Page 23 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

It had been such a quick turnaround of fortune and one that he had never expected. But then, he had never anticipated fame either.

In the early days, he had cut vegetables over and over. Gradually and achingly slowly, he had built his way up from the back end of the kitchen towards the front, until, finally, three years ago, he had become head chef.

Each day had been the same. He would begin work late morning preparing menus and ingredients before beginning to cook for the lunchtime trade. That would merge into the dinner customers and it had normally been after midnight when he had finished work.

As he packed his clothes into an empty suitcase, he smiled wryly to himself at the smart trousers and shirts that were still hanging up in the wardrobe unworn. He had never had much time to go on a date or any kind of social life, such had been the hectic pace of life in Rome for him. And that suited him just fine. Keeping women at arm’s length was the right thing to do, as far as he was concerned. After all, if you couldn’t trust your own mother, who could you trust? So his life had become all about his work and nothing else.

He frowned. Perhaps he ought to take time to consider his next move whilst he was stuck in Cranfield. Maybe the next job that he took should have less hours. Because, he realised, he had been a little lonely.

He looked out of the window once more and down onto a narrow backstreet. Through the gap in the window, he could hear the murmur of people down below, all living their lives. When was he going to be given the chance to do the same? But it had been his own choice, a penance for the guilt over not revealing the truth about his mum’s affairs to his dad.

Turning away from the window, Ryan set to finishing his packing. He had a taxi booked to move all of his stuff to a nearby hotel before heading home the following day.

Despite the crisis back in Cranfield that he needed to sort out, he found himself wishing that he had some time to explore the Eternal City. To wander the streets that he barely knew, even after three years there. It had been the same wherever he had been, Rome, Milan, Florence. All the great cities had been blurs in the background to the main event, his cooking. But somehow his twenties had disappeared in the blink of an eye and now, at the age of thirty-four, he had nothing to show for it apart from a varied CV.

He felt the loneliness even more keenly that evening when he dined alone in the hotel restaurant. Although he felt a little better when his dad text him to say that Katy and he had had a nice dinner together. Perhaps there was hope after all, thought Ryan with a wry smile.

The following morning, he left the hotel after a leisurely breakfast and saw a newly married couple descend the steps outside the church opposite, surrounded by cheering family and friends.

He'd been to a few weddings over the past couple of years, people from school and colleagues who had found the love of their lives and settled down. At the time, he had inwardly scoffed, thinking how much better his life had been as he raced through his career. But actually, they had companionship, friendship and love. Where on earth was he going to find that?

If love even existed, he admitted to himself. His parents’ marriage had been anything but smooth sailing, his mother frequently extolling how unhappy she had been. Would they all have been better off if she had taken off during one of her many frequent affairs? Ryan guessed they would never know the answer to that.

But his grandparents seemed to have had the happiest of marriages, so he knew it did actually exist.

As if by some kind of telepathic thought, his mobile suddenly rang with a call from his grandad.

Ryan picked up his phone, pleased to hear from Eddie but he quickly realised that it wasn’t good news.

‘It’s your dad,’ said Eddie, as soon as Ryan had picked up.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Ryan, suddenly feeling a cold dread wash over him.

‘He’s hurt his foot and had to go into hospital. They’re pretty certain it’s broken.’

Ryan immediately rushed back into the hotel, desperate to get home as quickly as possible.

13

Katy sat in the waiting room of the Accident and Emergency Room with her head in her hands. This was all her fault, she told herself over and over.

She had checked her mobile for any job interests and had discovered a vacancy in a hotel that had come up at the other end of the country. She didn’t really mind where it was. She had no loyalty to London, after all. She had no loyalty to anywhere really. Places didn’t matter to her in that way, not like they appeared to do with Bob and his family. So she had taken some time off from tidying to send off her CV with what she hoped was a sensational covering letter.

Whilst she was typing, Bob had popped in asking her whether she wanted a coffee, which she was pleased about. Perhaps they really had had a breakthrough in their relationship the previous evening. So when she replied yes, he had disappeared off.

When her phone pinged with a notification about a possible date for a job interview, she was still reading the email when she’d heard the door to the station open slowly.

She had looked up to watch as Bob pushed his way inside holding two mugs of coffee. But before she could get up to help him, his elbow had caught on a pile of heavy boxes which she had only just moved next to the door. They fell in slow motion on top of Bob, pushing him onto the floor. The crash of the mugs shattering was nothing compared to the cry of pain that Bob had cried out with.

Even with her limited medical knowledge, Katy could tell that it was a bad break in his foot. Luckily, she wasn’t particularly squeamish, so after calling for an ambulance, she had followed the instructions on the NHS website and tried to comfort Bob as he lay there, his face drawn and white in pain. But she couldn’t shake off the guilt that she was feeling.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she had told him. ‘I should have held the door open for you and not been on my phone.’

To her surprise, he had reached out to take her hand in his shaky one. ‘Don’t worry, love,’ he’d said, between gritted teeth. ‘Accidents happen.’ He gave a grimace of pain. ‘Will you come with me to the hospital?’

‘Of course,’ she had told him, squeezing his hand. ‘I won’t leave you.’

There was a thankfully short wait for the ambulance but a long wait at the hospital in the Accident and Emergency department. She had stayed with Bob as long as she was allowed to before they were informed that he would need an operation to fix the broken bones in his foot.