For the first time since entering the office Henry met Ronan’s gaze squarely. ‘Then I have to tell you that I don’t have money for a court case. I’m not being greedy or mean. I don’t have the money. If you pursue this you’ll close us down.’ Desperation crept into his voice. ‘You know a competitor set up in spring. If I can shed all the expenses and obligations of an employee it will help.’
‘So you’d shaft the guy who helped you build up this company?’
Henry literally wrung his hands. ‘I’ve gone about this the wrong way and I apologise. I’ve been clinging on by my finger ends and I thought I saw a lifeline so I had to follow the old saying about there being no place in business for friendship. But do you actually want to put me out of business?’
His words rang in the following silence. Ronan’s mind churned. Although Henry had acted like a weasel he was probably speaking the truth now his optimistic little scheme had been uncovered. It had often taken Ronan’s cool head to manage cash flow so he wasn’t sure why he was so shocked to hear that Buzz Sightseer was flying close to the wind. It was a bitter pill that the unconventional solution Henry had seized upon involved hanging Ronan out to dry, but that didn’t mean he’d willingly be the one to put Buzz Sightseer under, throwing Cindy, Janine and Liam out of jobs and losing other pilots significant flying hours.
One way or another, Ronan was going to be looking for a new employer before too long.
He shook his head in disgust. ‘I can’t resign or people will assume my forced landing was pilot error. You’re going to have to find the money to make me redundant. But first, on my existing contract, you’re going to put me through my base and align check so that I’m current when I apply for other jobs.’
Henry looked first relieved, then dismayed. ‘I’m not sure where the money would come from.’
‘The insurance payout? I don’t care, so long as you do it.’ Wearily, Ronan clambered to his feet.
Henry held out his hand. ‘I owe you, Ronan.’
Ronan looked at the hand without taking it. ‘I predict you’ll be in some other shitty situation within three months of my leaving. But then you won’t have me to pass you the paper.’
The hangar air seemed less clean as he walked back through it. Liam looked up and started forward but Ronan just raised a hand in greeting and strode on. Time enough to be pally when he came back to work. Right now, he had to get away from the place before he lost his customary calm and broke something. Possibly Henry’s nose.
Fury was still tingling beneath his skin when he pulled into his drive. Windows stood ajar upstairs to give Curtis’s music full access to the air. His neck bunched, not because his teenager was behaving like a teenager but because he knew that indoors he’d encounter the same situation as he had every day since returning from France.
Selina: alternately moping about the crap life had handed her and being evasive about her next step.
Curtis and Selina: blithely acting as if the elephant of divorce was not in the room. Selina had even offered to move into Ronan’s bed, ‘if it would make a difference’.
‘A difference?’ He’d gazed at her in fascinated horror. ‘Like it would un-divorce us? Or somehow rationalise your presence here? No! Just sort yourself out.’ Sort yourself out was a vague phrase he used to encompass whatever it would take to get Selina out of his house in such a way that Curtis was both happy and living in the area.
He slammed his car door and let himself into the house to find Selina reading a magazine in the sitting room.
‘How did you get on today?’ He threw his jacket over one chair and dropped himself into the other.
Selina looked vague. ‘Get on?’
‘In trying to sort yourself out.’ That ambiguous phrase again.
She sighed. ‘Darren hasn’t surfaced.’ Her eyes strayed back towards the glossy pages in her lap.
Ronan stretched out and gently removed the magazine to help her focus. ‘You were seeing the lawyer today, the one the Citizen’s Advice people lined up. Didn’t he or she have any helpful information?’
‘Not really.’
Ronan didn’t bother to suppress his sigh. ‘If you can’t get a job you must go to the DSS and find out what benefits you’re entitled to. Including housing benefit.’
His heart sank as he watched her eyes fill with practised tears. ‘You’d see your son existing on benefits in some horrible last-ditch accommodation?’
