was shattered. Her head was still sorting through possible reasons why Saffron would quit her studies before the end of the year, but she was also fretting over her prospective meeting.

As it drew closer to three, the time which she’d told Matt she was usually there, she became more and more antsy. She had already surprised smiley guy when she’d ordered a decaf Americano coffee instead of her usual latte. Danni didn’t need a shot of caffeine making her more jumpy.

Her phone plinked with a message from Mum. “Don’t forget Aunt Phoebe’s birthday.”

Danni sent a thumbs up, then tapped a reminder in her phone to buy a card today and post it. Aunt Phoebe was her mum’s sister, who’d played a large part in their lives. Danni might not have a dad, but in Aunt Phoebe, she felt like she had a second mum.

Using the camera on her phone, Danni checked her reflection. Her hair looked smooth, and her lipstick wasn’t smudged from drinking, so she felt ready: In case Matt accepted her invitation to meet her at the cafe.

She endeavored to get back to her reading, but kept raising her head like a meerkat, every time the cafe door jingled open.

Lower your expectations, Danni scolded herself. He doesn’t know anything about you, why would he want to meet up? Perhaps in her note she’d sounded crazy and stalker-like. That was certainly Maisy’s opinion when she heard about Danni reading Matt’s letters.

Danni tried to imagine if she would have wanted to meet someone who’d been privy to her most vulnerable thoughts and feelings. She’d probably feel awkward at best, mortified at worst.

Of course Matt wasn’t coming! What had she been thinking to invite him?

The later it got, the more her anxiety cooled, and at four forty-five, Danni resigned herself to understanding that Matt was not coming to the cafe to meet her. It had been a long shot. A crazy idea and, looking hard at it, she was relieved that he hadn’t shown. Like people said: Never meet your idols.

She’d had a close call there, and should count herself lucky. She’d rather not imagine what Maisy would say about it. Instead, Danni was free to keep imagining Matt as the poem quoting prince charming he’d presented in his letters.

“Can I get you anything else?” Smiley guy hovered near her table.

“No thank you, I’m done.” Danni’s own smile was thin.

She pulled her books to the edge of the table to slide them into her shoulder bag. She liked his eyes, which were a golden green that reminded her of sunlight glinting through trees. But Danni felt her cheeks flush with warmth, and looked down shyly, busy with her laptop and cables.

“Tight deadline?” he asked.

He’d probably noticed how often she’d checked the clock today.

“For this essay? No. How are your studies going?”

“Great thanks, although it’s sometimes tough to juggle with my working hours.”

“I can imagine,” Danni nodded, thinking back to her summer job, and how tired she’d been at the end of each day.

“See you tomorrow,” she threw over her shoulder as she pulled open the door.

The temperature had dropped, and the wind was picking up leaves as Danni walked to the nearest newsagents to buy Aunt Phoebe’s card.

Lying in bed that night, Danni was still struggling with disappointment that Matt hadn’t shown. Had she given him enough notice though? He might have only got her letter today, she reasoned. The post is notoriously slow. To get away on a weekday, he would need to book the day off or swap shifts with a colleague. This logic lifted her hopes again, and she convinced herself that Matt had wanted to come, but her arrangement had been too short notice.

Matt would be able to visit next week. All Danni needed to do was be patient, and sit in the cafe at three o’clock next Thursday.

[To be Continued …]

Chapters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

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