Terms of Agreement

30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Aiden

‘ A lright, sign off everyone,’ I said, scrubbing a hand over my jaw, my fingertips scraping across the days-old scruff I’d been too busy to keep in check. ‘Have a good weekend.’ I waved at the camera. ‘We’ll do drinks when we’re all in the office next week, yeah?’ I watched as one by one, and with varied goodbyes, my team exited the call. Maintaining my tired but encouraging smile until, at last, my image was alone on screen.

‘Fuck.’ I sagged into my chair, lazily closing my open tabs and shutting down my computer. It was seven-thirty on a Friday night and, thanks to the ridiculous turnaround time on a driver project, we’d all been working overtime to meet today’s deadline. I rubbed at my neck, rolling my chair away from the desk and lowering my elbows to my knees, frowning at the now blank monitor. It was the third time in two months we’d accepted a project with an unrealistic deadline, all in the hopes of winning clients. I dropped my head forward, resting it on the cool metal of my desktop. We weren’t a start-up anymore; we weren’t that desperate for clients that we needed to be pulling these all-nighters just to get the job done.

My stomach grumbled loudly, diverting my thoughts away from work and towards food. Mum’s japchae had lasted all of two days—the galbi-jim not even that long, and I’d been living off the remnants of my refrigerator since then. I’d managed, but it had meant that I’d spent the last few days eating an odd combination of things that I wasn’t entirely confident could be considered as bibimbap.

I stood, picking up the near-full coffee mug from where I’d left it on the corner of my desk this morning, and made my way towards the kitchen. I didn’t think that I could stomach another bastardised bibimbap, but I really didn’t feel like heading out. I’d just pulled up the delivery app on my phone when the impertinent buzz of the intercom sounded.

Great. All I wanted was to eat and go to sleep… and maybe to shower. But could I do that? No. Muttering under my breath, I made my way over to the receiver next to the front door.

‘What?’

‘Aiden, it’s us!’ a familiar voice rasped. ‘Let us in.’

‘Susan?’

‘No.’ I could practically hear her eyes rolling. ‘The ghost of Christmas Pleasant. Come on, open up! I’m freezing my nuts off out here!’ The sound of muffled laughter chased her words through the receiver. I buzzed to unlock the gate and pulled open the front door to wait. Casting a glance over my shoulder into the living room, I grimaced. There were old mugs and glasses scattered across various pieces of furniture, forming a trail from the kitchen to the desk in the corner of the room. I’d also left my comforter draped across the back of the sofa and, glancing down at my bare feet, I was pretty sure that there was a pair of socks somewhere in there, too. It wasn’t awful, really.

‘Ugh, took you long enough,’ a red-nosed Susan said, hurrying into view and blowing her breath into her hands. Her partner, Gabriel, followed behind her at a much more leisurely pace.

‘Hey Gabe.’ I jerked my chin in greeting as Susan pushed past me, making a beeline for the radiator. I smiled, accepting Gabe’s outstretched hand and letting him pull me into a one-armed hug. ‘What are you two doing here?’

‘It’s quiz night down at the pub,’ Susan called from the living room, hands hovering over the heating.

‘So?’

‘Aiden.’ Susan looked at me like I had the intelligence of a walnut. ‘It’s quiz night. At. The. Pub.’ She spoke haltingly, as if she were giving me time to digest each word in order to make sense of it.

‘But. Why. Are. You. Here?’ I mimicked in a way that I knew set her teeth on edge. She and Gabe lived over in St John’s Wood. There was no reason for them to know about a quiz night in Notting Hill.

‘Susan wanted to swing by and pick you and Charlotte up for a double date,’ Gabe said, intervening before the vein in Susan’s temple made an appearance.

‘Double-dominate more like,’ Susan called out, fisting the air in anticipation of triumph.

‘Charlotte?’ I choked out.

‘Yes, your girlfriend.’ Susan’s eyes drifted around the room, her nose-wrinkling as she zeroed in on one of the no-longer-missing socks peeking out from beneath the coffee table.

‘She’s not here,’ I said bluntly, hoping that would be the end of it.

