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E is for “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining” – Just a romantic story ala Hallmark

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I was once told that there are five ways of doing something,

The right way

The wrong way

My way

Your way, and,

The way it should have been done!

For the better part of my life, I always believed my way was the right way, and that was fine while I was responsible only for myself.

Once you add someone else to the equation, then suddenly, everything you do becomes far more complicated.

So, how did that happen?

The first tendrils of light were flickering through the window, between the cracks on the curtain.

I couldn’t sleep, not so much because the bed was uncomfortable, but because of the decisions I had made.

I looked at the calm, serene expression on the face of the woman I tried ever so hard not to fall in love with.  In my line of work, there was no room for such sentimentality.

Being a lone wolf was a necessity.

Those words rolled around in my head, over and over I heard Rawlings speech the day we began, that first day of the rest of our lives.

Do not get attached to anyone, anywhere, anything.  Do not live in one place, do not have a regular pattern of movement, do not stay in one particular hotel more than once, do not drive the same car.

If you believe you’ve been compromised, go off-grid.

Where we were was as off-grid as you could get.

It wasn’t so much that I had dragged Penelope into this mess. It was more that she had invited herself along for the ride.

Two nights before, I sent a message to say I needed to see her.  She suggested dinner and picked a restaurant, small and easy to blend in and at the same time keep an eye out for trouble.

She had recognised my preferences.  That should have been a red flag, but I let feelings into that equation.

I arrived first, doing the mandatory check outside for anything unusual, then going inside, assessing the threat level and exits, and then sitting at a table near the rear.

It was the first time I wondered if there would be a time in my life when I could stop looking over my shoulder.

Penelope arrived ten minutes later, knowing I didn’t like arriving late, dressed plainly so that few people registered her arrival.  Those that did, I noted.

She saw me, smiled, and came over after a brief word with the waitress who had ushered me to the table.

The waitress followed with a bottle of champagne and two glasses, poured, and left us alone.  A quick glance around the room didn’t identify any problems, but with Penelope sitting next to me, my judgement was compromised.

She took a sip and did that little shiver thing every time she first sipped her champagne, and then said, “What is so urgent I had to drop everything?”

She had one of those mesmerising voices that could take you down a rabbit hole and never want to come back.

I shook my head, trying to clear it.  It didn’t work.

The speech I had rehearsed in my head sounded appropriate … in my head.  Now, in front of her, it sounded ridiculous.

“I have to go away.”

“So.  You’ve done that before.”

“Permanently.”

Expression change, not happy.  When she frowned, it was like the darkness setting in.  “Where?”

“England.”

“Why?”

“It was always a possibility, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

“When?”

“Tonight.  It was just sprung on me.”

“So …”

“I can’t do long distance, and I couldn’t ask you to come with me.  You have your aspirations, and that promotion is just around the corner …”

“We should break up?”

It’s definitely not a happy face now.

“I don’t want to, but there’s practicality in play.  I don’t want you to lose what you have worked so hard for “

“Then don’t go.”

It wasn’t an option, and I couldn’t explain why.  And if I did, she would be out the door so fast her feet wouldn’t touch the ground.

“I don’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.”

And whilst that might be true, I was not going to get the time to argue the point.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement by the door.

Two men, scanning the room, stopped on me.

I sighed.  If I was on my own, it would simply be a matter of sliding down and getting out the rear entrance, not six feet from where we were sitting.

An extra body, not sitting closer to the door, and now a target, just proved Rawlings statement.  The thing is, she was not going to become collateral damage.

Not today.

They, like me, had stopped to assess the damage, knowing that I was not going to go quietly, and that people were going to die.  Their issue was that other diners had looked up at them and would now remember their faces.  It added just enough of a hesitation factor.

Penelope and I not so much, but if the restaurant had CCTV, that was all moot.  Camera over the front door, camera over the door to the kitchen.

“We have to go,” I said quietly.

She, too, had seen the two men and had instantly recognised trouble.  Textbook thugs, the way Hollywood portrayed their bad guys.

“Who are they?”

“Trouble.”  I had a gun, but using it in this confined space was a recipe for disaster.  I could shoot them, but between me and them was a dozen unpredictable humans.

They hadn’t moved.  A waitress was moving towards them.

I grabbed her hand and, in one fluid motion, slid out of the booth and pulled her to her feet, and then dragged her through the kitchen doorway.

Movement by the door, one shoved the waitress whilst the other drew his weapon, and three shots thwacked into the closing door.

Seconds later, we were through the back door, and the men were in pursuit until I turned, pulled out the gun, and shot the both of them as they came out the doorway.

Not to kill.  It was never my first choice unless I had no choice.

I didn’t give her time to think. I just pulled her along, up another alley to the main street and plenty of foot traffic to blend in.

She had not pulled her hand away.  Yet.

“What just happened?”  She spoke quietly, but not with a hint of hysteria, just breathlessness.

“The reason why I wanted to break up.  I have a past, and it’s about to catch up with me.  Those men would shoot the both of us dead, without hesitation.  Chances are you still have a degree of anonymity, but it won’t last long if you stay with me.”

“What did you do?”

“I tried to save a friend and failed.  He was in trouble, and I thought I could fix it.”

“And made it worse?”

“Things tend to go sideways when I get involved.  Wrong people, bad intelligence, or just plain bad luck.”

I wasn’t going to add it was one of our own people who was trying to find me.  I unmasked him quite by accident.  No one knew he was playing on both sides of the street, and he wanted to keep it that way.

“Then I guess you’re stuck with me.  Tell me you have a plan.”

“You won’t like it.”

“I don’t like the life I have, and I was about to go back home.  Believe me, you’ve saved me from a fate worse than death.”

I was not that sure she had traded up.  I could see the bright look in her eyes, the flush in her cheeks, and adrenaline flowing through her.  When that subsided, everything would be different.

It was a case of damned if you do or damned if you don’t.  I shrugged.  “OK.  Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.”

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©  Charles Heath  2025