Chapter 7
Vidya set her prompt to run and looked up. Caleb and Leo had a stack of files each and they were reading through them, making notes. Interestingly, both were making their notes on paper first before typing them up.
She needed to find out more about Caleb. She studied him. With dark hair, he was handsome in a classical sort of way – chestnut curls, square jaw, broad shoulders. Then there was the ready smile. She could see how Udeni would be drawn to him.
How on earth was she, Vidya, going to check his shoulder for a tattoo? Even if he had one, was it the right sort? She didn’t know exactly what she was looking for. It was just too hard.
Her gaze drifted across towards Leo. Unlike Caleb, he was prickly and awkward.
He seemed inscrutable most of the time. The only expression she’d really seen on him was a frown.
Angie’s gossip about him suggested that he was a strange guy – supercilious and pedantic.
According to Angie, he had made more than one of the secretaries cry with his criticism.
Vidya thought about her encounter with him in the file room.
An apology was the last thing she’d expected.
Leo seemed like a proud guy. It must have taken a lot to apologise for slighting her.
In fact, now she thought about it, had he actually said he doubted her?
He had queried her methods, which was fair enough.
Perhaps she had been a little overwrought too.
Once they’d cleared the air, he had seemed a lot nicer.
He was handsome in a different way. Slim, angular and sharp featured.
Striking. She wondered if he ever smiled.
She was still staring at him when he looked up and met her gaze. Vidya jumped, feeling like a guilty student caught by the teacher. Leo’s brows came together and he gave her a quizzical look.
‘I … er … was thinking about lunch,’ she said. ‘When did you guys want to break for food?’
Caleb sat back and stretched his arms above his head. She wondered again how on earth she was going to see his chest to check if he had a tattoo.
‘I could eat now,’ Caleb said.
Leo looked down at his work. ‘Give me five minutes,’ he said.
Caleb nodded and stood up, twisting into a different stretch. ‘Shall we wait for him outside, Vidya? Get some fresh air.’
‘Sure.’
Outside the meeting room there was a foyer with a few seats dotted around.
Patio doors led out onto a large balcony with a few tables and sunshades scattered around.
Vidya and Caleb went out there. Although the sky was overcast, it was still lovely to look out at the sea.
There seemed to be people on the beach, despite the chill.
‘The view on this job is next level,’ said Caleb.
Vidya had to agree. She glanced at him. It wasn’t often she got to talk to him alone. Now would be a good time to ask him something. How to do that naturally though?
‘Do you like the seaside?’
He nodded, with a little smile. ‘We used to go to the seaside on holiday when I was kid. I have fond memories. You?’
She had been with her family too. ‘Just for the day, usually. But when we went to Sri Lanka on holiday, we went more often. The beach there is different.’
‘I bet.’ He laughed. ‘Our beaches must look really lame to you.’
‘Yeah. Especially when it’s windy and cold and everyone sits there huddled against the weather, because you’ve come to the seaside and you’re going to enjoy it, dammit.
’ It was the sort of thing her father would say.
Her mother would put up with it for a bit and then suggest that it was possibly not good for Udeni to be outside in the cold like this and they would end up inside a coffee shop.
‘We spent a lot of time in coffee shops, which … let’s face it, are just the same as coffee shops everywhere else, just with more sand on the floor. ’
They stood side by side, looking out to sea for a moment. What else could she ask him? The main thing she needed was to find out about the tattoo.
‘There’s something about the seaside that makes you want to do something whacky though,’ she said, carefully. ‘Like eat fish and chips or get a tattoo.’
‘What’s whacky about fish and chips?’ He looked genuinely puzzled.
Oh, great, he’d focused on that and not the tattoo part. ‘Um. Nothing, I suppose. I don’t know why I … said that.’ Damn. Damn. Now he was going to think she was weird. She looked up at him, worried.
‘What are you two discussing so seriously?’ Leo came to join them.
‘It seems that Vidya fancies fish and chips,’ said Caleb.
Leo faced the breeze and did up a button on his suit jacket. ‘Why not? We’re by the sea. Let’s do that. Maybe Stella can recommend a place.’
***
Stella suggested a van that was parked at the end of the promenade. They got a cone of chips each. Vidya wrapped her hands around the warm cone and breathed in the smell of freshly fried chips.
‘Salt? Vinegar?’ said Caleb.
‘Just salt please.’ She held it out for him to shake salt into. Leo did the same.
