While I Was Shopping: Part 16

The villa was deserted and quiet and all of the things that made Michael weary, even though he wasn’t doing anything special. The group had split for the day, after a rather irate Terry had almost glassed John in the face because of a problem with direction. It had been passed over as another silly argument, but Mike had realised just how much stress Terry had put himself under, and realised also that he was close to breaking point.

And so they had disappeared, one by one, to take some time from each other and with each other. Gilliam and Maggie had taken Julianne to another beach for the day, John and Graham had wandered off together in the car, hoping to head inland to investigate the local bars, Eric had taken a book, a notepad and a pen and disappeared with a towel and Terry and Alison, after having a lie in, had taken a basket of food and drink and were looking decidedly young as they had waved Michael goodbye as he made his breakfast.

He rested his hat over his eyes as he sat in the afternoon shade on the deck, a cool beer sitting in a glass just millimetres from his fingers.

“Do you mind if I join you?” asked a voice and he lifted his hat with a finger, already knowing whom it was stood in front of him.

“Go ahead, feel free.” He said and replaced his hat, not sure how he should react to her.

Chelsea struggled with her crutches but lowered herself deftly onto a sun lounger and lifted her plastered leg onto it. She took a quick sip of his beer.

“I hate it when it’s so quiet.” She said and looked at him expectantly.

Michael lurched inwardly. What had she done, read his mind or something? “Mm.” He said.

Chelsea frowned and leant back on the lounger. “I suppose I owe you an explanation for yesterday don’t I?”

Michael took off his hat. “You don’t owe me anything Chelsea. Like you said, we lead separate lives now.”

“Yes I know, but I feel I must explain it. I owe you an explanation about why I didn’t tell you I was married.”

He shrugged.

Chelsea turned to look out to sea. “I wanted to come back to you, you know.”

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye but said nothing.

“There were so many times when I was seconds from climbing on a train and heading back to London.”

“Well why didn’t you then?” Mike asked coolly.

She shrugged. “I knew in my heart that it wasn’t time yet.” She paused, “and then I met Eddie.”

“And you just forgot about me like that?” Michael asked, his voice rising slightly.

“Of course not Michael. You know I wouldn’t.”

“Well you seem to have got in with him pretty quickly.”

Chelsea laughed gently. “That’s what you think isn’t it?” she said. “You think that our love means nothing to me, and you couldn’t be more wrong.”

He shrugged and looked out towards the water.

“I don’t want us to fall out Michael. I didn’t tell you about my getting married because I didn’t want to hurt you.”

He scoffed. “So you chose to wait till I found out by accident. That’s not what friends do Chelsea.”

“I didn’t want anyone else to find out before you,” she said. “I didn’t want to hurt you that way either, and I still don’t want them to know.”

“So you wanted me to be the first to know so you could rub my face in it? So when the time comes for you to tell our friends that you are in love, married even, you can feel better?”

“I will never feel good about this. There hasn’t been a right moment to tell you Michael.” She said defensively.

“Is there ever a right moment?” Michael asked incredulously.

“Well how can I when every time I speak you shut me out? How can I when every time I catch your eye you look away, or when I ask you something you give me the minimal answer? I’ve tried so hard to tell you so many times, but every moment I think I can I see your face and I realise either that you don’t care anymore, or that it would destroy you if I did say something.” Chelsea stood up awkwardly. “When has there been a right moment between us since I’ve come back Michael?”

He stood up too, his face angry. “Why do you think I’ve been avoiding you Chelsea?” he waved his hands in front of her face. “Hello, welcome to the real world. I LOVE YOU,” he shouted. “I would do anything for you, and I thought that it was reciprocated. I thought you’d come back to me when you were ready for it. I thought that my following you to Scotland and back was proof enough of how much I cared, but obviously there was something I couldn’t provide for you. How can I look at the woman I love, who I haven’t had contact with in over two years, and expect to fall into exactly the same pattern as before?” He sat down almost breathless. “The first I knew of your return was when you walked through the door to Terry’s that day.” He looked up at her with sadness in his eyes now. “You took my breath away even then,” he ran a hand through his hair, “the way you are now.”

