by A. E. Radley
A Stroll in the Garden
Katie stopped to bend over and pick up a stray twig from the lawn.
“Don’t do that,” Verity called out from the open kitchen window. “Callum, pick up that stick for Katie, please.”
Katie looked up at her ever-present watcher and made a face. Verity made one back. Callum hopped across the garden, easily bent down and snatched up the stick, and handed it to Katie before hopping away again.
She slowly continued her walk, heading towards the garden waste bin to deposit the twig. It had been a week and a half since she’d been out of the hospital, and this was the fourth time she’d been for a little walk around the garden.
It was the first walk where Verity wasn’t hovering around her, ready to catch her if she slipped. Which she never did.
But Verity was watching from the kitchen as she washed up the cups and plates from the mid-afternoon snack they had shared with Callum.
Katie’s walking speed was slowly improving, but she still felt a pain in her side if she over-exerted herself. Walking around the apartment was getting boring, but she didn’t feel ready to walk out in public yet. Just the idea of bumping into someone made her wince.
She’d hoped that her recovery would be further along by now, but unfortunately it was a slow process. When she thought about where she had been, she’d made remarkable progress, but it wasn’t enough. Katie wanted to be well again. She wanted to be back to her old self.
She gently lifted the lid to the garden waste wheelie bin and tossed the stick in. The garden was getting messy again, and she longed to be able to clear it up. Spring was truly on the way, and the plants, bushes, and trees were bouncing back to life. Even the lawn could do with another trim.
“You look sad.”
She turned to see Verity standing behind her, a concerned expression on her face.
“Just wishing I was well enough to sort the garden out,” Katie admitted.
Verity looked around the space. “It’s not too bad. I could help, if you like?”
Katie quickly shook her head. “No, no. You’re already doing so much.”
“Nonsense, I love gardening.”
Katie put her hand on Verity’s forearm. “Seriously, I appreciate everything you’ve done and are doing, I’d be lost without you. But I don’t want to add to the list. I’ll do it when I get better. Please?”
Katie knew Verity loved to solve a problem. Given the chance, she’d fling open the shed and start work immediately, but Katie was already feeling the pressure of owing Verity so much for all that she was doing.
Verity looked down at the hand on her arm and then up at Katie. She looked confused but nodded her agreement anyway.
Katie retracted her arm and watched Callum gallop around the garden. He’d decided he was a horse soon after agreeing to walk Katie around it.
“I know you feel that it’s taking a long time,” Verity said. “And I’m sure for you it feels like a very long time, but you are doing remarkably well.”
Katie shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t feel like I’m progressing that well at the moment. It feels like a long way between where I am now and where I want to be.”
“That’s normal, but you will get there. You’re getting stronger every day.” Verity took her arm and gently encouraged her to continue her lap of the garden.
“Have you ever had an operation like this?”
“Yes, I had a hysterectomy, but I had it many years ago, back when they cut you open. Now it’s often keyhole surgery with a fraction of the recovery time.”
Katie focused on her steps, not wanting to slip.
“May I ask why you had a hysterectomy?”
“I developed fibroids. I had a choice to have them removed and keep everything, but there was a chance they could come back at a later date. My mother had fibroids four times in her life before finally having a hysterectomy. I decided to get it over and done with. It wasn’t like I wanted children anyway.”
“You didn’t worry you might change your mind and want children later in life?” Katie asked.
Callum galloped past them at speed. “Bye-bye, poo-poos!”
Verity let out a suffering sigh. “It was a risk I was willing to take. I think I chose well.”
“Callum, come here a minute,” Katie requested.
He paused his trot and turned to look at Katie with a questioning gaze.
“Just a minute, and then you can get back to the Grand National,” she promised.
He walked over and stood in front of her. His cheeks were flushed with the exertion of dashing around the garden.
“Buddy, I know you think poo is funny, but we don’t. It would be really great if you could stop saying it at least when you’re around us. Otherwise, we might not want to spend so much time with you. And that would be really bad because I love spending time with you. But all the talk of poo makes me feel sick. So, do you think you could try to not do it so much?”
Callum looked deep in thought for a few moments before he nodded his head and said, “Okay.”
He turned and galloped away again. Katie didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth a try. While she didn’t mind the odd poo remark, Verity clearly hated it.
“Thank you,” Verity said.
“Don’t thank me yet, it might not work,” Katie pointed out. “Besides, it’s the least I can do considering what you’re doing for me.”
“It’s nothing,” Verity assured.
“It’s everything,” Katie replied. “Seriously, I wouldn’t have been able to cope without you. I’m sorry about how I was when I first moved in.”
Katie clearly recalled slamming her door a few times simply to shake Verity in her upstairs apartment. It had been childish, but she’d loved it.
“I was just as bad. Worse, even.”
“Yeah, you were a real pain in the arse,” Katie agreed.
