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“Yes, what’s the point of paying for first class? The plane arrives at the same time no matter which seat my arse is in. Anyway, I can’t cope with the fuss of first class.”
“You would’ve got a decent night’s sleep. Now I have put up with your grumpy arse for the drive back to the house,” he joked. He patted my back and picked up his pace through the concourse and then out into the fresh air to the multi-storey car park. “I hope you’re hungry. Steph has cooked lasagne. it's warming in the oven ready for when we get into the house.”
“Sounds amazing,” I groaned at the sound of homemade food. “Where is that gorgeous wife of yours?”
Elliott arched his eyebrow. I wasn’t attracted to Steph, but never wasted an opportunity to rile my best mate. Steph, Elliott, and I lived on the same road. Steph went to an all-girls school and Elliott and I went to different schools. Mine was a mixed private school. They were the worst years of my life. Elliott and Steph became sweethearts just after they left school and headed to university.
We were all twenty-eight. Elliott and Steph married a year ago, and I still had no clue how to speak to women.
“She’s having a late breakfast with her cantankerous best friend, Adah. Although Adah hates me shortening her name. She prefers Adaline. There is something spectacular about Adah when she gets irritated.”
“Do you have a crush on Adaline?”
I’d heard a few stories about Adaline, but our paths had never crossed. Adaline was Steph’s best friend from school. All I knew about her was that she went overseas to get her degree.
“Don’t be absurd, I have a gorgeous wife,” Elliott said and shuffled forwards in the queue at the pay point for the car park.
One woman who checked me out at the conveyor belt came up to us. She was out of breath. With her palm flat on her heaving chest, she opened her mouth, but no words came out. She shook her head and lifted a single finger to tell me to wait a moment. She was the woman with the raven hair who had said cock with authority. I looked at Elliott for help, but he walked away, finding his phone fascinating. The woman regained her composure.
“Hi, my name’s Belinda. Here’s my number. Call me,” she said and lifted my hand to put a business card in my palm. She curled my fingers over the edge and backed away a few feet, then turned to catch up with her friends from the conveyor belt.
“How you ever get laid is beyond me. Close your mouth, you’re catching flies,” Elliott said and chuckled as he took the card from my hand.
“I let them seduce me into bed. That way I don’t have to make conversation. I never know what to say. I don’t possess your level of sophistication.”
“You need to get over that if you want to get yourself a girl like Steph. Belinda is a masseuse,” Elliott said, reading the woman’s business card. “Callum, you need to call her.”
“No, not going to happen. Tell me more about the cantankerous one, Adah.” I nudged Elliott until he looked at me. “Adaline sounds far more interesting.”
“She’s your type, but she has a tortured soul. Maybe you can be the man to heal her invisible wounds. She also swears more than you do, which isn’t difficult as you don’t swear.”
I thought I swore. It was strange to hear Elliott say I didn’t. We’d progressed to the pay machine for the car park. Elliott snatched the piece of card that shot out of the machine and marched off to his vehicle. I followed, grinning for the second time in half an hour. “She sounds like my kind of girl. Is she single?”
“Yes, Adaline is single, you idiot. I wouldn’t be talking to you about her if she had a boyfriend. Speaking of idiots, she’s super smart. I think her IQ is over a hundred and fifty. I don’t think you’ll make the grade, even with your wasted intelligence.” Elliott said and laughed at his own observation.
“Hey, I might nail pieces of wood together, but I got my degree, just like you did.”
I knew Elliott joked about my carpentry career, but it still stung. Not everyone was kind about my chosen career and assumed I was an idiot. They took one look at me and decided on the spot that all I was capable of was putting up shelves. I never corrected them. Instead, I walked away, letting them think they were correct. I never knew what to say. I didn’t have a cutting remark or a snide comment.
“Does that mean now you’re back, you will run the company with me?”
Elliott’s eyes lit up with hope. I was chairman of my father’s company and didn’t have any day-to-day dealings with the business. My mother had made me Chairman of her charity and my contribution was on site at the place where her fundraising came to life. I didn’t have anything of my own. Carpentry allowed me to build something from scratch.
“I’m not qualified to do that. I wouldn’t know how to lead the board of directors.”
That was the truth as I saw it. Why would anyone want to do as I said in the world of business?
“You’re talking shit. At the AGM you kick arse better than I do. You're the smartest guy I know, not as smart as Adaline, but close. The fact you’re a carpenter doesn’t make any sense.”
He said this often. It was a passive way of getting me to open up, but I never took the bait. I don’t think he’d understand I had a serious lack of confidence.
“I like to help those who can’t help themselves. Counting paper clips would bore me stupid.”
“Hey, I don't count paper clips. If you will take the piss, say counting beans or a bean counter,” Elliott finished with a sigh. He had taken the bait once again. Never had I referred to his CFO status as the correct terminology and every time Elliott took mock offence. He ran my father’s business in my absence. It shamed me I couldn’t take the reins when my dad died, but I was far too shy and timid for the world of cut throat business.
“You should come and work with me. We could have offices next door to each other. I always knew my role as chief was temporary. I’ll just be the bean counter and you can play boss.”
“How is business?” I said, avoiding his suggestion.
