The Importance of Being a Bachelor (30 page)

‘What about him?’

‘Well I’m guessing that Luke probably wants me to take my turn at having him for a while.’

Angie covered her mouth in horror. ‘You haven’t told them your dad could move in here, have you? Not that there’s anything wrong with your dad. He’s lovely. But there’s barely room to swing a cat in here let alone a pensioner.’

Russell managed to raise a smile. ‘Me, you and my dad living in a flat this tiny! Are you insane? Of course I haven’t agreed to it. But I do need to go and make my case, OK? You know what they’re like. They think they can boss me about all they want.’

‘OK, fine,’ replied Angie reluctantly. ‘But you don’t have to go right now, do you?’

Russell looked at his watch and reasoned that he probably needn’t leave until about eleven. ‘I’ll be fine for ages,’ he agreed and turned up the volume of the TV so they could carry on watching
Friends
.

‘Excuses don’t come into it.’

Luke was still in shock. He had never seen Cassie that angry. He hadn’t thought such bitterness was possible from someone as sweet natured as her. He played over their meeting time and time again to work out how something so straightforward had ended up going so wrong. The answer was always the same: he had displayed a level of misjudgement so catastrophic that it eclipsed every wrong thing he had ever done before.

He could see his mistake now. He had come to her thinking that his efforts with Jayne would be enough to show that he was trying. But the time for trying had been over long ago. All that mattered was a result and he hadn’t one to offer.

Luke called Cassie’s mobile to apologise but her phone was switched off and his call went straight to voicemail. He left a message that was short and to the point: ‘I’m sorry, Cass. I’m really sorry. Call me when you get this and let’s talk.’ He was desperate enough to seriously consider driving up to Harrogate to see Cassie’s parents in the hope that they might agree to act as intermediaries, when his dad emerged from the living room.

‘I didn’t hear you come in,’ said Dad. ‘Have you been back long?’

Luke shook his head. ‘I only just stepped through the door.’

‘Have you been anywhere nice?’

‘Not really.’

‘Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat if you like.’

‘I’m fine, Dad, honest.’

‘Tea? I was just going to make one anyway.’

Luke looked at the car keys in his hands. What was he doing even thinking about going to see Cassie’s parents? He needed to stop and think about what his next move was going to be instead of lurching from one bad idea to the next. ‘Thanks, Dad, tea would be great.’

Luke sat down on the sofa and looked around the room. Dad had been watching a documentary about World War II on the History Channel but by the looks of things (chiefly the many plates and mugs stacked up on the coffee table) he hadn’t been anywhere other than this room all day.

Luke had been monitoring his father’s gradual decline ever since he had heard about the divorce. He now spoke, went outside and ate less than he did before and all talk of his situation being temporary had evaporated. As much as Dad had brought his current situation on himself, Luke couldn’t help but feel for his father and their situations were not dissimilar. All they wanted were the women in their lives back by their sides where they belonged but this was tantamount to asking for a miracle.

‘I went to see Cassie,’ said Luke as he and his father sat drinking their mugs of tea. ‘That’s where I was earlier.’

‘Did it go well?’

‘It went as badly as it could have done. I think I used up my one chance there, Dad.’

‘One chance?’

‘Since she left I felt confident that she would always give me one last chance, you know, to make things right and basically I think I used it up trying to sell her something that she was never going to buy.’

Later that evening having progressed from tea to Guinness Luke decided to ask his father about something that had been preying on his mind.

‘Dad? I was wondering how you knew that Mum was the one. You know, the one you wanted to marry and spend the rest of your life with?’

Dad shrugged. ‘I just knew, that’s all. No one made me happy like your mother did. No one made me smile like she did. Just being around her . . . I don’t know, it made me feel I was right where I was meant to be.’

‘So what changed?’

‘Changed?’

‘You and this other woman.’

