Chapter Thirty-Seven
A week and a half later, Anika pauses to take a sip of water as she looks at her computer screen at work, her mind drifting momentarily to the words she wrote in the diary for today.
Almost the end of my last full week in the radio-advertising doldrums, and as usual the day went off without a hitch.
Annoying that I’m going to be ending on a Monday but then I’m rinsing my holiday allocation until the new job kicks off after the bank hol, so today was just another step towards the new.
The vibe is already different. Things with Cam are great.
We’re like a perfect fit. It’s mad how much all the things I’ve dreamt about are working out exactly as I’d planned them …
It’s true that things are going great – even though the air conditioning in the office is playing up, making the atmosphere just shy of unbearably oppressive in the late summer heat.
Given that, she can understand to an extent why the large man sitting beside her seems unengaged.
She’s bored listening to herself explain yet another part of her handover notes too, but it’s a bit insulting how disinterested this John guy, a temp on a fixed-term contract, seems.
‘And that’s the rate cards, OK? Then it’s best if you can try to keep the advertising accounts summaries as succinct as you can. Everyone except Steph Dawson in Finance is fine with digital, but Steph still insists on getting some hard copies of the reports every quarter …’
She scrolls down to the next bullet point on her list, turning to look at him pointedly.
It’s not long now until her new job begins, and her eagerness has had her making lists of ideas and people to approach for her curating role when she gets home every evening – that is, on the days when she hasn’t been seeing Cam.
Lunch?
Looking down at her desk, a goofy grin spreads across her face when she sees his message illuminating her screen.
It’s rapidly followed by a text from her GP surgery, reminding her that she’s due a blood test and they’ll be sending a suggested appointment.
That swipes the grin away, but Anika ignores the message for now.
She’s also pushed her hospital check-up on another week.
They finally caught her on the phone the other day, but she’s delaying as long as she can for reasons she isn’t totally sure of.
She draws in a breath and addresses the new guy again.
‘Cool, so does that all make sense so far, John?’ she asks, and he nods, shutting the cover of his pad. It contains a total of five lines of notes. ‘Right. We’ll come back to the rest later, then.’
As he ambles away from her desk to continue with some scut-work admin, Anika picks up her phone.
She grudgingly opens the message from the doctor’s clinic first, pursing her lips at the mid-morning appointment they’ve sent through.
‘Tomorrow?’ she mutters to herself, annoyed at the short notice.
But she feels better as she realises that if she accepts it, it’ll likely mean she can blag a work-from-home day on a Friday.
Decent. And she’ll ensure it’s all smooth and worry-free anyway.
She replies to accept and then types a response to Cam’s message.
Sure. Sick of the canteen tho. What do u want to eat?
His reply makes her genuinely blush and she looks up guiltily when she hears Nia’s voice reach her from the communal kitchen, speaking to one of their colleagues.
Sounds delicious. Anika replies, crossing her legs under the desk at the thought of his suggestion.
But I’m prob WFH tomorrow, so * eating in * might be more appropriate saved for then …
Her phone begins to vibrate in her hand and a smile pushes her lips wider as she answers the call.
‘Hey.’
‘My mouth’s watering already,’ Cam says by way of reply.
Anika laughs softly, conscious of her workmates, and lowers her voice.
‘Hmm. Like I said, I was thinking somewhere that isn’t going to tolerate us ripping our clothes off.
’ She thinks for a sec, then lowers her voice.
‘Actually, if I’m not in the office tomorrow, why don’t you take me out somewhere tonight instead?
’ Part of her is eager to be back in bed with Cam, but she also doesn’t want to miss out on all the dating stuff.
Cam tuts jokily. ‘On a school night?’ he says. ‘Oh, ho ho, Ms Lapo.’
‘Mmhmm,’ she says, hedging. ‘Where you taking me to dinner, then?’
He hesitates, and Anika is cautiously intrigued.
‘I was thinking maybe my aunty’s place?’
Racking her brain, she remembers that Cam’s aunt on his mother’s side owns a restaurant that serves Ghanaian cuisine to an eager crowd in Beckenham.
The thought of getting some decent West African food makes her mouth water, but she’s also keenly aware that going to Cam’s family restaurant would likely mean …
‘So … This would be like a meet the fam thing?’ she asks, reaching for her pen and doodling nervous swirls on a nearby printout. He wants me to meet his family …
‘It’s calm,’ Cam says. ‘Aunty Nadia is chill, I promise you.’