Chelsea leant over him. “Michael…” she said softly and he pushed her hand away.

“I guess I know now what you want,” he said sadly, “and it doesn’t include me.” He looked up at her. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the others until you’re ready.”

She touched his face and this time he didn’t push her away.

“Michael…” she said again, but stopped as a shadow passed over them and Ed looked at her sternly.

Michael stood up quickly as though caught in the headlights and felt his muscles tense for a fight.

“What’s going on?” Ed asked slowly.

“Just a heart to heart.” Said Michael and touched Chelsea’s arm gently, sending that familiar shiver down her spine.

“See you later Chelsea.”

She nodded, trying to coax back the tears making her eyes shiny.

Ed came over to her and looked over her face and then finally straight into her eyes.

“I just want you to know I love you.” He said and she nodded, and looked down at her hands.

He touched her chin and lifted it, and brought his mouth to hers.

When he stepped away he smiled. “Do you fancy a drive? I’ve got a hire car and I’m dying to test it out.”

She smiled at him gently then and nodded, and, quickly collecting her things, made her way from the deck and towards the car.

     **************************************************************************************************************

Alison sat up on the deck chair as footsteps approached and she smiled up as Michael sat down beside her. The day had been fun yet exhausting, and after trawling around the island with Terry she’d wanted a little lone time out on the deck to watch the sun go down.

The villa behind them was alive with people, laughing and chatting. Eric and Gilliam had set up the pool table and Maggie, John and Graham were sat on the sofa’s chatting. Terry had disappeared into the kitchen to begin preparing dinner for them, and no one had seen hide or hair of Chelsea since that morning.

As Mike looked out over the sun-riddled sea he sighed, and she wondered if his apparent lack of motivation lately had something to do with Chelsea’s return. He’d certainly been very quiet, but she had noticed his glances in Chelsea’s direction, small smiles when she said things, a sigh when she walked by him, or he heard her voice in another room. Alison assumed that the affair had not begun again with Chelsea’s return, and she couldn’t understand why. She’d barely managed to grab her for a chat, and the conversation had often been curbed before it could begin properly. Chelsea had promised to phone, but she hadn’t, and Alison felt sad that their friendship, which had been so strong before, was beginning to dwindle and fade.

“Had a good day Mike?” she asked softly and he smiled at her softly.

“I’ve had better.”

Alison nodded. “I bet you were up till all hours yesterday at the hospital. It was nice of you to go with Chelsea.” She studied his face intently.

“It’s what any friend would do.” He said in a detached manner.

“So nothing new then?” Alison asked and swung her legs over to one side of the chair so she could face him and still contain their private conversation.

Michael shook his head. “Only that she’s married.”

Alison’s mouth dropped open and she was at a loss for words. Married? How could she be? She hadn’t been wearing rings, she hadn’t said anything, she hadn’t shown her a picture, and she hadn’t been sent an invite.

Michael saw Alison’s wide eyes and shrugged. “So none of us knew, which makes a change.”

Alison spluttered. “But Michael she loves you. How could she marry someone else when she loves you.”

Again he shrugged. “She obviously doesn’t love me then does she?”

She shook her head furiously. “I don’t believe that any more than you do.” She said.

“I don’t know what to believe any more.” Michael said. “But I know his name’s Ed, he’s tall, got dark hair and he’s good looking. He came to the hospital yesterday after they called him. He’s a nice guy and they make a nice couple.”

Alison grabbed both of his arms and leant in closely. “You’re giving up on her Mike. If you love her then you won’t. Don’t give up.”

Michael shrugged her off. “She’s made her choice Ali. She didn’t have to marry him. But she did. She didn’t have to stay away but she did. I was willing to give this all up for her but she wouldn’t let me. Maybe she didn’t want me to begin with.”

Alison stood up as Terry approached and put on her most dazzling smile. “Hello darling.” She said as he approached. He looked stern and she couldn’t work out what was wrong with him.