‘Stop wheeling Curtis out like a weapon. There are perfectly nice rental properties available, through the council, housing associations and private landlords – I showed you the page on the Citizen’s Advice website about that. And you know I always pay my way with Curtis. When you’re not living in my damned house,’ he added. ‘Have you applied for any jobs?’
As the piteous tears hadn’t worked, she set her mouth in an obstinate line. ‘I’m not qualified–’
‘Not true and, anyway, you left me and we divorced. You must see it’s not on to expect me to support you because your new life hasn’t worked out. It was unpleasant, what happened, but I’ve given you weeks to get over the shock and it’s time you took back responsibility.’
‘Curtis likes us being together.’
‘We’re not together.’ He had to fight not to bellow the words. ‘You’re a guest in my house on a strictly temporary basis. Temporary,’ he emphasised, sweeping up his jacket as he headed for the door.
But her next words halted him. ‘The lawyer did have one very interesting thing to offer. If you want me out and I don’t want to go, you may need to evict me. And you can’t do that until twenty-eight days after you give me formal notice to leave.’
Stunned, Ronan turned slowly. ‘What?’
‘Actually, two things,’ she amended, picking up her magazine. ‘She was interested that you’re not currently paying child maintenance.’
‘But I’ve taken sole responsibility for supporting Curtis!’ he protested in outrage. ‘You’re not paying for his food, clothes, shelter, heat or anything else. It’s common sense that I don’t pay you to maintain him when I’m the one doing it.’
She shrugged, licking one finger and turning a page. ‘You didn’t clear it with the Child Support Agency, did you?’ She paused, looking struck. ‘Three things – I can go back to court to ask for child support to be reassessed, owing to my changed circumstances.’
Slowly, Ronan came back and sat back down. For the second time in one day someone was trying to shit on him, undeterred by the fact that he’d always played fair and had done not one thing to deserve being shat upon.
Well, here was where it stopped. ‘Unfortunate for you that I’m being made redundant, then, eh?’
The magazine slid off Selina’s lap as her head jerked up. ‘You can’t be.’
‘Of course I can. Henry’s reducing his fleet. I’m the casualty.’
‘But what will you do?’ Selina demanded, looking genuinely dismayed.
‘Look for another job because I’ve been on statutory sick pay for weeks so the piggy bank is almost empty. I’m going to struggle to make the mortgage and the household bills. There’s a rocky ride ahead.’
As he strode from the room, Ronan at least had the satisfaction of seeing the smile wiped from his ex-wife’s face. He recognised that she was manipulative rather than malicious but she sometimes took thoughtlessness and self-interest to dizzy heights.
He halted abruptly as he came face to face with Curtis in the hall. Damn. He’d have preferred Curtis not to overhear the confrontation. He stretched his mouth into what he hoped was a reassuring smile. ‘Looks like I’ll be moving on, job-wise.’
Curtis nodded. He was wearing his most recent fashion statement, a long black coat with military-looking brass buttons. He pushed his hands into its pockets, looking younger without the facial piercings the school had, as predicted, banned.
Ronan went on, ‘You don’t need to worry but we’ll have to be realistic about money until I see what my next step is. Good job we
’ve had our holiday! But try not to break anything expensive for a while, OK?’ His conscience twanging at having made things sound slightly worse than they were for Selina’s benefit, he gave Curtis a big man-hug. Curtis actually responded for several seconds before letting go.
Filled with warmth, Ronan enjoyed the hug while it lasted, then went to grab his laptop because although he had financial reserves – he’d had no conscience at lying to Selina about that – they wouldn’t last for ever. He’d need to put out feelers for another job.
Chapter Twenty-five
Climbing back into the cockpit on Monday morning was like coming home.
Ronan’s hands took charge of the collective and cyclic levers, his feet settled on the rudder pedals, the array of instruments read as clearly to him as a child’s book as he performed his checks and set the rotors spinning, the noise climbing until the only way it was possible to speak to the examiner beside him was via headsets. In minutes the fabulous machine put its nose down and surged into the air and he regained the thrill of which he’d never tired, one that, in some dark moments over the past couple of months, he’d thought he might have lost. They swooped up above the buildings and bridges, pedestrians and cars, and Ronan was totally at one with his machine.
