Page 77 of Just Do It
‘We came on the train last night. It was really rather lovely. We never should have left it so long.’
‘I should have come down to you more often.’
‘You’re working, darling. It’s not as easy for you. No,’ she said, her manner determined. ‘The onus was on us and I’m sorry we haven’t made more of an effort.’
‘What’s brought all this on, Mum?’
‘Hello, my bright button!’ Dad’s voice boomed around the marble, echoing off the surfaces. Bob, the security guard, threw me a grin and I knew exactly how I would be greeted the next time I came in. Not that I minded.
‘Hello, Dad!’ I said, hugging him close. ‘It’s such a lovely surprise to see you both.’
‘It’s been far too long.’ He exchanged a look with Mum. ‘This health scare has really made us sit up and reassess how we’ve been living our lives.’
My eyebrows flew to the top of my head. ‘What health scare?’ My voice pitched up an octave, possibly two. Mum shot him a look.
‘William,’ she sighed. ‘I’ve just spent the last five minutes convincing the poor girl that she has nothing to worry about in that regard. You can’t just go blurting things out.’
Dad winced, his expression contrite. ‘Sorry.’ He turned to me. ‘There really isn’t any need to worry.’
I heaved out a breath. ‘It sounds like there’s a lot to talk about. Why don’t you come up to my office and have a cup of tea and I’ll see if I can get off a bit early.’
‘We don’t mean to interrupt your day, darling. We can just arrange to meet later if that’s convenient?’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘Some things are more important than work. It’s not like I don’t put the hours in.’
‘No. You always were so conscientious.’
‘I had good role models.’
Mum gave a little head wobble, apparently doubting my claim.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s go up to the office and get a drink. I’m pretty sure I saw Finn had biscuits so we can swipe some of those too.’
‘Who’s Finn?’ Dad asked as we made our way along the corridors, both of my parents peering at the odd exhibit that had been strategically placed to add visual interest to the passageways.
‘He’s the project manager for the new exhibition space.’
‘Ah OK. Going well, is it?’
‘Well, it was kind of unexpected and it’s early days really, but yes, I think so.’ It was only when I went to speak again that I realised my parents were no longer beside me. I stopped and turned.
‘What?’
‘I was talking about the exhibition space build,’ Dad said. He exchanged a look with Mum and a grin slipped onto his face. ‘But it seems there is something far more interesting in your life than that?’
‘Oh! Yes, well no. I mean, that’s a major thing of course. The build. It’s going to be such a boon to the museum and the plans for the first exhibition are going great. There are still some things to iron out, of course, but there always are.’ I was wellaware that a), I was jabbering and b), neither of my parents were buying it.
‘That’s good to hear,’ my dad said after a moment or two of silence.
‘As is the fact that said project manager is the chap you mentioned. Is that how you met?’ Mum’s eyes twinkled behind her lenses. ‘I do hope this one is worthy of you.’ She never had been one to beat around the bush.
I skimmed over the details of how Finn and I actually met. Some things were best kept from your parents! ‘Friedrich wasn’t that bad.’ A small part of my brain was sat in the corner, legs crossed, chin resting upon its hand, pondering why I was always so ready to defend Friedrich.
‘Oh darling, he was rather a know-it-all and I was never keen on how whenever you had a particular achievement he always felt the need to pipe up about some marvellous thing he’d done.’
My mind recalled how Colette had recently said the same. ‘You never said anything.’
‘No.’ She cast her eyes down momentarily. ‘I didn’t really know how to. I know I can be rather blunt at times but we thought you were happy. Your dad did want to mention it but I’m afraid, despite years of dealing with students, neither of us had a clue how to say the right thing to our own daughter. Something we now regret most bitterly.’