“Who doesn’t want you?” he asked of Michael.

Michael shrugged. “He was talking about his mother. She doesn’t want him this Christmas.” Alison said quickly, and Terry glanced suspiciously at both of them. He was sick of them whispering in corners, chatting with each other, looking all secretive and excitable. There was something going on and he was going to get to the bottom of it, even if it meant finding out that they’d been having an affair.

“I should’ve realised even my own mother wouldn’t want me back home.” Michael said, and as he put his hand through his hair Terry folded his arms. It was an obvious give away that he was lying when he did that, and that one action made the possibility of his best friend and his wife cheating ever real.

He looked at Alison with almost sadness. They’d had such a good day. They’d been acting as when they had first met in high school, and it had made Terry realise just how incredibly lucky he was to have someone like her. He hated to think that she had deceived him.

“I don’t believe you Mike.” He said seriously and Michael’s eyes darted towards Alison who began to blush.

“Neither of you were ever any good at lying.”

“Terry, there’s nothing to be suspicious of.” Alison said calmly.

He cast her a doubting look and she stepped towards him, and rested a hand on one folded arm.

“So why won’t you two tell me what you’ve been whispering about all this time?”

“We haven’t been whispering Terry.” Michael said.

Terry cocked his head. “That’s funny Mike. It’s all you two ever seem to do these days.” He shrugged off Alison and walked to the balcony and leant on it. “Every time I turn around you’re chatting quietly, whispering, giggling in secret. And you never tell me. You fob me off with some excuse, and what you both fail to realise,” he said and turned around angrily, “is that I’ve known both of you nearly all of our lives, and I know when you’re lying.”

“Terry you’ve taken this all the wrong way.” Alison said and he gave her an icy look.

“But the signs are all there.” He said.

Michael shook his head vigorously. “Believe me, Alison and I are not seeing each other. For one thing I could never do that to you. You’re my best friend and even if she were the most beautiful woman in the world, our friendship means too much.” Michael stepped closer and watched as Terry turned to look out towards the sea.

“She’s been helping me sort some things out, that I should’ve sorted out a long time ago.” Michael said solidly, and he felt Alison’s hand upon his arm.

“You don’t have to do this now Michael.” She said firmly. “My own husband should learn to trust me.”

Terry glanced behind him and then span around. “If you trusted me enough in the first place none of this would be a problem.” He spat, and Alison flinched.

Michael waved his hands. “Wow, you two, please. I’m not having my best friends fall out over me.”

He took a deep breath of sea air and felt it instantly calm himself. He had known that he would have to tell his friends at sometime, and he had known that this moment wouldn’t be easy, but now in the face of the possibility that his secret talks with Alison may be responsible for breaking his best friends’ marriage, he knew that it was the right thing to do.

“The reason I’ve been talking with Alison so much is because she has been helping me sort out my life where love is concerned.” He said and Terry’s mouth dropped open.

“So you have been having an affair then,” he almost choked.

Michael shook his head and even laughed gently. “No, not my love for Alison.” Michael looked firmly at Terry. “My love for Chelsea.”

This time Terry’s mouth opened and closed, and his eyes widened. Then he looked from Michael to Alison and back again and still couldn’t speak, as Michael approached the balcony and leant on it.

“But I don’t understand…” Terry said finally.

Michael looked over his shoulder. “I love Chelsea.” He said bluntly. “There’s no two ways of looking at it. I’ve been in love with her for nearly eight years now. And now she’s married.”

Terry sat down heavily on the sun lounger. “How didn’t I see this?” he said dumbfounded.

“It started before she even came to Python. I met her in a supermarket while I was shopping. We bumped into each other, and from then on in I’ve been completely hooked.” Michael sighed.

Terry shook his head as if to rid it of some fuzz that had built up within it. Then he looked up at his friend.

“Why didn’t you tell me Michael?”

Michael turned around with a sarcastic smile. “We made a pact remember. No interfering with the girls on set on pain of being kicked off the show.”