‘You’re sure you don’t want vinegar?’ Caleb swapped the salt for the vinegar container.
‘I don’t know why you’d ruin perfectly good chips with vinegar,’ she said.
‘Exactly,’ said Leo. ‘Why mess with perfection.’
Caleb shook his head. ‘So unadventurous.’
They started walking back. Vidya popped a chip into her mouth. It was hot and salty. The potato inside was the perfect texture of floury. She closed her eyes and gave a little sigh. ‘These are so good.’
She licked the salt off her lower lip and opened her eyes to find Leo staring at her. He looked away. What? Had she embarrassed herself? She had, hadn’t she? Argh. She popped another chip into her mouth and looked determinedly ahead.
‘So, Vidya,’ said Caleb. ‘Have you been at the company long?’
‘A few years. You?’ Good. This was information gathering.
‘Eight months-ish.’ He looked at Leo, as though seeking confirmation.
‘Around that,’ said Leo. ‘But we’ve known each other much longer than that.’
‘Oh? How come?’
Caleb said, ‘We were trainees together, when we first started out. Used to share an office a long, long time ago. Then this guy climbed up the ladder and moved out of private practice into industry. It was nice to meet up again, really.’
Vidya looked from one man to the other and got the distinct impression there was more to the story than that. Interesting. Did she need to know more? Was this going to be relevant to the baby? Probably not, she guessed. ‘It’s nice that you get to work together again,’ she said.
She was eating her cone of chips, as they carried on walking, when suddenly a seagull appeared in front of her face.
She screamed. It screamed back at her. Then the bird attacked the paper cone.
She pulled it away. The paper ripped and her chips scattered in an arc above her.
The gull snapped one up and flew off triumphant.
Vidya swore. In an instant, she was pounced on by what felt like a hundred gulls. She shrieked and threw her hands up to protect her face. Her lovely, lovely chips were devoured in a storm of wings, feathers and noise.
Someone gently pulled her away by the arm.
‘My chips,’ she said, not sure if she was annoyed, scared or both.
Leo stepped in front of her, shielding her from the gulls. ‘Are you okay?’
She shook herself, rubbing the feeling of the gull attack off her arms. ‘I’m fine. Those evil creatures though. Bastards.’
The corners of Leo’s eyes creased at the edges and his mouth twitched upwards, as though he was trying not to laugh. ‘What is it with you and seagulls?’
‘They hate me, clearly.’ It probably did look quite funny to someone watching. She should have remembered about the wicked gulls.
Not far away from the teeming mass of birds, Caleb was laughing. She noticed that he had shielded his chips with his scarf. Leo had covered his with his coat. She was the only idiot who had been walking about with her food on display.
‘Do you want to go back and get another cone of chips?’ Leo said.
Even though she hadn’t eaten enough, she couldn’t face going back to the chip van. She shook her head. ‘I have a packet of crisps back in my room,’ she said. That would have to do.
‘Shall we … head back to the hotel?’ Leo said. She nodded and started to walk, one man on either side of her.
‘You’re welcome to share mine, if you like,’ Leo said. He moved his arm to allow her access to his chips. ‘No vinegar.’
‘I … er …’ She was hungry. There was a time and a place for pride.
‘Thank you.’ It meant that she had to reach into his coat, where he was holding the chips in a hollow, close to his chest. It felt like an intimate thing to do.
Leo noticed her hesitation and moved the cone of chips out a bit, making sure they were still shielded with his other hand.
Vidya reached into the warm space and snagged a couple. ‘Thanks,’ she said, again.
‘You have to guard your food from seagulls,’ said Leo, solemnly.
‘I clearly haven’t developed the same chip-guarding skills that you have,’ she retorted. ‘You guys must have experience from coming here with your parents.’
‘Parent,’ said Caleb.
‘Pardon?’
‘Parent. It was just me and my mum. The sperm donor doesn’t get to be a part of my childhood.’ This was unusually stern for Caleb, who seemed to live life lightly.
‘Oh. I see.’ She filed that fact away to tell Udeni later. Raised by his mum. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to assume.’
Caleb shrugged, the smile returning. ‘It’s fine. Most people assume. I just … prefer to make it clear. It’s important to me.’ He nodded towards Leo. ‘He thinks it’s weird that I tell people all the time.’
Leo offered Vidya another chip. ‘It’s not really necessary to define yourself by your parents,’ he said, mildly.
‘Just because you don’t,’ said Caleb.