NINE
FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON
Oliver
I hadn’t planned to invite Alex over for supper the night before. It really had been Noah’s idea, but, admittedly, one I had seized on rather too quickly.
It was just the two of us that day, as I had originally expected to be on my own, Noah with Marsha, leaving me to go out for dinner with Aaron and Dom.
They had called in first thing in the morning to give Noah his presents and had both gone to the Belgravia House for dinner.
It wasn’t the kind of place to take Noah. He would have been bored stiff, anyway.
We were just tucking into the turkey when Noah casually came out with, ‘I wonder what Alex has for dinner today. She said she was out with friends.’
I hadn’t been casual about it at all. What friends? Boyfriend? I had absolutely no right to think like that, which didn’t make it any easier to stop.
I texted her Merry Christmas, and then when she sent the selfie back, I spotted the Hope Street Church banner in the background. A quick internet search soon told me exactly where she was and what was happening there. I couldn’t not go to see her.
In the car, I questioned every decision I’d made in the previous hour and managed to convince myself, almost successfully, that I was doing it because Noah wanted me to.
It was that moment outside the Hope Street church when I saw her run out and scan the street, I knew something was wrong.
It was killing me not to know what was going on, but I also knew that my charging in asking questions she wasn’t ready to answer wasn’t the way to handle it.
I’d worked with enough former military to know you couldn’t push these things.
That didn’t mean I was going to let it go.
And Alex agreeing to supper had felt like a small victory, even if she had no idea I’d entered the battle.
And there I was, the next morning, thinking about her. A lot. I’d re-read her message from last night, Home safely. Thanks for supper, more times than I cared to admit. I hadn’t been able to drive her as Noah had fallen asleep on the sofa and she had insisted on getting a cab.
Now I was trying to think of an excuse to message her again.
Hi Alex, really nice to spend time with you at the community centre yesterday. Great to see what’s
Too formal. I deleted it.
Morning. Sleep ok?
Too personal. Deleted that too.
Happy Boxing Day
Naff. Deleted that as well.
I put my phone down on the worktop and rested my elbows on the counter, head in hands.
This was not good. I needed to get a grip.
I let out a long breath and straightened up.
The TV was playing in the other room, Julie Andrews yodelling about a goat.
I could hear Noah on his game in his room.
Marsha had called yesterday morning, which I suppose was something.
Apparently, she was coming back after New Year and could see Noah then.
We were moving up to Risk at the end of February so there wasn’t going to be too much opportunity for her to see him.
I made a note to subtly remind her of that.
Not for her sake. For Noah’s. Although, another part of me believed he would do just as well living at Risk.
Marsha had the ability to unsettle everyone.
I looked around my apartment. There wasn’t much to pack. I travelled light and didn’t take much with me. I’d been in the apartment for the past six years since I’d split up with Marsha. Noah had the most stuff to bring.
The buzzer to the security gates of the underground car park sounded, interrupting my brooding. I opened the app on my phone and saw Aaron leaning out of his car window towards the camera.
He gave me the middle finger. ‘Come on, I haven’t got all day.’
I activated the system, and the gates slid back so he could pass through in his Jeep Commander.
I pressed the screen a couple more times, releasing the internal garage door, giving access to the lift.
Then I went and took the front door off the latch, before hooking two beers from the fridge. It was lunchtime, just about.
‘Ho, ho, ho!’ Aaron called out as he came down the hallway a few minutes later, his trainers squeaking on the marbled floor.
‘Uncle Aaron!’ Noah came out of his room to give his uncle a hug.
‘Hey there, big man,’ said Aaron, scooping him up and turning him upside down.
‘If he’s sick, you’re cleaning it up,’ I said, fishing out the bottle opener from the drawer and popping the bottle tops.
Aaron put Noah down, who returned to his room. Aaron picked up the bottle.
‘Cheers.’
I followed Aaron into the living room, found the TV remote, and turned off the set, silencing Julie Andrews in mid-flow.
Aaron nodded towards the now black screen.
‘That looked remarkably like the Christmas classic, The Sound of Music.’ He chuckled into his beer bottle. ‘Things that bad?’
‘I wasn’t paying any attention to it,’ I replied.
Aaron said nothing to that. He just looked at me in that particular way he had, like he was running some kind of internal diagnostic. I took a sip of my beer and waited him out.
‘You seem different,’ he said finally.
‘Different. How?’
He thought about it. ‘Less like yourself.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘That’s what I’m wondering,’ he said flippantly.
I threw a cushion at Aaron as he sat down in the chair. ‘What are you doing here anyway? Thought you and Beth were doing something.’
Aaron shrugged. ‘She cancelled.’
