Page 41 of Right Place, Right Time
I leave Ben in his shop about to begin his search and I head over to see Adam. I feel I’ve got so much to tell him already.
‘Adam!’ I call, knocking on the door. I wait for a bit, then I try again. ‘Adam! Are you in there?’
Eventually, Adam appears. He waves as he comes towards the door and as he unlocks and unbolts it, I notice he’s wearing pyjama bottoms and a T-shirt.
‘Why are you all locked up this morning?’ I ask. ‘Is everything OK?’
‘Yes, everything is fine. I slept a bit late, that’s all.’
‘Oh. OK. Look, I’ve got something really exciting things to tell you. It’s about Archie.’
Adam looks at me with a puzzled expression. ‘That’s odd. Because I’ve got some rather interesting things to tell you too – funnily enough, also about my great-grandfather.’
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We both simply stare at each other for a moment.
‘Come upstairs,’ Adam says, moving back from the door so I can come inside. ‘I could do with a coffee – I’ve only just woken up. I was up really late last night.’
‘You looked so exhausted,’ I say as Adam bolts the shop door again behind me. ‘When I left here last night, I thought you’d be asleep within minutes.’
‘After you left, I found something interesting, and that led on to other even more interesting things, and before I knew it, it was 3 a.m.’
‘What sort of things?’ I ask as I follow him to the back of the shop and then up the stairs to his flat. I’ve been in both Luca and Orla’s little flats before, so I know what to expect as I get to the top of the stairs.
But Adam’s flat looks nothing like theirs do.
‘Whathaveyou done up here?’ I ask, looking around me as Adam walks through to the kitchen part of an open-plan living area.
‘Not an awful lot. A bit of decorating to modernise it, that’s all. Most of it was like this already. There’s not a lot I can do to the building when it’s listed, is there?’ He begins to fill the water container of an expensive-lookingcoffee maker. ‘I have to say I was inspired by what you’d managed to do with your place when I was designing it. Even if it’s probably a third of the size.’
The large open-plan room is light and airy, with a pale modern kitchen and cream-coloured walls. At the front of the large space is a comfortable lounge area that overlooks Clockmaker Court. It has a large AirForce-blue velvet sofa with an extension at one end for putting your feet up. This sits alongside a mix of solid-wood furniture and newer IKEA-type flat-pack.
‘I’m honoured,’ I say, meaning it. ‘This flat must have been opened up at some stage from what was here originally, though. They’ve left all the original mouldings up on the ceiling and around the doors – perhaps that’s how they got away with it. It’s much more open-plan than either Luca or Orla’s flats above their shops. They seem tiny and cramped in comparison to this.’
‘Looks like I struck it lucky, then. Obviously it’s nothing compared to your place. But I don’t have a lot of stuff and I’ve been able to get everything I need in here with ease. Coffee?’
‘Yes, please.’
Adam starts up the grinder on the coffee maker, so our conversation is paused momentarily. I look around the room again. In the corner there are a few unpacked moving boxes next to a table covered in a pile of books. There are some photos in frames standing on an elegant mantelpiece above an open fireplace. I go over and take a look at them.
‘These are lovely.’
Adam looks across at me as the grinding ceases and the first cup of coffee begins to pour. ‘The newer frames are a few of the old photos we found when we cleared thehouse out. There’s one of me and some friends one New Year’s Eve, and the last photo I have of me and my mum before she passed away. The new one of me and Mum we found in the suitcase is there too.’
My gaze lingers on the photos of Adam as a child. He has the same cheeky grin and look of mischief in his eyes as he has now.
‘I’m glad you got all the photos we found framed. They look good.’
Adam nods as the coffee grinder starts up again and a second cup of coffee pours into a new mug.
I walk over to the window and glance out at the view of the court below, and, as I always do when I first enter an old building, I wonder who might have stood here before me, in this same spot, looking at the very same view.
‘Your usual?’ Adam asks.
‘Yes, please.’
‘Did you never want to live over your shop?’ Adam begins frothing milk for the coffees. ‘It’s an amazing commute!’
