by A. E. Radley
“You need to stay busy,” Natalie told her.
“I’m recently retired,” Olivia explained. Retired was the easiest way to explain it. Between jobs sounded strange, especially when she had no current plans to return to work.
“Wow.” Natalie sat back in her chair and looked at Olivia. “Forgive me, but you seem very young to have retired.”
Olivia smiled. “I owned the company, there was a change of ownership. Now I’m focused on Henry, with Emily being away he really needs me.”
“It must be lonely while Henry is at school.”
Olivia felt her smile fade. “It is.”
“May I ask what your company did?”
“It’s an accounting firm.”
“Oh, that explains Henry’s math skills. He really is exceptional for his age,” Natalie enthused.
Olivia beamed happily. She leaned a little closer. “Let me tell you, it wasn’t always that way. He hated math. And Emily, well, her math skills weren’t up to much. I spent a lot of time with him, changed his perception of the subject. He was just fearful of it. Once we broke down that barrier, the rest was easy.”
Natalie looked at her for a moment. “That’s a real talent,” she said. “One I’d love to have in my class. We have a volunteering program here. Would you be interested in speaking with the class? Trying to break down that barrier for all of them?”
Olivia blinked. “A w-whole class? Oh, I don’t know. I’m not very good with children.”
“I beg to differ,” Natalie argued. “Henry proves otherwise.”
Olivia turned to watch Henry swinging from the monkey bars. She hadn’t thought her actions with Henry were out of the ordinary. He feared something she understood and she’d helped him to conquer that.
“We need more engaged parents,” Natalie added. “People who have a skillset, who can help the kids at a young age. We need to get to them before these fears take root. And, you said yourself, the house is quiet. This would enable to you get out of the house, but still be there when Henry needs you.”
Olivia knit her brow and considered the offer. It seemed like a good suggestion, but she was still not sure. Standing up and speaking in front of a room filled with children struck fear into her heart.
Of course, she was used to public speaking. To adults. Children were a very different matter. A terrifying prospect.
Her terror must have been clear on her face. Natalie grasped her hand again and squeezed it.
“It’s okay, you wouldn’t be on your own. I’d be right here with you,” Natalie explained. “We can speak beforehand, I can explain how everything works and even some basic teacher techniques if you like.”
Olivia thought of her days from the previous week. They had been long and dull. Maybe volunteering would be a way to fill some of those hours. And she’d be closer to Henry. If he did receive a diagnosis, then she would be able to monitor him, ensure that he was being provided the best education possible.
“I think you’re right,” Olivia said. “I need to get on with my life, I can’t just sit at home.” She turned to face Natalie and squeezed her hand. “Thank you, Natalie.”
Natalie beamed happily. “Thank you. It will be great for the kids.”
Olivia shuddered a little. “If I can get the courage to stand up in front of them. I think an introduction to some teacher training would be most appreciated.”
She remembered Emily’s suggestion about making friends with some of the children’s parents. Emily had said it was a great way to socialise with more people. Olivia thought about how proud Emily would be if Olivia managed to make some friends while she was away. Of course, Olivia had friends. But Emily thought most of them were better classified as business colleagues. She was forever pushing her to be more sociable and mix with more people.
She looked at Natalie. The young woman seemed nice. A perfect candidate for a new friend.
“Maybe you could come to dinner?” Olivia suggested.
Natalie’s eyebrows raised. “Dinner… sounds lovely.”
“Wonderful,” Olivia mentally brought up her weekly planner. Not that she needed to. Nothing was happening until Friday evening when Emily got home. “How about Thursday?”
“Thursday is good,” Natalie agreed.
“Do you prefer red or white wine?” Olivia asked. She’d cooked beef for Lucy a few weeks ago only to be told that red wine made her feel queasy. She didn’t want to have to serve white wine with beef again.
Natalie smiled. “Oh, um, either is fine. Would you like me to bring anything?”
“Just yourself,” Olivia replied. She smiled with pride. She’d just managed to make a new potential friend, and without any input from Emily.
Natalie gestured towards Henry. “Will Henry be okay with this?”
“Oh yes, Henry keeps telling me I need to make new friends,” she replied. Since starting school, Henry had suddenly become very popular and was enjoying being the centre of attention. He’d gone from not caring about making new friends to telling everyone that it was the best thing to do.
Natalie licked her lips and nodded. “Good, that sounds perfect.”
“Excellent, it will be great to entertain again. It’s been a while, I might be a bit rusty,” Olivia said. With Emily being away during the week, Olivia’s evening meals often consisted of watching Henry cover his face with some form of pasta sauce.
“As long as it’s not… too soon?” Natalie asked.
Olivia brought up her mental calendar again. There was plenty of time to prepare for a dinner between now and Thursday.
“No, I think it’s perfect timing,” Olivia replied.
Natalie smiled. Olivia noticed her cheeks were starting to redden slightly and wondered if maybe they should open a window.
Before she had a chance to say anything, Natalie coughed lightly. She shook her head as if to clear some cobwebs. “Anyway, you came here to talk about Henry. Have you made a decision on the further tests?”
