WATTY WINNER!
Life has dealt city girl Olivia Porter a series of bad hands, but just as she's about to fold, fate intervenes and leaves her with a full house. Out of other options, she takes a gamble and moves to the countryside, hoping Lady Luck wi...
The next day, the alarm on my phone rang at seven, and I shut it off and burrowed under the duvet. I didn't want to face the outside world that day. Or, in fact, ever.
A message from Tate at eight woke me up again. Apparently, he'd arranged a glazier, and Tate must have had some clout because the guy hammered on the door twenty minutes later. I threw on a dressing gown and ran downstairs, where I thanked him profusely as I made us both cups of tea.
"Made a bit of a mess, didn't they, love? Bloody kids."
Another who was quick to write my problem off. "Have you seen this a lot around here?"
"A couple of villages over, they chucked a rubbish bin through the window of the chippy."
Could I be overreacting?
An hour later, I had a shiny new window, and the man waved to me as he climbed into his van.
"Wait—how much do I owe you?"
"Nothing. All been taken care of."
"By Tate?"
"You want to hold on to that one, love."
Wonderful. Although I appreciated Tate's generosity, his gesture would hardly do much to quash my new reputation as a gold-digger. I wished he'd asked me first so I could have declined his offer.
Rather than risk the wrath of the village, I stayed home for the rest of the morning and listed as many new items as I could on eBay. And while rummaging at the back of the dining room, I found treasure under a pile of zebra-print onesies. A shiny red mountain bike had been hidden from view while the burglar did his worst, still with pristine tyres and plastic sleeves over the paintwork.
Why had Aunt Ellie bought a bicycle she'd never ridden?
Good grief, why was I even asking myself that question? The woman had also bought a set of musical garden gnomes, each dressed in a different coloured bikini, for crying out loud. That line-up made the bicycle look relatively normal.
My discovery meant I now had wheels. Slightly labour-intensive ones, granted, but I didn't have to rely on the bus anymore. A bubble of laughter escaped at my unexpected freedom.
Although I wouldn't be trying my new ride out today—the gloomy sky outside threatened a downpour, and the branches of the old tree outside the window scraped on the rain-speckled glass as the wind did its worst. The thought of venturing beyond the front door made me shudder.
Instead, as the heavens opened, I went full hermit and curled up in bed again, watching a film about guinea-pig commandos on the tiny portable television in Aunt Ellie's bedroom. For a minute, I regretted selling the giant TV from the lounge. If I had to live as a recluse for the rest of my time in Upper Foxford, the extra definition would have been a bonus.
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The black clouds over Upper Foxford had lifted by the next morning, and after a good night's sleep, a little of the darkness in my mood floated away with them. It was time to try out my new bike. And the new gloves and scarf I'd found in the piles of peril, because it was chilly outside.