‘She okay?’
Beth was an old schoolfriend of Aaron’s.
‘She’s fine for someone who doesn’t like this time of year.’
I sipped my beer. ‘You okay?’
‘Me? Yeah, all good.’ Aaron leaned back in the chair in that easy way of his, one ankle hooked over the opposite knee.
‘Shannon wants me to go to a family New Year’s Eve party.’
Shannon was Aaron’s kind of steady girlfriend.
Kind of because she believed three months made them steady whereas I knew that didn’t match Aaron’s idea of steady.
‘Meet the family, is it?’ I raised my eyebrows in question.
‘She’s a nice girl. I like her a lot, but––’
‘But she’s not Beth?’ I suggested.
‘It’s not that. It’s meeting the family, it’s another level of seriousness. I might give it a swerve.’ He took a sip of his beer. ‘And it’s nothing to do with Beth.’
‘If you say so.’ I was convinced one day those two would get it together. They were made for each other, they just didn’t know it.
‘Anyway, I’m not here for relationship advice,’ said Aaron.
‘What are you here for?’
My phone sounded an alert for the car park. I looked at the screen.
‘Dom? What’s he doing here?’
‘Same reason as me, I suppose,’ said Aaron.
I got up and opened the door for brother number two and grabbed a beer for him. Dom appeared in the room a short time later.
‘You beat me to it,’ he said, taking the beer I held out to him. He wandered off down the hallway, and I heard him chatting to Noah. I looked at Aaron. ‘What’s this all about?’
‘Debrief,’ said Aaron. ‘Want all the details on the recruit and what happened up at Risk.’
‘It’s really not that exciting,’ I said.
Dom came back into the room and sat down on the sofa. ‘So, we have a new member of staff?’
‘Yeah. Alex Cartwright. New medic,’ I said. ‘Aaron was there at the start of the interview.’
‘How was she up at Risk?’
‘Highly efficient. Didn’t take any shit from Grainger. Got on with Paddy. She’s going to fit in well.’
I watched my brothers exchange a look, and I knew I was in for some stick.
Aaron couldn’t resist. ‘So, the extended interview went well?’
‘Yes.’
‘Just how many days was it extended for?’ asked Dom.
I sighed and flopped my head back against the sofa. ‘Noah. The little shit.’ He’d clearly ratted me out.
‘What’s that?’ asked Aaron.
‘Apparently, the interview went on yesterday as well. She got through the first round and was called back for a second interview and for supper,’ said Dom. ‘That was after Oliver drove across London like he was auditioning for The Fast and the Furious.’
‘It was nothing,’ I said.
‘No such thing as nothing,’ said Dom.
‘Oh, it was something,’ said Aaron. ‘If you invited her over for supper, it was definitely not nothing.’
‘She was on her own. It was Christmas Day. I’ve done it before for Paddy and Grainger for that matter,’ I said, trying to sound casual.
‘Except it wasn’t them,’ said Aaron, unable to withhold a laugh.
I picked up my beer. ‘This conversation is over.’
‘Boy, this is going to be fun,’ said Aaron. He raised his bottle towards Dom. ‘Ringside seats.’
‘Front row,’ agreed Dom.
I said nothing. Which, as Aaron would no doubt point out, was not nothing at all.
The next few days passed quietly. I took Noah to the cinema, and we ate out at a pizza place afterwards.
We went to the skate park, where he raced around on his scooter.
The damp weather never put him off about going out.
It reminded me of when I was a kid, before Dad left.
Dad would take the four of us out for hours on end to keep us from getting under Mum’s feet.
After Dad left, I tried to do the same. Herding my younger brothers up and hiking out to the woods where we’d build camps and make a small fire to melt marshmallows over.
My childhood was clearly divided into two separate eras.
The Before Dad Left and the After Dad Left.
My adult life had similar distinctions. Before Noah and After Noah.
Before Marsha. After Marsha. Each was neatly packed away.
There was still Will, though. I had a before for him, but no after.
‘Hey, Dad! Watch me!’
My attention was redirected to Noah. I watched him scramble up to the top of one of the higher ramps, dragging his scooter behind him.
Then, with a quick glance to check I was still looking, he put one foot on the scooter and footed himself down the steep slope.
I inwardly winced while outwardly cheering him on.
‘Good stuff! Well done!’
Noah beamed back at me, and my heart filled with love for that kid. He was a balm to all the Before and After compartments.
Over the break between Christmas and New Year, I had checked the hospital where Grainger was.
They were going to let him out, but only if he had someone to look after him.
I could just imagine how he felt about that.
I thought about Alex’s offer to go up to Risk and stay with him.