“Yes, I-I think it’s for the best. If we can help him, then we should.” Olivia let out a nervous breath.
“Great, I’ll get that scheduled. I can book a meeting for you with Mr Palmer. He deals with the tests, so he can explain everything to you.”
Olivia felt a flash of fear. She had only just gotten used to Natalie, she didn’t want to have to speak to someone else. “Oh, I thought we could discuss it? I’d prefer if it was you.”
Natalie ducked her head slightly. “We can certainly arrange that.”
“Wonderful.”
18
Emily jumped at the knock on her hotel room door. She looked at her watch and frowned. Nicole had said she’d be there at half past seven and it was twenty past.
She tiptoed to the door and looked through the peephole. A sigh of relief passed her lips when she saw Nicole stood in the hallway with a cardboard container with two steaming hot coffees.
She opened the door and smiled. “Morning.”
“Hello, how is the new room?”
“Perfect, flowerless,” Emily replied. “Come in.”
Nicole walked in and placed the coffee cups on a table near the television.
“I spoke to the old hotel reception; the flowers were definitely for you. The receptionist remembers someone calling and asking to confirm your room number for a delivery. As you had no other deliveries, and neither did anyone else that evening, it seems the flowers were for you.”
Emily sunk onto the edge of the bed.
“But,” Nicole injected a chipper tone into her voice, “no one knows you are here. And it’s not like they sent you a horse’s head. It was just some flowers, nothing too sinister. Obviously, the way they went about sending them wasn’t great. I’m increasing security at the theatre, you’ll be working there all week. I’ve not said anything to anyone, so I suggest we just carry on as usual and pretend that nothing is going on. That way we’re more likely to spot something out of the ordinary.”
Emily appreciated Nicole�
�s attempts at downplaying the situation. Up until that moment she had convinced herself that the flowers were simply a mistake, a mix-up with room numbers. But now that categorically wasn’t the case. Now she had someone sending her theatre tickets, putting an envelope directly into the bag that she kept with her at all times. And that person had known her hotel room, had even referred to themselves as her secret admirer.
“Who do you think it is?” Emily asked.
Nicole pulled out a chair and sat down. “I was going to ask you the same thing. Clearly someone has taken a liking to you. Have you noticed anything?”
She’d been asking herself that question all weekend. The flight had been a long and sleepless one as she replayed all her interactions with her new colleagues. She didn’t have an answer, but she did have a suspicion. One that she was nervous to voice.
Carl had done nothing wrong exactly. He was just different. Maybe he was trying to be attentive. Maybe it was more. But Emily didn’t want to put his career at risk. She knew that false accusations were very dangerous things. Even when someone was proved innocent, the accusations lingered like a bad smell. She wouldn’t do that to Carl, not without some more evidence.
“I don’t know,” Emily said. “I’ve met a lot of people; I really couldn’t say.”
Nicole nodded. “Well, now we’ll have two pairs of eyes on this. We’ll figure it out together. If there is anything untoward happening, I want you to tell me immediately.”
Emily nodded. As independent as she liked to be, the whole situation had her rattled. She had no intention of dealing with it alone.
“Sorry to be a bother,” Emily said.
“You’re not the bother,” Nicole said firmly. “Someone is bothering you. Don’t feel guilty about this, Emily.”
She smiled tentatively. “I’ll try.”
“How are things aside from this?” Nicole asked, trying to change the subject to lighter things.
Emily was happy to oblige.
“Really well,” she enthused. “I’m learning so much. I see the connection between a lot of things now. I realise I’ve written things that have a good plot, but would be impossible to put on a stage. Every day I’m having new ideas or thinking about how to rework old ones. It’s really exciting.”
“That’s fantastic, and exactly what I was trying to explain to you before. It’s one of those things where you don’t know what you don’t know. But working in a practical environment gives you the opportunity to learn.”
Nicole sat forward and sipped her coffee. “I’m keeping my ears open for any new opportunities, hopefully something in New York. With your new experience you should be able to apply for a few roles. The market is slowing down a bit, but that’s the theatre for you, peaks and troughs throughout the year. I’ll keep listening out for any good fits, and we’ll have a chat about it nearer the time.”
Emily nodded eagerly. Now she’d had a taste of the work, she didn’t want to let it go. While she didn’t like the time spent away from her family, she had to admit that the week had flown by.
“Right, shall we put on a play?” Nicole asked. She held Emily’s coffee out to her.
Emily took the cup. “Absolutely, let’s do it.”
19
“Where are we going?” Henry asked.
“We’re going to pick something up,” Olivia explained.
They’d been driving for twenty minutes and were nearly at the address Olivia had been given.
“What are we picking up?”
“A present for you.”
Henry gasped in excitement, and Olivia couldn’t help but smile.
“Is it a dinosaur?” he asked.
“No.” She rolled her eyes. Sometimes she wondered where Henry got these ideas.
“An alien?”
“No.” Olivia shook her head. “What do you really, really want? What did you tell me this morning you needed or else you would die?”
