‘Kevin dropped his bag which wasn’t zipped up,’ Alfie adds. ‘His toiletries bag fell out and hit the platform floor. This I can believe with Kevin as he’s the most disorganised person I have ever met. He never packs his stuff. Just grabs what he can lay his hands on and chucks it into a bag. As he’s always late for everything there’s no time for him to zip up his luggage. Anyway, his soap bag exploded and according to him the platform looked like he’d been on a pharmacy shoplifting spree. Luckily, handsome stranger, Gareth, was there to rescue his hair wax pot and deodorant. They got married last year.’
Michael continues. ‘Fran from my office. She met her boyfriend there, although they’ve split up now, but I know they are still secretly seeing each other so they’ll be back together soon. Also, Maddie from work met her girlfriend in St Pancras as they were queuing for coffee.’
‘Station love is a thing,’ interjects Alfie.
Michael runs his hand through hair and excites all his dark curls. ‘London St Pancras is probably the best station for love.’
‘I haven’t heard anyone meet at King’s Cross,’ says Alfie, with a frown. ‘Or Paddington for that matter.’
‘So, what’s the business idea?’ I ask.
Alfie’s eyes flash with excitement and in a low voice says, ‘A station dating app.’
This is going to be a long trip listening to these two and their station dating app. I’ve always disliked train stations. When I left university, I endured years of exhausting and frustrating commuting across London. Trains never ran to time, they were always crammed, stuffy and I always ended up being squashed next to someone who smelt like they ate nothing but raw garlic. All the jobs I had back then were for sales companies who promised meteoric careers but in return demanded twelve-hour days of wearing an uncomfortable telephony headset, being eager to take a call even when sat on the office loo, and fake smiles always plastered across faces.
My hatred of train stations intensified when Emily and I spent the first year of our relationship living apart, me in Clapham and she in Brighton. Neither of us had a car so we had to rely on public transport. Sunday evenings would always leave me with an aching chest and a headache. She’d come with me to the station and watch me reluctantly walk away through the barrier. Five painful days without her in my life would stretch ahead of me. On a Friday evening the excitement of seeing her rushing into my arms at Brighton station would make me scoop her up and suggest we get a taxi back to her flat and stay in bed for the entire weekend. Time would rush by and before I knew it I would be getting the train back to Clapham with a heavy heart.
I can’t see me liking train stations anytime soon.
My phone bleeps. It’s a text from Anna. It reads:I hear my mother has contacted you. She says I’m being childish for not speaking to you for months and I should apologise. According to her life is too short. I’m sorry for thinking our friendship was something else and the reason I have been ignoring you is that I have been embarrassed over what happened.
The night where everything went wrong comes rushing back. I was supposed to be going with Emily to Vivi’s to babysit Felix, but I ended up getting into a long conversation with Anna after work in a bar and that seemed to carry on into the night. Soon we were back at her flat and I was sat on her sofa draining a bottle of beer. A drunken Anna had gone to get something from her bedroom before entering her living room in just a black bra and thong. I did hide my eyes as all I kept thinking was what would Emily think if she knew where I was. My stomach started to knot. All I could do was guide Anna back to her clothes and tell her I wanted to remain friends. While all this was going on, Vivi was dying on her bathroom floor and Emily was in pieces.
‘Here’s your coffee, Rory.’ Alfie places a large takeaway cup in front of me. He’s just returned from the buffet car bringing a coffee for me, Michael’s cup of tea and his own can of Diet Coke. Michael moves out of his seat to let his husband in.
Alfie stares out of the train window. ‘The blizzarding has stopped. It doesn’t look too bad wherever we are. I can see cars moving freely on the road over there.’
Michael nods as he uncovers his tea. ‘I think the media have blown it out of proportion, like I said before.’
Alfie takes a swig from his can of Diet Coke. ‘What did you think of our business idea then, Rory?’
My head is stuck in the past so I don’t hear him. The memory of Anna joining the company I was working for, a few months before Vivi died, has glued itself to the inside of my mind. At first, I had no idea she had links to my past. We were on an office night out when we became friends. There were six of us left at the end of the night, including Anna and me. We’d all had far too many drinks, shots and cocktails and were slumped in a bar. One of our workmates, Ravi, was asleep under the table. We’d all promised to take him with us when we left to get taxis. Our track record of remembering Ravi being unconscious under the table was not great. On the four previous nights out we’d forgotten about him, and he’d been woken up by two hefty bouncers who’d carried him through the doors and practically launched him into the sky at closing time. On this occasion we’d all sworn on the lives of our loved ones that we wouldn’t forget Ravi. Everyone had reached that final stage on an office outing where each person starts talking about deep stuff combined with a bit of drunken nonsense. In my experience these are usually the conversations you end up living to regret the next day in the office.
Things became complex when Anna turned to me and said, ‘Don’t you remember me? I remember you.’
CHAPTER24
EMILY
‘We better go,’ I say, placing down my empty cup and feeling sick at the thought of the late journey ahead back home with Felix, Baxter and the snow.
To my surprise Tom shakes his head. ‘Stay for some food.’
Felix has clasped his hands together in a prayer-like pose. ‘Please can we have some food, Aunty Emily?’
‘Felix, it’s late and we somehow need to get home.’
‘Why don’t you all sleep in Rory’s bedroom?’ Tom suggests, pointing to the door off the living area. ‘The weather report is not great and I would feel bad sending you out into the snow late at night,’ Felix jumps up with a huge grin on his face and Baxter wriggles so much with excitement I wonder whether his little body might explode.
‘Really?’ I stare at Tom. ‘Are you sure?’
He smiles. ‘I’m sure.’
Tom’s busy on his phone ordering us all a pizza. He told us he wanted to save his tinned meat for when the snow gets bad, and he can’t get to the shops. Felix asked whether we should buy tinned meat, candles, and toilet roll on the way home. Tom looked shocked when I told him I had not bought any emergency food provisions for the snow.
Felix, Baxter and I are going to be sleeping in Rory’s bed. This fills me with unease for several reasons; I have no idea when Rory last changed his bedsheets, whether he has a stash of clean bedsheets, whether he’s brought any women back into his bed and will he come barging into his bedroom in the early hours with a girl in tow.
Following the familiar smell of Rory’s citrus aftershave, we push the door open, flick on the light and step inside. The walls are painted a tranquil grey. The floor is a dark hardwood and is littered with shoes and trainers. His bed is a tangled mess of white sheets and a stylish black duvet. I notice that his wardrobe doors have been flung open as if he was in a rush to get away. With a shiver I peer into his wardrobe and to my dismay his jumper and fleece are gone. Felix walks over to the package on the bedside cabinet. ‘What’s this, Aunty Emily?’