The movement of her pen ceases at Cam’s consideration – and, more pertinently, the fact that Anika remembers her secret weapon.
This might be a new level of relationship for her, but there will be no embarrassing slip-ups.
She’ll be her new, impressive self. It also occurs to her that the hesitation in Cam’s voice might be to do with how things are with him and his family – it was clear after Zaya’s death that there was a strain that might never go away.
It makes the invitation seem even more meaningful.
‘The food there bangs, I promise,’ he continues, as if she needs convincing.
‘Great, yeah, sounds good.’ She mocks herself internally for trying to sound nonchalant.
‘OK, I’ll come to yours and get you later. Say, seven?’
Anika takes a breath, then says, ‘Maybe come at half six-ish and dump your stuff for, um, for staying over? Then we can have a drink at mine before we head.’
Cam laughs knowingly but triumphantly. ‘Yes. That works. Can’t wait. See you then, baby girl.’
Anika knows her grin must be particularly goofy when she catches Nia looking at her as she walks by, raising an eyebrow over the rim of the coffee she’s sipping.
This is all heading somewhere good.
But the thought prompts a nervous swoop in the pit of Anika’s stomach.
Later that evening, Anika stands just behind Cam at the entrance to his aunt’s restaurant.
The place is much more elegant than she anticipated, matching the tall, slender figure of Cam’s Aunty Nadia.
She’s dressed in a floor-length column skirt, her top an off-the-shoulder number with a chic nod to traditional dress in its material.
‘Hi, Aunty.’ Anika echoes Cam’s greeting politely. ‘Nice to meet you. This is lovely,’ she adds as she gestures around.
‘Ah, thank you, darling,’ Nadia says, kissing Anika’s cheek.
‘You have this one in the palm of your hand, eh?’ She nods to her nephew.
Cam’s smile is embarrassed as he follows his aunt, holding Anika’s hand to wind around the busy tables to their seats.
He pauses to pull out a chair for Anika, while his Aunty Nadia ‘eh heh!’s with a jokingly raised eyebrow and smile.
‘OK, OK,’ Cam says good-naturedly. The minute they’re seated, a waiter brings over a small selection of food.
‘Just something to get you going,’ Aunty Nadia says to Anika with a wink, her hands clasped together proprietorially.
They order some wine and Cam’s aunt asks if there’s anything Anika doesn’t eat.
She’s glad she barely had time for lunch today in the end, because the implication is that they won’t be leaving with their bellies empty.
Cam sighs, settling in as Nadia finally heads off towards the kitchen, and reaches over the white tablecloth towards Anika’s hand, catching it before she can reach for one of the yam balls in the small dish in the centre of the table. ‘You good, yeah?’
Anika nods. She is feeling comfortable, confident. Content. She smiles, as much from her mind’s alliteration as from the feeling of Cam holding her hand.
‘You?’ she asks, sensing his tension and thinking again of the strain with his family.
‘Never bad with you in view.’
She rolls her eyes, but grins as she tries some of the food already laid out for them and ‘mmm’s in response.
It somehow tastes of a home that felt slightly out of reach to Anika back when she was that girl unsure how to define her place in the world.
It’s incredible that she’s only just now getting started making herself known – and it’s still hard to wrap her head around the circumstances that jolted her into doing so.
Her thoughts drift, uninvited, towards her doctor’s appointment tomorrow, and Anika reaches for her wine glass and swallows some.
Cam watches her as he chews a mouthful of food. He arrived at her flat that evening, with a small holdall that he joked only contained a pair of boxers and a toothbrush – he just wanted to make it ‘ceremonial’. The sensation of seeing him, even after only one day apart, truly lit her up.
‘Earth to Ms Lapo?’ Cam says now, seeing her lost in thought.
‘Hm? Sorry.’ She smiles. ‘I’m looking forward to this. And to later …’
‘Absolutely,’ he replies, licking some sauce off his finger suggestively. ‘How comes you’re working from home tomorrow anyway?’
‘Doctor’s appointment for a blood test.’ Anika freezes as she lifts her glass to her mouth again. She didn’t mean to tell him that.
‘Oh, seen. But everything’s—’
‘Totally fine. It’s completely routine.’
Cam’s mouth sets into a line of query, but Anika steps in again quickly. ‘Anyway … So how was your day, dear?’ she asks jokily.
Cam observes her a beat longer before leaning back in his chair with a light smirk. ‘You mean you weren’t locked in to the show this morning from seven in the a.m.?’