‘Yeah . . . I mean no. No, not really. It’s about that black rucksack I have. The one I put all the Starboys in? I woke up this morning and I can’t find it. I was hoping that you might have taken it home with you by mistake?’
‘Mate, I’m sorry. I don’t. Don’t even remember the bag.’
‘Baz, please say you’re winding me up?’
‘Look Freddo, mate. I have a stinking headache and I have to take Maisie horse-riding in half an hour. I don’t have your comics. Have you tried Wayne?’
‘You go horse-riding?’
‘No. I take Maisie horse-riding. I’m going to sit in the car and have a nap. Give Wayne a bell. Or try the pub? Maybe they have a lost property box or something?’
‘Yeah, no. That’s a good idea. Sorry for the call. Speak soon?’
‘Yup. Right. OK. Speak soon. Bye.’
Baz sounded really different over the phone. He remembered University Baz, the Asgardian lord of tits and wine. Phone Baz was tired. And a dad. A dad who took his tiny daughter horse-riding at weekends.
The pub. That was a good idea. Calling a stranger was ten times worse than calling someone he knew, and normally something that he would have avoided altogether, but just the glimmer of hope gave him motivation to push on. Like when someone in an accident gets the strength to lift a car, Freddie thought. This was exactly like that.
Praying that there’d be someone available to answer at the pub at this time on a Saturday morning, Freddie searched online for the details, and tapped ‘call’.
Chapter 2
‘You haven’t found a replacement yet, have you?’
Lindsey’s nose looked disproportionately large on Kate’s phone screen, the camera set at an angle that Kate found endearing on her ex-flatmate, but was certain would look hideous on herself. Kate had in fact spent a little too long adjusting herself on the sofa, holding her phone out at uncomfortable angles until she was certain that the screen wouldn’t reveal two chins or the heaviness of the bags under her eyes. She knew Lindsey would have called her out on the latter instantly if she had been there in the room with her. Which she wasn’t.
‘You’re a tough act to follow, you know,’ Kate replied.
‘What about your friend from work? Renee?’
‘I asked her, but you should have seen her face when I told her the rent. I think it’s out of her price range.’
It was out of Kate’s price range too, and her heart made an uncomfortable lurch as she considered it.
‘What about your old friends from school? Elise or India or one of that lot? Or there’s always Pippa . . .’
‘Are you serious? Didn’t you tell me she was living in a commune in Thailand?’
‘Hey, I’m not so far away from her now, maybe I should pop over and say hello.’
‘I think we’ve both had enough of Pippa for a lifetime. But getting in touch with the others might be a good call. I’ve let things slip a bit with them; do you think it would be weird?’
‘Only if you made it weird.’
Kate missed Lindsey so much. The flat felt horribly quiet and empty without her.
‘Look,’ Lindsey started. ‘I know that you don’t like the idea of sharing with a stranger, but I don’t think you really have much choice at this point. It’s get someone else in, or, you know . . .’
Or get out, Kate thought.
There was the heart lurch again.
‘But anyway, I don’t want you worrying about all that,’ Kate said, trying to push the dangerous thoughts aside. ‘Tell me about Hong Kong.’
‘It’s humid,’ Lindsey grimaced. ‘Look at my hair.’
Lindsey brought the camera out away from her face to reveal an aura of dark frizz. She made a face and started laughing.
‘It looks fine.’
‘It’s a mess! But apart from the hair situation, it’s good out here. A little hectic, they’ve thrown me right in at the deep end, but otherwise, it’s all good.’
‘If anyone can handle it, it’s you.’
‘The hair or the job?’
‘Both, you loon.’
Kate’s laugh turned into a sigh, one she hoped Lindsey didn’t notice.
‘There’s something else,’ Lindsey said, her voice softer, the whisper of an excited child.
‘Go on?’
‘I’m going on a date tonight.’
‘What? You’ve only been out there a week!’
‘I know. Work took me out for drinks last night, and there was this guy I met at the bar, and I don’t know . . . maybe it’s the new location, or the excitement and novelty? But I thought, why wait to settle in? What’s stopping me?’
‘Wow. Where are you going?’
‘I don’t know. He’s picking me up in a couple of hours.’
‘Lindsey, how do you do it? This is incredible.’
‘It’s just a date. No big deal. At worst, at least it’s a way to find out a bit more about the city.’
‘And at best?’
‘You know I’m not going to let myself get all distracted by that kind of stuff. I’m out here to work. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun too.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ Kate said with more enthusiasm than she felt.
The conversation collapsed for a beat. Lindsey seemed distracted by something just beyond her phone’s camera, and Kate felt like she had nothing to add, like she was suddenly very far away.
‘I’d better get going,’ Kate said finally. ‘You’ve got to get ready for your date, and I’ve got to head to work.’
‘I forgot that you have to work weekends.’
‘I’ve forgotten what weekends are.’
‘Well, I hope you have a good one. I’ll speak to you tomorrow, OK?’
‘I want all the juicy details please.’
‘Of course. Love you, hun.’
‘Love you too. Byeee!’
Kate put the phone down beside her and felt the silence of the flat once more. Shelves were half full, drawers half empty. The flat echoed from having half its stuff taken away from it. At night it was especially unbearable; it didn’t feel like home any more.
Staring at the ceiling, Kate thought about her options. Plan A, living there alone, was never going to be a real possibility, and Plan B, getting another good friend to move in, was proving to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. That left Plan C, the option that would involve the biggest hit to her pride . . .
But no. The emptiness was fine. Kate was fine. Everything was absolutely fine. It had to be.
Sometimes on her commute, dressed in her expensive coat and scarf from the time when she was paid a proper salary rather than by the hour, Kate could pretend that she was still someone important, with somewhere to be and people to meet. Nobody could tell that underneath was her Central Art Gallery uniform, and the only people she would be meeting that day were ones asking for directions to the nearest toilets.
The truth though, was that the coat was getting tighter and the uniform harder to hide. Kate had never been thin, at least not to a degree that she ever felt content with, but she’d never been this heavy either. It made her resist looking in mirrors sometimes, made her dread picking out clothes. Not that she felt the impetus to do anything about it. Lately it had felt a bit as though letting the world drown her was so much easier than pulling herself up and out.