Henry remained silent. She glanced at him, surprised to see him deep in thought. She turned her attention back to the road and shook her head in dismay. For someone so hell-bent on getting a kitten, Henry was fairly slow on the uptake.
“A KITTEN!” he suddenly screeched.
She winced, both at the pitch and the volume. “Yes, a kitten.”
Henry screamed happily and kicked his feet in excitement.
“All right, Henry. You have to be very quiet when we get the kitten or you’ll scare him.”
“Him? It’s a boy?” he asked, eagerness in his voice.
“Yes, it’s a boy. But you must be quiet. He’s very little and you don’t want to frighten him, do you?”
“I’ll be super quiet,” Henry promised.
Olivia briefly wondered what else she could convince him would be imperative for the kitten’s sake.
“I have a name for him,” Henry announced. “You did promise that I could name the kitten.”
Olivia searched her memory and slowly nodded. “I did. What do you want to call him?”
Henry didn’t hesitate. “Captain McFluffypants the Seventh.”
“Um… are you… are you sure? How about something shorter? Or something—”
“You did promise, Olivia,” he told her matter-of-factly.
Olivia suddenly understood Emily’s smothered smile when she had told her that she’d agreed to Henry’s request for naming rights.
“Are you sure? You’d have to call him that. When he’s outside, you’d have to shout that into the neighbourhood.”
“That will be his official name,” Henry explained. “I’d just call him McFluffypants for short.”
“For short?” Olivia questioned.
“You promised,” Henry repeated.
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Yes, I guess I did.” She was going to throttle Emily when she saw her next. She already knew how this would play out. Emily would be in London, Henry at school and she’d be left calling the runaway kitten’s name through the neighbourhood. Worse still, registering the animal at the veterinary clinic.
“Why did you come to school today?” Henry asked.
She and Emily had agreed not to tell Henry about the tests, in case his knowledge of them somehow changed the results. She didn’t like the idea of lying to him, but she knew it was required.
“I might be helping out at your school in the future,” Olivia explained, grateful for the excuse.
“How?”
“I’m not sure yet, I’m going to discuss it with Na—Miss Costa.”
She looked at the GPS screen and saw that they were approaching the house where she was about to adopt and unfortunately christen a new pet. The first pet that Henry had ever had. The first pet that she had ever had.
“Is Miss Costa going to be your boss?” Henry asked through a giggle.
“Not at all,” Olivia replied. “We’d be… working together. Like a team. She is coming over for dinner on Thursday.”
“Why?”
“So we can talk about me helping at your school.”
“She can pet Captain McFluffypants the Seventh, but only if she is good,” he decided.
“Why is he the seventh?”
“Why not?”
Olivia gripped the steering wheel a little tighter and took a deep breath.
Olivia sipped at her coffee and watched Henry’s face with interest. The kitten had been home for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of running around, exploring, and scratching everything in sight.
Olivia had already purchased and unpacked a scratching post, a bed, and some food bowls. The kitten happily ignored the scratching post but fell in love with the soft bed as soon as he climbed in.
He fell into a deep sleep, no doubt exhausted from the twenty minutes of insane activity.
Henry laid on the floor beside the cat bed. His face was almost touching the kitten’s. Olivia could see that Henry was taking everything in; he was examining every centimetre of his new pet. Watching the kitten’s breathing, staring at the long whiskers on either side
of its face.
But Olivia had experienced Henry watching her as she slept and knew it to be unpleasant.
“Henry, why don’t you let him sleep? You could go and play in your room for a while?” Olivia suggested.
“My room is boring,” Henry said with a sigh. He flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
Olivia looked at the clock on the wall. There was a little time before she needed to start preparing dinner.
“Maybe we could play something together?” she suggested.
Henry jumped to his feet. “Yes! I want to play airplane!”
Olivia looked at him with uncertainty. “Airplane?”
“Yes, it’s fun,” he promised.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She carefully held her mug of coffee, expecting that she’d need a caffeine boost shortly. Especially if the game involved thinking about airplanes.
“We need to go to the dining room,” he explained.
“Okay.” She allowed herself to be led into the other room. She had no idea what playing airplane involved. Since Henry had been at school, he had discovered a few new games that were, apparently, huge amounts of fun. Olivia wasn’t quite so sure. Most of the games seemed to have no rules, and some even seemed to be made up as they played.
Emily said it was Henry’s creativity developing. Olivia disliked the lack of reasoning.
In the dining room, Henry pulled the chairs away from the table and lined them up in rows of twos.
He pointed to one of the chairs and Olivia took her seat.
“You’re flying to Australia,” Henry announced.
“That will take a long time,” Olivia told him. “I have to start dinner in half an hour.”
Henry rolled his eyes. “It’s pretend, Olivia.”
“I see. Will you be the pilot?” she asked.
“No, Tiny is the pilot.” Henry ran from the room and returned a couple of moments later and put Tiny on the floor in front of the chairs.
“Okay… go,” Henry commanded.
Olivia sat on the dining chair with the mug of coffee in her hand, wondering what she should do next.