‘It’s hard to say without it sounding like a long list of excuses and you know I don’t do that. I was in the wrong. That’s all that matters. And what I did hurt your mother. Excuses don’t come into it.’

‘I think they do though, Dad. Knowing why we did things is how we learn not to do them again, isn’t it?’

‘I can tell you one thing, son, knowing what I know now even if the opportunity were there I would walk a million miles in the opposite direction just to get away from the mistake I made. But that doesn’t help you, does it?’

‘Not really, no.’

‘To be honest I don’t really know the exact reason why I did it. I could tell you that it was a matter of opportunity, that I got lost in the moment, that I lost my senses, that I was vain and flattered by the attention. I could tell you all this and more, but it wouldn’t change a thing. I did it, got caught and why I did it just doesn’t come into it. That’s what’s wrong with your generation. None of you want to put your hands up and admit you’re guilty because you’re all too busy looking for ways to prove why it was never your fault in the first place. What you forget is there’s a reason why actions have always spoken louder than words: words are cheap but the actions can cost you everything.’

Luke took his father’s words to heart. He settled his dad down in front of the History Channel and headed upstairs to make the call that would sort out his, Cassie’s and Megan’s lives once and for all. His dad was right, and not just about him needing Cassie. His parents needed their granddaughter back in their lives too because if there was one thing Luke had learned through all his recent traumas it was this: family, whether by blood, love or devotion, is everything.

‘Jayne, it’s me, Luke,’ he said as she answered the call. ‘Listen, I’m sorry about calling you so late and really sorry about what I said last time and the way I acted. It was all well out of order. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way. Not in a million years.’

There was a silence for a few moments.

‘I know it was tough for you, Luke, coming to see me like that. And maybe I did deserve to hear some of the thing that you said but if we’re ever going to move on then we need to come to terms with the past.’

‘You’re right,’ said Luke, ‘which is why I’m calling. I need to see you as soon as possible so that we can get this all sorted. I need to see Megan.’ His voice cracked. ‘I really do. And I’m ready to meet whenever you are.’

‘How about Monday?’

‘Monday? That’ll be fine. Same time? Same place? I can be on an earlier train if you like.’

There was another silence. ‘Luke, there’s something I need to tell you. The thing is, I don’t actually live in London.’

‘But I thought that—’

‘I know, and I did it deliberately. When you first got in contact I didn’t know what you wanted and I thought it would be easier if you believed I lived miles away.’

‘So where do you live?’

‘Manchester,’ she replied. ‘We’re living in Manchester.’

‘It’s all about Luke.’

Russell handed the driver a ten-pound note, collected his change and climbed out of the cab. With his destination only a few feet away but heavily guarded by two ferocious bouncers Russell felt compelled to look down at his white Converse and wish that he had made more effort but as he approached the entrance the doormen smiled and opened the door for him. He was taking a moment to get his bearings when Angie’s friend Susie and her boyfriend Steve (both of whom had been at the Japanese restaurant that afternoon) suddenly appeared in his line of vision.

‘Russell!’ exclaimed Susie. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you and Angie were heading home!’

‘We did . . . we were . . .’ He attempted to pull back from blind panic. ‘What I’m trying to say is that yes, we did go home but then some mates of mine called and so I decided to come back out.’

‘I never knew you were such a party animal! So did Angie not come?’

‘No, she was a bit tired.’

‘She works too hard, that girl!’ said Susie, reaching for her boyfriend’s hand. ‘I’m only here because some mates of Steve were here for a while but they’ve all gone home so we’re off now.’ She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Anyway, have a good time and hopefully I’ll see you soon.’

Russell was convinced he was about to pass out from the sheer effort it had taken him to lie to Susie. And to make matter worse they hadn’t even been good lies! Why hadn’t he been consistent and said he was meeting his brothers rather than inventing random mates? What was he going to say to Angie if Susie ever mentioned bumping into him? How would he explain why he was in Didsbury when he had told her he was heading over to Chorlton? What if Susie was right now in the back of a cab sending Angie a text telling her that she had just spotted him? The potential for damage didn’t bear thinking about and so Russell decided not to think about it.