If anyone could put up with him, it was her.
And although Grainger grumbled like hell, I knew he liked her, really.
It also gave me a good excuse, no, make that reason, to get in touch with Alex again. I could have just texted her. I could have called her. And yet, here I was, walking down the road to Hope Street Church on New Year’s Day, holding Noah’s hand like he was some kind of lucky mascot.
I pushed open the internal doors to the hall and immediately saw Alex setting out the tables and singing along to “Don’t Stop Me Now”. There was something unguarded in that moment. Then she looked up, and she was all business again, even if she was smiling at us.
‘Oliver. Noah.’ She put the small stack of chairs down that she’d been carrying. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you here.’
‘Happy New Year,’ I said. ‘Thought we’d come over and see if you needed an extra pair of hands or two.’
Her smile broadened. ‘We never say no to extra hands.’ She looked back over her shoulder, calling through to the kitchen. ‘Bernie! We have two new recruits for lunch service.’
‘I knew it!’ Jules appeared at the counter. ‘I knew you’d be back.’
There wasn’t much point in denying it.
‘Glad to be of service,’ I said simply.
‘Ah, Oliver, my man.’ Bernie came through to the hall and greeted me in the same way as the week before but tagged on a bro-hug. ‘Good to see you.’ He looked down at Noah. ‘And Noah, you too.’ He held out his hand and fist bumped him. ‘Right, let’s put you to work.’
New Year lunch was just as busy as Christmas Day, and the time flew by. I really enjoyed the day, and I got a chance to speak to Bernie afterwards about the whole project.
‘How do you fund this?’ I asked while we folded away the tables.
‘Donations. We got some funding from the local council, but that’s all stopped now.’
‘How’s that going to impact you going forward?’
‘Pretty hard. We won’t be able to provide so many meals, basically. It will depend on what money we have in the bank.’ Bernie let out a sigh. ‘But we will do what we can. Like we always do.’
‘Look, maybe we can get our heads together at some point over the next few weeks,’ I said. ‘I’d like to make a donation. What you’re doing here is really important for the community and those who need it.’
‘Thanks, man. That would be much appreciated. We’re grateful for all donations.’
As we finished clearing away, I was already allocating a figure for the donation. It needed to be sizeable and regular. I’d speak to Aaron and Dom after the break and see if we could come up with a five-year proposal.
‘Looks like we’re all done,’ said Alex, coming over to me. ‘Thanks so much for turning up today. It was a nice surprise.’
‘We enjoyed it, didn’t we, Noah?’
‘I must admit, I was surprised to see you. I thought you’d be nursing a hangover. Most people are on New Year’s Day.’
‘I had better things to do.’ I shrugged. ‘What about you?’
‘Same.’ There was a small beat of silence as we both stood awkwardly for a moment. Alex broke first. ‘How’s Grainger?’
‘Funny you should ask, I wanted to speak to you about him.’
‘Sounds ominous.’
‘Nothing to worry about. He’s good. It was about your offer of babysitting him. I didn’t know if you were serious. You’d be paid, of course. I can get your contract sorted as soon as Cheng is back in the office tomorrow.’
I watched the surprise on her face and then a flicker of what looked like relief.
‘I was one hundred per cent serious,’ she said. ‘I know he won’t like it, but I know he can’t manage on his own either.’
‘If you’re sure? I don’t want to put you under any pressure,’ I said.
‘I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. When is he being discharged?’
‘I’ve persuaded them to keep him in for another couple of days until I can get someone up there.’
‘I can literally go tomorrow.’
‘You can? What about working your notice for your job, wherever you’re living? Don’t you have to give notice there?’
She looked a little uncomfortable for a moment before replying.
‘I’ve already left my job. It was only a temporary contract, and my room, I’m on a rolling monthly contract, so I can leave anytime, really.’
‘I can get someone up there for a week or two if you want a bit of time to sort everything out.’
‘No.’ She said the word before I had even had time to close my mouth. ‘I can be ready by tomorrow morning. I just need to sort out my bag. That’s all. Everything else I can deal with remotely.’
I studied her for a moment. Who could drop their whole life with less than twenty-four hours’ notice? Alex Cartwright, it seemed. And it clearly wasn’t something she’d just come up with. What I was hearing was a pre-prepared escape plan.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Paddy will pick you up at ten.’
‘I can take the tube.’
‘Not with all your stuff.’
She looked like she might protest again but seemed to relent. ‘Paddy at ten, it is.’
‘I’ll arrange for Grainger to be discharged the day after, give you a bit of time to settle in. Paddy will stay until Grainger’s sorted. That sound okay to you?’
‘Perfect.’