believe he was here in her flat, all her fantasies turned to flesh and blood. However, the shock and awe were fading rapidly to be replaced by the same fear that had driven her to make a clean break with him in the first place.
‘Dirk. It’s wonderful to see you, naturally, but why are you here at all?’
‘I want to talk to you face to face. I read this.’ He thrust a copy of the newspaper at her. ‘Is it anything to do with me or am I making a massive dick of myself?’
Tiff shook her head before touching the lapel of his coat. ‘Oh Dirk, how many other people have I left a piece of my soul with?’
His smile was the widest she’d ever seen and he started to read from the newspaper.
She put her hands over her ears. ‘Oh, don’t. Don’t, please.’
He ignored her.
THE END OF THE WORLD
Tiffany Trescott on how being in exile saved her life –
and broke her heart again
I was sent into exile earlier this year. Against my will, I was despatched to the end of the world – otherwise known as the Cornish harbour town of Porthmellow. A brush with high politics ended in disaster. I lost my job, my reputation, my partner and my home.
But I found my self-esteem – and at the risk of turning into a pound shop Pollyanna, I realised what truly mattered to me.
If you’re looking for a happy ending, there is and there isn’t one.
The fact I’m writing this piece, back in the offices of the Post, tells you that I clawed back some part of what I thought I’d lost forever. My career – being a journalist and hopefully a teller of truth does matter a great deal to me. Losing my job on a bleak day at the end of winter was like having my heart ripped out and fed to the crows.
It felt like my soul had been torn away although I now realise I didn’t know how much pain I was in until I lost all the other things. I chose not to share that loss for a long time, but if I really do believe in telling truth, I must shine a light on that pain now.
I don’t know if I’ll get another chance at love. I’d like to think so. The past few months have shown me it’s fine to dream other dreams …
I don’t need a partner to be happy, successful or fulfilled.
And yet … I left something elemental behind in that little town at the edge of the world. I’m not going to say who it was, but if that person is reading this, I want them to know that they will always be with me, wherever I go. A piece of granite lodged in my heart. A grain of sand that I will never be able to remove.
Finally, he stopped and dropped the paper on the table. Gently, he removed her hands from her ears. ‘Granite? Sand?’
‘It sounds ridiculous now you say it out loud.’
‘Ridiculous?’ His gaze was intense, a searchlight that she couldn’t hide from and didn’t want to. ‘So, did you mean it?’ he demanded. ‘Do you?’
‘Of course I do!’
He kissed her and she kissed him back, drinking him in deep until she thought she might bruise his lips or hers or both.
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah, well, it’s been a long time.’
Gently, he pulled her down next to him on the sofa. ‘I have something to say that can’t be said over the phone and I knew that if I tried to write it down, you might dismiss me or misunderstand. The only way is to tell you … I’ve been for a job interview up here.’
‘In London?’
‘Don’t look so surprised. There are four lifeboat stations along the Thames alone, plus the ones along the coast in Essex and Kent. There’s a place for a full-time mechanic come up at Gravesend so I applied and got an interview. I’ve come from there now.’
‘That’s, um … that’s intriguing …’ Tiff dared not acknowledge what she hoped and feared he meant in almost equal measure. ‘How do you think it went?’
He shook his head. ‘Pretty good. They were interested because I used to work at the City station, obviously, and I’ve a lot of experience of the river and the class of vessels they operate.’
‘That sounds positive,’ she said.
‘I think so. I’m optimistic about the job, but what I came here to ask you was how you feel about it? About me,