Heaven.
Once back on the ground the examiner duly ticked the boxes on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority and stamped and signed the precious piece of paper that was Ronan’s licence. Yesssss! His rating as a commercial helicopter pilot was current once more.
Back to earth in more ways than one, and having read a lot of advice to employees since Henry became no kind of a friend, Ronan went into the hangar and rapped on Henry’s office door. Once admitted, he formally requested an early meeting and equally formally expressed his willingness to be made redundant. ‘If we call this meeting the consultation, you can serve me with notice of redundancy.’
‘I’m aware of the procedure,’ Henry responded, testily, from behind the barricade of his desk.
Still, to ensure no later misremembering of events Ronan went out into the outer office and emailed Henry a summary of the meeting, copying Janine in.
In response – or perhaps retaliation – Janine, looking acutely uncomfortable and clearly acting on Henry’s instructions, printed out a formal notice of redundancy to tell Ronan to expect the bare legal redundancy payment equal to about a month’s basic salary, no allowance for flight pay, and one month’s notice to begin with immediate effect.
‘Not a lot for all the effort I’ve put in,’ Ronan remarked, coldly.
‘Your first passenger air tour’s scheduled for this afternoon,’ responded Henry, with equal chilliness. ‘And in accordance with company policy following return to work after a significant absence I’ll be along as observer.’
As far as Ronan was aware no such company policy had existed till today and it was no doubt designed to piss him off.
It worked.
As Henry not only sat in the back of the helicopter for the flight but hovered at Ronan’s shoulder during the pre-flight checks, Ronan went home fuming. There he found Selina in a matching bad mood.
‘Any news?’ she demanded, as he walked in the door.
He flung his jacket over the banisters. ‘About?’
‘Redundancy.’
‘I got notice today. Finish in a month.’
Selina folded her arms. ‘Do you get a payout?’
Ronan paused to marvel, not just that it obviously didn’t occur to Selina to show any sympathy or concern, but that he’d once been in love with this ungracious freeloader. ‘Not your concern.’ He brushed past her into the kitchen.
She followed. ‘But what’s going to happen to us?’
Turning swiftly, Ronan shut the kitchen door so that Curtis wouldn’t hear. ‘There’s no “us”,’ he snapped. ‘What’s going to happen to me is that I’m going to search hard for another job to pay my mortgage and support my son. How about you do something along the same lines?’
Eyes flashing, Selina threw the door open. ‘Stop harping on!’
Ronan again shoved the door shut. He needed to take a couple of deep breaths before he could control the volume of his voice. ‘We’re angry with each other but, please, can we try not to let Curtis hear it? It’s not his problem. It’s ours. Till your recent issues we managed to put him first, to share his care, to each create a home for him. I would very much like to return to that arrangement.’
‘Well, we don’t always get what we want, do we?’ Selina stared at his hand on the door until he moved it.
Ronan watched her flounce out. He was troubled by the deterioration in relations and knew his flash of temper had accelerated it. Sinking down at the kitchen table he gave his heartbeat a chance to return to normal, rubbing his hand wearily over his face.
The scene hadn’t all been Selina’s fault. He’d mismanaged the conversation by being confrontational because although he’d put a front on for Henry’s benefit, his heart was heavy at losing his job. He could comfort himself that if Henry hadn’t found a way to see off the competition then Buzz Sightseer would have been heading for oblivion anyway, but the fact remained that until the day he and Buzzair Two had somersaulted in a field, he’d loved his job and Henry had been his friend.
Funny how life treated you. It let you care deeply about something – job, friend, woman – and then took it all away.
Curtis wandered towards home, his backpack dangling from his shoulder, his phone in his hand.
