of informing other people not to try and get close to her? Her life was complete the way it was and she didn’t need anyone else in it? Now Cait thought about it like this, it made sense as her mother never made any effort whatsoever to make friends or even acquaintances.
A vision of her parents rose before her then. They would sit side by side on the sofa, chatting and laughing together at their own private jokes, not sharing them with her, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was sitting in an armchair nearby. They lived in their own little world that no one else, except under exceptional circumstances, was allowed into. And that was the way they liked it. In the light of this realisation, Cait now knew that all her efforts to regain her mother’s affection and be allowed into their inner circle had been a total waste of time. There were two people only in that circle and no room for any more, not even her, no matter what she did. Maybe her parents had not planned to have her in the first place, she’d just been a mistake, and the mementoes in that box in the safe were not hers at all but her mother’s from when she was a baby.
And then a really awful thought struck her. Having seen the way her mother was with her father, and not having any other couples in her life to judge by, she had assumed that that was the way all women should behave to their men. So when she’d been asked out by a boy she liked the look of, she had always emulated her mother’s behaviour in every way. But suddenly she realised that just because her father was content to have a woman who devoted herself to him, did not mean to say that every man did. It was obvious to her now that Neil hadn’t.
A wave of great sadness overcame her then. Why couldn’t she have had parents who at least took the time to offer her some guidance in life, instead of leaving her to her own devices? Then maybe she wouldn’t be in such an awful mess now. And suddenly she didn’t care about putting the money she’d taken back into the safe, as what did it matter if her mother discovered she’d been snooping? What would she do to Cait? Throw her out, that’s what. Well, she’d already done that. And it wasn’t as if she would miss her parents’ loving arms around her and their support because you never missed what you’d never had, did you?
She didn’t realise that she was crying until Glen asked her, ‘Are you all right, Miss Thomas?’
Cait shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘Not really,’ she uttered. ‘This is all so awful. I feel so . . . so . . .’ The floodgates opened then. Sobbing, she told him, ‘I lied to you. I haven’t got lots of friends. I haven’t got any. I don’t want to end up a lonely old woman. I want people to like me and want to be my friends but I don’t know what to do about it.’ She raised her head then and looked at him imploringly. ‘Help me, will you? Tell me what to do to make people like me.’
His heart went out to her then and he dearly wanted to go to her and put his arms around her, give her a comforting hug. But that wouldn’t be the right thing for him to do. She was, after all, the daughter of the owner of the business and he a mere worker. He felt very uncomfortable with this situation. It was one thing, putting a young woman right on her mishandling of the business, but quite another dealing with a distraught one who needed advice on how to change herself into a better person. Women were better at this sort of thing anyway. He vehemently wished Jan were here now as she’d know how to handle this. But she wasn’t and he couldn’t leave the distraught girl without offering her some sort of help.
Glen said, ‘It’s not easy changing the habits of a lifetime, but if you really want to then the best advice I can offer you is to remember always to treat people in the way you would wish to be treated yourself. Then you won’t go far wrong. Another thing is to take just a second or two