Page 22 of Rivers of Ink
Not more than about half an hour later, he was in Fosse Arcade. He stopped by Books ’n’ Beans for a much-needed coffee and sensed it was going to be a heavily caffeinated day. The Unbound Soul had a low-key buzz about it; Jason and Miles were with clients, and there were several guys waiting on the sofas, chatting to each other or on their phones. Callan smiled. He loved seeing people happy when they were in his shop. It made him feel the same. His eyes swept over the empty reception podium. He hadn’t expected Alicia to be there; he’d given her the day off, having anticipated spending the previous night with her. There had been a tiny part of him that hoped she might have popped in. He had to make things right with her again.
“Hey, boss, perfect timing. I’ve just taken your half twelve up.” Marek came down the stairs, leather jacket already on, ready to head home. “That’s gonna be a long job, and I can’t wait to see the results. Make sure you take pics, yeah? I’ll see you Tuesday.” He high-fived Callan and left.
Marek wasn’t wrong. It was a back piece, and even the outlining would take over an hour. He and the client had agreed that the session would last no longer than three hours. Callan wished he’d brought cake as well as coffee.
It was close to four o’clock when he finally finished. Miles had also left for the day, leaving him alone with Jason. The two of them hadn’t spoken a great deal since Jason had started, although Callan wanted to quiz him a little more about his relationship with Isobel. Neither of them had customers, so they sat on the sofas downstairs, both on their devices.
Aidy had sent Callan pictures from the previous evening. One of them was of Callan and Alicia, caught candidly while they were standing at the bar. Callan’s hand was entwined in Alicia’s hair, hers was resting on his hip, and they looked as if they were about to kiss. It was a gorgeous shot of them caught up in the moment. Callan’s hand hovered over the picture. He typed a message, attached the image, and pressed send. Then, he waited.
“You see much of Isobel?” Callan asked Jason, with what he hoped was a friendly, inquisitive tone.
Jason looked up from his phone. “Not for a while. We used to run in the same circle, then she disappeared for a while and the next I hear from her is that email.”
“So you’ve not spoken to her recently then?”
“I let her know I got a job here, she said congratulations, and I haven’t heard from her since. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondered, you know she used to work here.” Callan paused, wondering how much to tell Jason. “She, um, left under rather difficult circumstances.”
“Really? What happened?”
Callan’s phone buzzed, giving him the chance to think about how to respond to Jason’s question. He glanced down at the screen. Alicia had replied with a smiley face, nothing more. It was a start. He tapped out a reply, asking if she wanted to come over to his place that evening. She didn’t respond straight away.
“A number of things happened, and it made it tricky for Isobel to continue working here.”
“God, what did she do? Embezzle the company or something?”
If only that had been the problem, thought Callan, that would have been so much easier to deal with. Luckily, he was saved by a mother coming in with her teenage son asking if someone could give him a trim. Jason bounced up and took them over to the barber chair.
Callan rested his head on the back of the sofa, a wave of tiredness washing over him; what he’d give for a nap right now. His phone buzzed again. Seeing Alicia’s agreement to come to see him that night galvanised him to tell her the truth and put things right between them. Energy flowed through his body as he set to tidying up and prepping the shop for closure. He didn’t want anything else to go wrong.
* * *
Alicia and Nell had been curled up on the sofa under a duvet all day, watching their favourite box sets. Anything to take their minds off Callan and Rory. It transpired that Rory had told Nell he was staying over at Kyle’s, and when Alicia chose to head back to Nell’s instead of Callan’s, she had found her friend sobbing on the sofa again. They’d drunk into the early hours of the morning, cursing the behaviour of their other halves. There had been tears, shouting, laughter, and finally, sleep.
The knot in Alicia’s stomach was part hangover and part uncertainty about where she stood with Callan. Obviously, she knew Isobel had been part of The Unbound Soul crew, but what else had she been? There were so many questions she should have asked him. Running off like she had probably hadn’t helped.
“Rory says he wants to go out tonight.” Nell waved her phone around. “He’s on his way home from Kyle’s.”
“Are you going to say yes?”
Nell pushed a hand through her blonde hair. “I don’t know. I want to make him sweat, let him know that he can’t let me down at the last-minute time after time. There’s also the lure of a fancy restaurant and lots of nice food though.”
“Maybe you should stay in and get a takeaway?” suggested Alicia. “I can always hang out in my room, with headphones for when you make up.”
The cushion that Nell hurled at her head missed her by inches. “You deserve some time to yourself too.”
From beside her, Alicia felt her phone vibrate. She’d put it on silent overnight, not wanting to hear from Callan. When she’d woken up to no messages or calls, disappointment crushed her. She tried to be discreet as she pulled it out.
“Is that him?” demanded Nell.
Alicia looked at the screen. There was a shot of the two of them from the previous evening, the pose both tender and passionate at the same time. Callan’s message asked if she was okay.
“Yes. He wants to know how I am.” She wasn’t sure if she knew herself, let alone trying to articulate it to Callan. Instead, she sent back a smiley face, unable to find the words to respond. He messaged back almost straight away, inviting her over to his place later. Alicia stuffed the phone back down the side of the cushions. “What are you going to say to Rory?”
“You know I’ll back down and say yes to dinner.”
“Perhaps it will give you the opportunity to talk to him about all this work stuff. I mean properly, not shouting at each other when you both have to work late or on a weekend. You’re both strong, professional people, and when you take on the world, it should be together.”
