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“Yup. Trouble?”
“No, not trouble exactly. I just wish I understood…stuff.”
“I was young once, try me.”
“It’s nothing specific. It’s weird shit. Like why the hell I love the smell of her hair so much.”
George grinned. “You’re falling, that’s all.”
Rory didn’t like the sound of it. Falling sounded weak and no one could afford to feel weak in this world. “We always cared about each other, we’ve both admitted it. It’s just different somehow.”
“Okay, so what changed?”
“I don’t know.” He’d already said that, but something was eating away at him and George could probably tell. “A few days ago we were just spending time together, enjoying each other, and then all of a sudden we’re tangled up in each other’s lives, telling each other stuff, deep stuff. It got complicated.”
“That’s how it happens. Commitment.”
Astonished, Rory stared at him. “How did we get from complicated to commitment?”
“Look at it this way, you were already caring for one another, then something difficult happened. When you’re involved your lives cross over. It means you’re showing commitment if you even get that far. It happens without you even knowing.”
It made sense. If he hadn’t known Sky already he wouldn’t have realized how upset she was. And if he hadn’t already cared for her, he would have put her on a train to Wales and waved goodbye. “Yeah, I couldn’t bear to see her upset over her Nan. I had to help.”
“You helped her, and she sustains you.”
Rory sighed. “Well, it’s more like she has to stick her nose in my business. She’s impetuous. I don’t want her to get tangled up in my problems.”
George started laughing. “Yes you’re definitely falling.”
“Falling sounds dangerous.”
“Exciting too.” George put a hand on his shoulder. “What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged. “Something...Doing the wrong thing, I suppose.
“If you didn’t love her you wouldn’t care whether you did it right or wrong. It was that way with me and my Eileen.”
Rory stared at his boss, surprised. He knew George’s wife’s name was Eileen, but George never spoke much about her. “We hitched up at a rock festival. Thought nothing of it the first couple of days, and then I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I was always thinking of when we’d be together. It’s all fun and games to begin with but real life is right there staring you in the face and you either bail out or you deal with it together.”
Rory thought about it. It was exactly what’d happened, George was right.
“I did a mercy mission,” George continued, “just like you. Had scarcely been together a month and I was on a ferry with her to Ireland, holding her hand, making sure she felt loved.”
“Ireland?”
“Yes. Eileen was Irish, like you.”
“I didn’t know.”
George paused, his eyelids lowering. “I don’t talk about her because it still hurts. Doesn’t mean I don’t think about her. Never an hour goes past without me thinking back over something she said or her smile.” They sat in silence a while. “She’d have liked you,” George added eventually. “To be honest it was probably why I took to you, the Irish angle.”
“I owe a debt of gratitude to Eileen.”
George grinned. “That you do. But you’ve done me proud, lad.”
“I hope so.”
George nodded. “The complications with Sky aren’t a bad thing. When people get hitched together they’re like links in the chain, and together the chain is stronger. You’re a team now, you give each other strength.”
