Not Another Broken Doll

Chapter 15

“I don’t believe it” Matthias said as he stared at the news on his phone. Chris was shaking, unable to fully process what he had just read. For an instant he was glad they were both in the back. “How could anyone be so twisted?”

“She called him rat. She was being kind.” He felt his hands clasp into fists on the countertop.

“You need to keep your cool now” Matthias tried to reach through “she’s safe now, and he’s in custody.”

Chris could feel his blood boil. “How could he do that?” he asked “He had her entire trust and he did that to her. How dare them question her credibility? What a bunch of vultures!” He hit the surface of the countertop in frustration.

“You said it: they’re vultures. Have you called her?” Matthias asked. Chris had stared at his phone for five full minutes but could not make the call. He was too angry. Matthias put a hand on his friend shoulder and said “Chris. Call her. Check she’s alright.”

“You’re right. I’ll call her.” He took his phone in his hand again and looked at it for another two minutes. He was too mad to talk, but he still wanted to know. Matthias left him alone and went to the front to prepare the shop for opening. Chris realised he was too upset to talk.

“Hey! How is sunny Barcelona?” He texted. He felt his blood pressure get lower when he saw the three dots dancing in his screen.

Ruth: “Sunny, and full of tourists. ”

Christoff: “I bet you didn’t miss that much.”

Ruth: “Definitely not. How’s Hamburg?”

Christoff: “Boring as always. I’ve been checking the news and little else.”

Ruth: “You know.”

Christoff: “Are you alright?”

His phone rang. “Frau Spain” shone on the screen. He picked up.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t tell you…” Her voice on the other side of the line is exactly all that Chris needed to hear. “I have issues trusting people.”

“Stop, nobody can blame you. Tell me, is there anything I can do to help from here?” Chris asked, more for himself. He needed to be occupied. He knew Ruth could hear the anger in his voice. She took a moment to answer.

“You can tell me how Hannah is doing?” Ruth said. She knew Hannah was going to go to the café today for some extra cake after another episode of Marco and Haruki. She had texted him to request he kept a good piece for her.

“She’s heartbroken. I can beat that Marco up if that cheers you guys up” Chris offered. “But cake seems to help. She didn’t want to speak about yesterday evening, so she asked me a lot of questions about our lunch times together. She calls them ‘lunch dates’?” He could hear Ruth giggling on the other side. He felt his anger fade away.

“She’s a bigmouth sometimes” Ruth said. “Look, I am glad you’re doing fine over there…”

“Don’t hung up yet” he said hurriedly “I wanted to ask you, Saturday…” he could hear Ruth’s breathing on the other side “Would you like to grab some dinner after the concert? You still owe me a few meals.”

“We can see how this goes here before I come back. Can I tell you tomorrow?” she asked.

“Tomorrow sounds fine.” He responded, knowing that meant he would speak to her again. “You go hunt the rat.”

“You go make some people happy with your food” she answered. Chris smiled as he heard the click of the communication ending.

He looked at his phone for a moment. Was he being an absolute fool for believing there was some other world in which he and Ruth could be together, happy? He was, he told himself. He should feel lucky he even got to meet her now, even after finding out about her past, if that was all the story anyway. But the past had never given him anything good, so he only had the present to work with. And in the present he had some cooking to do.