It didn’t seem possible but Terry’s eyes widened more. “So you have been in love with her all this time and she doesn’t know?”

Michael looked guilty and looked away.

“She knows Terry.” Alison said softly.

It took a few moments to trigger in Terry’s mind and then he sat back down. “And you two have been together for eight years? Even when she had disappeared?”

Michael shook his head. “We were together until the end of Holy Grail filming.”

Terry slapped his hand to his head. “When I shouted at her and she ran off, you went after her and there was this huge argument we could hear.” He turned to Alison. “And then afterwards in the pub, when you kept telling me to go and see him, and I wouldn’t.” He looked at the floor. “I never understood why you gave me the cold shoulder for days afterwards.”

“I wanted you to go and tell Michael that he could go after Chelsea, that he could have Python and could have her too. But you wouldn’t listen.”

Alison shrugged. “You never do.”

“And after the Holy Grail?” Terry asked Michael earnestly. “You went to find her didn’t you? You disappeared for a couple of days and then turned up all unshaven and smelly.”

“I went to get her back, but she insisted that I couldn’t live without Python, and that I would have to choose.”

“And you chose Python!” Terry asked incredulously. “After nearly six years of secret love?”

Michael shrugged. “What would you have done if we had told you? You would have kicked me off the programme that I loved.”

Terry shook his head and put his arm around his friend. “We would’ve done no such thing Michael. How little faith you have in your friends.” He sighed and there was a silence.

Suddenly he leapt backwards from Michael. “Married?” he almost shouted.

Michael nodded and felt silence descend again.

“You promised you wouldn’t tell them…” said a whispery, raspy voice. “You promised me.”

Alison stared at the porch steps where a shadowed figure revealed herself with wide, angry eyes.

“Chelsea, I’m sorry, I had to.” Michael said apologetically and approached the steps. She put up a crutch to bar his way and he stepped backwards to allow her to clamber onto the balcony.

“What I want to know Michael, is why you can freely tell them I’m married now, but three years ago, when it mattered the most, why couldn’t you tell them we were engaged?”

An open-mouthed Terry looked over at his slumped friend. “You were engaged?”

Chelsea looked at him with glassy eyes. “Oh yes, hasn’t he mentioned that yet?” she crept forwards into the light of the villa lounge, which had now gone discernibly quieter. Alison saw the silhouetted figures of Graham and Gilliam in the kitchen window, and she cast her glance to Eric’s bedroom window where he was looking in awe out onto the porch. John’s tall figure had appeared in the doorway and he looked out onto the scene with equal shock as the revelation occurred.

Chelsea flung her arms around. “Until two years ago I had been seeing Michael, regularly, under all of your noses, for more than six years.” She laughed almost hysterically. Alison went towards her but she warned her off with a crutch. As she stepped back towards Terry she noticed another dark figure appear at the side of the Villa, but couldn’t make it out.

“We met in the supermarket, and on our second meeting he said he loved me.” She looked at Michael with an anger he’d never seen in her and he realised that she’d been holding this back for nearly eight years now. All the hurt she’d felt about his treatment, about what had happened between them, and about the things that could’ve been.

“And then you all make this stupid pact that none of you would be allowed to see me.” She pointed at Michael. “And he feels so obligated to you that he finishes with me, only to come running back.”

The porch was collectively holding it’s breath, and Michael looked up at Chelsea with tears on his cheeks.

“We had a beautiful time together for four years at least. We practically LIVED together without any of you guessing.”

“That explains a lot,” John said under his breath as Chelsea sighed.

“He proposed to me when Flying Circus finished.” She stepped out towards the edge of the balcony and let the sea wind caress her jagged nerves. “Finally we thought we could be open with you all. All I wanted was to be his wife, to have his children, to be with him until I died.” She looked at Michael and instead of anger there was sadness there, and she too had started to cry a little. “And then Monty Python rears it’s head and announces there is going to be a film, on the night we were to announce our engagement. So I put my feelings aside again, for another year, to make sure that Michael is happy. Only when the filming is over, I can’t face him anymore.” She turned around to look at all of the guys who had now come out from hiding in the kitchen and in bedrooms to congregate on the porch to hear her story.