Verity glared at her, but Katie maintained her intense scrutiny of the ground in front of her to keep from bursting out laughing. She felt Verity’s gaze and couldn’t help but smile.
“You weren’t exactly a picnic either,” Verity finally said, humour in her tone.
“Good thing I nearly died, and we could hit the reset button,” Katie joked.
Verity gripped Katie’s arm a little tighter.
“Don’t say that,” she whispered.
“Okay,” Katie agreed softly.
They continued slow laps around the garden, Callum galloping around them but giving them plenty of space. Katie could never have foreseen this outcome, but she was thankful for it. The accident had taken a lot from her, but the gift of Verity’s friendship was worth it.
Not to mention the fact that Katie had been in bad scrapes before, and if there was one thing she knew, it was that every setback came with the opportunity to rebuild oneself stronger than before.
For the first time in a while, she was looking forward to what might come next.
22
The Real Reason for Early Retirement
Verity grazed her fingers over the touchpad of the laptop to scroll further into the document. She was proud that Katie had asked her to read through the article she had been working on.
Ordinarily, Katie flew through writing briefs and claimed them, wrote them, and submitted them in no time at all. This project was different; it was a longer piece which Katie had been struggling with for the last few days.
Apparently, she frequently worked with the client and was keen to keep up her high standards even though she was still struggling with pain as well as pain medication.
Verity had jumped at the chance to read some of Katie’s work and to lend a hand. So far, she’d mainly been assisting Katie through keeping her company and ensuring she ate. The latter could easily be a full-time job.
“If anything doesn’t make sense,” Katie said for the umpteenth time.
“Shh.” Verity waved a hand in her direction. She’d proofread things before, she knew the drill.
Kat
ie pushed herself up from the sofa and slowly walked out of the living room to give Verity some privacy. Verity couldn’t help but look over the top of her glasses and watch Katie leave.
The young woman was getting stronger every day, but that didn’t stop Verity from keeping a very close eye on her. It was nearly two weeks since the accident, and Katie would soon be fully recovered. She’d yet to go outside by herself, her energy level and fear of being around people both preventing that final step. Verity knew that Katie would soon plateau and need to take that last step in order to build up her strength and get fully back to normal.
She’d not brought it up yet, but she knew the time was coming.
Talk of the future wasn’t something she was keen to bring up. She knew that topic would shine a big spotlight on the elephant in the room: the fact that it had been two weeks and Verity was still waiting on Katie every day.
Verity knew that Katie didn’t need the level of support she was giving. When it came to it, Katie would be able to manage just fine, but Verity needed to be there. She needed to see Katie and reassure herself that she was okay. She feared that Katie could easily fall over and put her recovery back, or struggle to change the bedding, or injure herself bending down to the washing machine.
They’d been getting on so well, falling easily into a pattern that seemed to suit them both. Verity spent most of her free time in the downstairs apartment, often knitting or sketching while Katie worked on various writing projects. They shared almost all of their meals. Things were going well.
But Verity knew it just wasn’t sustainable. The pretence that she was there to help Katie would soon be lifted. What would happen then, she had no idea.
The thought nagged at her. What would come next, and when would it come? She knew that one of the reasons she was suddenly so concerned was because she had plans that evening.
For the first time in two weeks, Verity wouldn’t be around for dinner or later that night.
Harriet’s birthday party, which Verity was quite sure she didn’t want to go to anyway, was an invitation she simply couldn’t decline.
Butterflies swirled in her stomach at the thought of leaving Katie to fend for herself for the first time since she’d come home. On top of that, would it be the catalyst for a conversation Verity really didn’t want to have?
Verity didn’t even know why she liked spending all her time with Katie. Maybe she’d just grown tired of her own company, but that didn’t mean she should foist herself upon someone else. Even if she really wanted to.
She shook her head and returned to the document that Katie had asked her to read. It was excellent writing. Katie had taken half a dozen dry reports and surveys and turned them into an entertaining and informative article.
Verity had read the materials that Katie had been supplied with initially and was now on the final two paragraphs of the final article.
She mused that she had very much misjudged Katie when she assumed she was nothing more than a pizza delivery driver. Under that motorcycle helmet was a considerable intellect that Katie kept under wraps.
She finished up the article and smiled to herself. Katie had even finished it with a light-hearted joke. If she’d outsourced that work and received an article of that calibre, she would have been very happy.
“How was it? Too long? Did you understand the bit about the mining facility?” Katie asked as she returned to the room.
“It was perfect, definitely not too long. And you explained the complexities of the mining company and the seed funding perfectly.”
Katie sat beside her on the sofa and leaned over to look at the screen of the laptop. She scrolled up the article and then pointed to a line.
“I’m not sure about this. Does it come across as patronising?”
Verity read the line and then read it again to be sure. “No, not at all. Not from my perspective anyway. You might want to get a second opinion if you’re very worried, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I was just thinking, if I’d received work like this when I was in employment, I would have been very happy.”