Curtis: Getting out of Saturday footie club early
Natasha: Wuu2
Curtis: Forgot to take piercings out this morning and they won’t let me play case I get hurt
Natasha: Couldnt u just take them out
Curtis: I only just put them in yesterday after school so I dint want take them out again
Natasha: Lol will u get dropped from team
Curtis: Not just for missing one week. Wuu2?
Natasha: Going to leahs soon
Curtis: Not home with ur mum?
Natasha: Not til later leah says shes brought new choc from work for me to try its lemon merang
Curtis: Kool beans
Natasha: laters
Curtis put his phone away, wishing he could just walk into Leah’s kitchen as he had in France. It was awesome that he and Natasha were talking again. He was spending half his time thinking of things to say to her and the other half checking his phone to see if she’d answered.
His steps slowed as he neared his dad’s house and he thought of the raised voices he’d heard last night.
Now his mum was grumbling that she’d no idea what would happen because Ronan had lost his job. Neither had Curtis but he hated it when his mum moaned about his dad because his dad never dissed her. And his mum had made it sound as if his dad had done something wrong but redundancy wasn’t the same as getting sacked, was it? His dad was stressed enough.
Quietly, Curtis let himself into the house. The TV was on in the sitting room but he could hear his mum on the phone. She didn’t break off, so he guessed she hadn’t heard him. Good. He crept along the hall towards the stairs, heading for his laptop.
Then he halted as he heard his mum’s next words. ‘Darren, before I commit I need to know where we’re going. What would we live on?’
Curtis held his breath, edging towards the crack in the door until he could see her, feet planted, hand on hip, frowning as she listened to what was being said on the other end of the phone.
‘But at least I have a room and board here,’ she broke in. ‘Where would I live with you?’ Then she laughed as if she wasn’t finding things funny. ‘Yeah, you make fun of him, but he never left me to pack up everything I owned and drop the keys to my home at the bank.’
Finally, her voice softened. ‘I love you, too. But I’m not sure. You let me down so I had to go crawling off to my ex. And what about Curtis? I’m not going anywhere without him. Are you sure things will work out?’
I’m not going anywhe
re without him? Where was she thinking they might go? Curtis’s heart began to beat so hard that he had to strain to listen over it.
‘I suppose it’ll be worth it in the end,’ his mum went on, ‘if you’re certain it’s a way of leaving the financial mess behind. But you’re talking about a whole new place … Of course it’s you I want to be with. I said I love you, didn’t I? But I’m not going to say yes till I’ve talked to Curtis. Nothing happens till I’ve talked to Curtis.’
Curtis’s heart plummeted. A whole new place … ? He didn’t want to live in a new place. He liked Orpington, where his friends were, his school, his footie team.
In a dizzying rite-of-passage moment he understood that his parents were not back together – and would never be. It felt a bit like when one of his mates gave him a nipple tweak, but deeper, right inside his heart. He blinked back tears. He’d been a stupid kid, shutting his eyes to the fact that his parents had stopped loving each other a long time ago.
And now, apparently, his mum was considering going to a new place and taking him with her. But he couldn’t leave his dad! For a month he’d suffered a crappy hollow feeling over missing Natasha, and missing a parent would be much worse. His knees went funny and he realised he was frightened.
Breath sticking in his throat, Curtis crept towards the stairs while his mum carried on making plans with Darren. In his room, he was surprised to see that his hands were shaking as he opened his laptop. Getting a grip on himself he began tapping. After a while he had to tiptoe to his mum’s room and find her handbag, keeping an ear on the reassuring rise and fall of her voice that confirmed she was still on the phone.
Back at his laptop, he input the card numbers. It was wrong borrowing his mum’s card but it was wronger to take him away from his dad.
He gathered up his cash from his pockets and his tin in the wardrobe. £10.32. Enough for lunch. He tipped his footie gear out of his backpack and stuffed in two T-shirts, underwear, a pair of jeans, his laptop, his phone charger and his ear buds.
Just for the Holidays Page 27