Page 44 of Perfect Night

“The truth, sweetie. I couldn’t keep it from any of them after this.”

He shot up, panicking.

“Relax. We’re your family. We’re always going to support you.”

Charlie wanted to scream, but knew Jason wouldn’t have broken his confidence unless he had good reason. Before he could say as much, Langdon walked in with a plate of chicken wings, which were Charlie’s favourite. He wasn’t sure he was hungry until he got a waft of the barbecue sauce.

Langdon put the plate down on the coffee table with the kitchen roll. It was a messy dish. He smiled at Charlie and ruffled his hair, which was annoying and sweet at the same time. Langdon could knock ten tons of crap out of most people, but his caring side always involved food. He was a big feeder. They’d all had to step up the exercise since the first time they’d lived together when they were at university. That had been a four-bedroom shithole in East London, with one of them having to take the lounge. How times had changed.

Once he’d demolished the chicken wings, the others appeared. Gregory was holding a piece of paper, like he was about to make an official announcement. He looked nervous and was dithering.

“Here,” he said, thrusting the paper at Charlie.

He sensed an intake of breath from all of them. He looked at the paper and realised why they were on tenterhooks. It was a receipt from his mum’s care home. Not only had Gregory cleared the arrears, he’d also paid for the next six months. That was twenty grand he’d just given Charlie. He wouldn’t expect it back. How on earth he’d made a payment on a Sunday was a mystery, but it was Gregory. He got things done. No fuss. Just quiet and practical.

They were no doubt expecting Charlie to kick off, and a few days ago he may have done that, but he knew it came from the heart. Gregory wanted to help take his friend’s pain away, and this was his way of doing it. Charlie went to say ‘thank you’ but got choked up and cried on Jason’s shoulder. Gregory looked mildly uncomfortable but smiled and nodded before sitting down.

“Right, it’s my turn,” said Jason. “Now, I know you wouldn’t want a fuss about what happened with work, but that arsehole deserves to be taken to the cleaners. However...” he said, before Charlie could butt in. “I think we can just renegotiate your settlement.”

He passed his laptop to Charlie. There was a letter on it to Geraldine, with the headline:Pre-warning of unfair dismissal and discrimination claim.He read it all. It was clear and concise, but got all the points across, including previous incidents of how Charlie had been overworked and underpaid, concluding with the assault, and a subtle threat of involving the police. There was no request for an amount, just asking them to make a better offer.

“You think this will work? I don’t want to go to court.”

“Yes, but they don’t need to know that. Just trust Auntie Jason to deal with everything. Will you send this email?”

“Now?”

“Yes. Now. I’ve got it all ready.”

He looked at his own email, open, with the email ready to go.

“How did you . . .”

“You need a better password, dear.”

Charlie laughed, but hit send. They’d probably tell him to piss off, but he was sure the email would scare the shit out of Nathaniel, even if it was just briefly.

Next up was Langdon’s turn. He passed over his tablet, which was open on theLondon Ladswebsite. He groaned at the conversation he knew they’d need to have, so they could understand why he’d made that choice.

“What am I looking at?” he asked.

“See anything missing?” asked Langdon.

Charlie scrolled through the page of all the guys who worked for Lucinda. He’d met a couple of them for threesomes but noticed nothing different. He shrugged.

“Where’s Langdon?”

Charlie winced about using his friend’s name.

“I’m sorry, but Lucinda said your name sounded the hottest.”

The others looked incredulous, but then all laughed. Charlie scrolled through the page again and noticed his profile was gone. He searched, in case he’d missed it.

“What did you do?”

“I asked Lucindanicelyto remove your profile and informed her you wouldn’t be working there any more.”

“What?”

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