“What did you used to do?” Katie asked, still leaning over and looking at the article. She worried her lip with her teeth, and Verity couldn’t help but smile at the tic.
“I was a fund manager, wealth management,” Verity replied.
“Oh, you helped ridiculously rich people to get richer,” Katie said, grinning.
“Yes, we played Russian Roulette with worldwide financial markets and kept the fat cats fat,” Verity played along.
Katie took the laptop from Verity’s lap and placed it on her own; she leaned back against the sofa slowly to get comfortable.
“Were you good at it?” Katie asked.
“I was. I won a few awards,” Verity confessed.
Katie looked sideways at her. “Awards, eh?”
“Yes. The financial industry likes an award ceremony. And a drinks reception.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Immensely,” Verity said.
“Why did you take early retirement then?”
“The company was restructuring. I was offered the opportunity to take early retirement, and I thought it sounded appealing. I had the money and the pension, and it enabled me to do whatever I liked. Seeing my brother die at a young age made me think…” Verity paused.
It was the same old speech she gave every single time someone asked. Almost word for word. She swallowed and shook her head. Couldn’t she just be honest for once?
“I’m sorry about your brother,” Katie said, clearly assuming that was the reason for Verity’s sudden silence.
Verity waved her hand distractedly, indicating it was fine.
“No, actually, that’s not why I took early retirement,” she admitted. “I’ve been telling everyone that, even telling myself that, but that’s not entirely true.”
Katie’s eyebrow raised in surprise. “Okay, um… you don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”
“Actually, I think I do want to. I want to be honest about this thing. I think you’re probably the only person I know who might actually understand it,” Verity explained. “I was asked to leave in a very diplomatic, very sensitive way because the company came to realise that I was gay.”
Katie went from splitting her attention between Verity and her laptop to closing the lid of said laptop, placing it on the coffee table, and turning to face Verity head on.
“What?” she demanded in a cold and serious tone.
“I’ve never confessed that before,” Verity said. “Not even to myself. I knew, obviously, but I kept it so suppressed. Probably because there’s nothing I could have done about it. Nothing I can do about it now.”
“They fired you because you’re gay?” Katie clarified.
“Not in so many words.” Verity shifted a little so she was facing Katie. “I’d never been out at work. In fact, I never really spoke of my sexuality at all. I’m not embarrassed by it, but I grew up in a time, and a place, where being different wasn’t really embraced. And so, I didn’t say anything about who I was unless I needed to.”
Verity sighed. She knew that was wrong. While other women had been fighting for their rights, for her rights, she’d remained silent. She’d never been comfortable with conflict or opening up to people. Activism meant both, and it frightened her to the core.
“So, I started working for this company. Straight out of university, a friend of my father’s gave me a chance. I worked my way up from the bottom to become a fund manager, no easy feat. I was one of the first women, certainly the most successful, but I never spoke about my private life. Work was work and home was home.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “I think I believed they knew. As if it were somehow obvious and that I must have been emitting some kind of signal.”
Katie reached out and rested her hand on Verity’s knee, which she took as a show of solidarity and a gentle nudge to continue with her tale.
“I’d been a fund manager for years, excellent
book of clients, making a substantial profit for the company. I felt comfortable and confident in my work and in my abilities. I thought I’d work out the rest of my career in that position, and I intended to retire in my mid-sixties.”
She paused. The memory of the look on Melissa’s face, and the subsequent meeting with Giles, were like a fire in her throat, incinerating any words she tried to speak.
“But?” Katie asked softly.
She swallowed a few times, trying to force herself to continue.
“But I made a mistake,” Verity admitted. “I was lonely, and my friend had convinced me to set up an online dating profile. It was a moment of madness. I met up with a woman for a date. She’d lied about her age and was… so young.” Verity closed her eyes and shook her head. “Apparently, she wanted an older woman, so she’d altered her photo and added a few years onto her profile. Nothing happened. I made sure she had money to get home and then I went home myself.”
She opened her eyes and tried to smile despite recounting one of the biggest mistakes she’d ever made in her life.
“She was the daughter of a client. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I’d seen her a few times before and she’d seen me. She knew who I was, reached out to me on the dating platform because she knew who I was. So, when I turned her down, she was very hurt and complained to her father. Who complained to my boss.”
Katie’s hand tightened on Verity’s knee. She pulled all the support from it she could.
“The father wasn’t happy that his daughter was a lesbian. He seemed to think that I’d been grooming her in some way. Or, at least, that’s what he said to Giles, my boss, when he came into the office the next morning and made a scene.”
“What?” Katie cried. “That’s… he can’t throw accusations like that around.”
“Which is precisely what I said. I told Giles that I didn’t even recognise the girl. I had no idea she had developed some kind of crush on me, and the second I saw her and realised her young age, I left. But Giles just looked at me with this look of disgust. He asked me if I was gay. In hindsight, I realise that he seemed to be hoping that was another layer to Melissa’s lie.”