‘Lucky her,’ Susan muttered before turning back to me. ‘Louise said that you two lived in the same building—so we thought we’d try our luck.’ Fucking Louise.

‘Well, you’re fresh out of it,’ I said with a shrug, moving to gather all of the abandoned cups into my arms. ‘She’s not home.’ Susan’s shoulders sagged momentarily.

‘You can still come though,’ Gabe pointed out, handing me the pint-sized water glass that I’d left on the windowsill.

‘Oh, yes! Do.’ Susan brightened, clapping her hands together excitedly.

‘A Friday night spent third-wheeling? How could I possibly refuse?’ I said, rolling my eyes.

‘Oh please,’ Susan said, waving off my sarcasm. ‘As if you had anything better to do.’ I opened my mouth to argue, the first notes of my bed’s siren song already calling to me from my room, when she cut me off. ‘But you’ll have to change. I’m not going out with you dressed like that.’

‘What’s wrong with it?’ I asked, looking down at my grey joggers and hoodie combo. It was only then that I noticed the small stain on the crotch where I’d dropped something saucy. ‘Fine.’

***

Half an hour and a quick shower later, it was declared that I was ‘almost presentable.’ I’d swapped my hoodie and joggers for a pair of jeans and a jumper, I’d even taken the time to shave, but nothing was enough to undo the effects of three sleepless nights.

‘Come on then,’ I grouched. The sooner this was over, the sooner I could go to bed. I jammed the button for the elevator, ignoring Susan’s animated chatter at my side. We’d only just stepped out of the elevator when a familiar spill of curls pushed through the front door and into the foyer.

‘Oh my God, Charlotte! Hi!’

A pair of emerald eyes looked up from her phone and towards Susan, who was waving cartoonishly. Something in my chest tightened as I took in the purple smudges beneath her eyes. Charlotte looked about as tired as I felt, and I couldn’t stop myself from wondering why.

‘Hi,’ Charlotte returned Susan’s wave with a much smaller one of her own, her delicate fingers covered in a pair of grey woollen gloves. Gabe stepped forward, smiling his big, friendly smile, and pulled Charlotte in for a quick hug and something sharp and restless flared to life in my chest. Susan hurried to follow and when she took a step back, she turned to look at me, an odd expression on her face. Shit. I jolted. Quick to step forward and pull Charlotte into a hug, my discomfort immediately soothed as I wrapped my arms around her.

‘Hello, Cupcake,’ I exhaled, taking a step back and out of the halo of her vanilla-scented shampoo that threatened to overwhelm my senses.

‘Hi,’ she replied with a shy smile, her green eyes locked on mine.

‘We’re so glad we caught you!’ Susan effused, drawing our attention. ‘We were just dragging Aiden out to the pub quiz, and we wanted you to come too.’ Her piercing blue eyes trapped Charlotte in their gaze. ‘Can you?’ Shit. This was not part of the plan.

‘Uhm…’ Charlotte’s eyes sought me out, but I was running on caffeine and a dream and my ability to think on my feet was severely impaired.

‘Please?’ Susan pleaded, reaching out to clasp Charlotte’s gloved hand in both of hers. ‘I need some more oestrogen at the table or the whole night will be spent talking about sports.’ Both Gabe and my eyebrows shot up in surprise. Out of all of us, if anyone was going to be talking about sports, it was Susan. It didn’t matter if it was golf, football, F1, or dressage, if it was televised, Susan was watching and she had opinions on it all.

‘I…’ Charlotte stammered.

‘Come on…’ Susan was all but begging, something I didn’t think I’d ever seen her do. ‘I didn’t get to chat to you nearly enough at the wedding and if you’re dating one of us,’ she said, her ink-black her shimmering as she jerked her head at me, ‘you’re dating all of us.’

‘Okay,’ Charlotte whispered, smothered into submission by a thick layer of Susan’s own guilt-spread.

‘Yay!’ Susan released Charlotte’s hands and pulled her into another hug.

‘Let me just…’ I felt Charlotte’s shoulders tense beneath my fingers. ‘Let me just put this upstairs.’ She gestured to the bag at her side. ‘I can meet you there?’

‘I’ll come with you,’ I said, following her into the elevator.