He scouted around the bar for Cassie and eventually spotted her and her friends lounging on a pair of sofas next to the French doors at the back. By the time Russell was halfway across the room she was already on her feet, and as he arrived she threw her arms round him and kissed him, lips closed, but full on the mouth. Russell had no idea what was going on. Had he walked into some kind of alternate universe? The rising cackles of laughter from Cassie’s friends informed him that the explanation was simple: Cassie and her friends were incredibly, undeniably drunk.

‘I’m so glad you’ve come, Russ,’ said Cassie a little too loudly. She turned to face her friends, swaying slightly. ‘Everybody, this is Russell, the sweetest boy in all the world who was very nearly my brother-in-law.’ Cassie’s friends, five women of equal sobriety, waved at Russell. Cassie turned back to Russell to do the reverse introductions. ‘Russell, this is Dina, Luce, Julia, Charmaine and Erin aka the best friends a girl could ever have.’ Grinning inanely she put her arms round him and squeezed tightly. ‘I bloody love you, you know. I bloody love you to bits!’

The next hour of Russell’s life was bizarre. Somehow Cassie ended up perched on his knee while she and her friends continued to drink steadily, all the while getting louder. At one point there was singing and then later some dancing, and then later still some slow dancing. As the only man in the group Russell found himself passed around like a cut-price gigolo. Every time he managed to get away (usually insisting that he needed to head out to the loo) the girls would come and find him and even when he did manage to get Cassie on her own so that he could ask her what was going on she would always make some excuse (the need to buy a round, a text message that needed to be replied to or a song that needed to be danced to) and off she would go. Some time later a member of the bar staff came over and informed them quite forcefully in the middle of their group rendition of ‘I’ve Had the Time of My Life’ that if they didn’t quieten down he would have no choice but to throw them out. The girls took this as their cue to call it a night and the next half-hour went by in a flurry of whispered phone calls to boyfriends and husbands (for those who had them) and (for those who didn’t) shouty phone conversations with minicab operators all demanding lifts home. Soon after, having waved goodbye to each of her friends in turn, Russell found himself getting into the back of a Crimson Cars minicab with Cassie.

The driver glanced up into his rear-view mirror. ‘Where are you looking to go, mate?’

Russell was about to open his mouth when Cassie piped up, ‘Chorlton. We’re going back to Chorlton,’ and reeled off her address. ‘That’s all right, isn’t it?’ she said, slipping her fingers between Russell’s. ‘You’re coming back to mine, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah, of course,’ he said, barely able to get his words out properly. ‘Yeah, of course I’m coming back to yours.’

It was nearly three as the minicab pulled up outside a nondescript block of purpose-built flats opposite a Tesco Metro. As Cassie searched around in her bag for her keys Russell paid the driver, took a quick look at his watch and wondered how he was ever going to come up with a plausible excuse for being out this late that wouldn’t result in Angie causing him permanent harm. This night was too weird for Russell to take any real pleasure from it until he knew what the punchline was going to be. As it was he was simply too on edge to think that any good could come of it at all. He needed to find out what was going on and he needed to find out now.

‘Found them!’ said Cass, waving her keys victoriously in the air. She put her arm round his waist. ‘Come on,’ she said, shivering. ‘Let’s get inside.’

He didn’t move.

‘What are you doing?’

‘I was going to ask you the same question. What’s going on here, Cass? Why did you send me that text? And what am I doing standing here right now? This might sound a bit naive but I really don’t know what’s going on.’

For a moment he thought she was about to kiss him, properly kiss him, but then she shook her head. ‘Why don’t you come inside? I’ll make us a cup of tea and some toast or something and then I’ll explain why after tonight you’ll probably never want to speak to me again.’