“After five years of Monty Python being chosen over me, every time, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I had to go. I had to escape.”

“So you disappeared.” Breathed Eric softly and she looked at him.

“What else could I do? I couldn’t stay and pretend everything was ok when the man of my dreams had once again chosen to do nothing and to let Python walk all over us.”

“I didn’t mean it to…” Michael said and she turned her back on him.

“And now you’re married?” Terry asked and the group members who hadn’t heard this earlier looked at each other in shock.

Chelsea nodded. “Eddie is the only man who put me first, over all things.”

“But you don’t love him,” Michael said solidly. “You love me.”

There was silence again as the group waited.

“I can’t believe we didn’t know about this.” John said finally. “It must have been terrible for you both to have kept this all secret.”

“It was a necessary evil.” Michael said and Chelsea shot him a glance.

“No it wasn’t Mike.” Terry said and touched Chelsea’s arm gently. “You could have always come to us with any problems, and we would never have thrown either of you out of Python. Never. You both mean so much to us all.”

There was a mumbling of agreement and then, one by one, each member of the group hugged Michael and then Chelsea.

Chelsea looked at them all with tears in her eyes and felt a great relief over come her as they hugged her and held her in their arms. Why couldn’t Michael have been brave enough to face this over three years ago?

He looked at her now with familiar love in his eyes, mixed with regret and sadness, and even a smidgen of hope.

There was a loud noise and she looked across the porch to where her husband, with tears and sadness in his own eyes, was clenching his fists.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before Chelsea?” he said in a pained voice.

“Who are you?” asked Eric, only to be tugged away by John who then mouthed ‘husband’.

Ed took no notice of anyone, but fixed his eyes on his wife.

“I couldn’t Ed. It wasn’t important.” Chelsea said.

He shook his head. “Your being in love with someone else is DAMNED important Chelsea.”

She stepped towards him and he stepped backwards. “Ed, can’t you just wait for a minute and let me explain everything.”

He wasn’t listening to her. He looked over at Michael. “I knew that something was up when I walked into the hospital and saw you sitting next to her. I knew you felt something for her but I was gullible enough to think that it was just friendship.”

“Ed, please just listen to me will you?”

“I HAVE BEEN LISTENING!” he shouted angrily. “I’ve been listening for the past fifteen minutes as you’ve explained your little love affair with him.” He pointed vehemently at Michael as Chelsea tried to take his hand.

“Ed, please!”

He shrugged her away. “Why couldn’t you tell me Chelsea?” he asked loudly. “Why couldn’t you tell your husband that you didn’t love him? Was I really that awful that you couldn’t talk to me?”

She shook her teary head and felt her heart break some more. A part of her loved Ed, and she really hated to see him hurting this way. She could feel his pain in his voice and just wished she could turn back the clock.

“Ed, you are wonderful. You’re my husband. It was a part of my life that didn’t matter anymore. It didn’t belong with us, with our love.”

“With our love?” he asked incredulously as the members of Python looked on in shock. “Am I supposed to believe you love me?”

“Ed…” she said pitifully as she clung to his hand and he wrenched it away from her and began to walk away.

“Stay with your lover.” He said solidly as he headed towards the steps and left her on her slumped on her crutches in the middle of the balcony.

There was silence and then she looked up determinedly and shouted, “I love you Ed.”

He paused in mid stride and she could see him tensing his muscles in his neck and arms.

Michael felt his heart snap in two as she uttered the words, and he looked wildly from her to her husband, and then at his hands as if he could use them to help him from dying in any way.

“I love you Edward Garrett.” She shouted again and she saw him drop his head.

“Chelsea what are you doing?” Michael stepped forward and whispered to her.

She looked at him with shining eyes and touched his face with one hand. “He’ll never hurt me.” She said softly before stepping off the porch and towards her husband who was stood, his hands clenched by his sides, and weeping gently.