Page 36 of The Fallback

‘Yeah, we do, normally. Actually, it is a bit odd; I feel like he’s gone quiet on me.’ She and Nadia looked at each other. ‘I’m not really sure what’s going on with him, but he hasn't been in touch in days,’ Rosie confessed.

ChapterTen

It was official. Mitch was definitely ignoring her. Either that, or he was dead. Rosie wasn’t sure which was preferable. She looked back at her message exchange with him for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She hadn’t heard from him since Friday. Nothing on Saturday, which perhaps wasn’t so unusual. But it was strange that he hadn’t messaged on her mum’s birthday (Rosie might have temporarily forgotten about her mum’s birthday that morning, but there was no way Mitch would.) And even stranger that he had yet to surface by Monday afternoon.

Sure, there were times when he would be quiet on a Monday because of work, but if they hadn’t seen each other all weekend, he would have bombarded her with questions about it and lots of details of what his had been like. Although, come to think of it, Rosie couldn’t remember the last time they had gone an entire weekend without seeing each other. She shook her head in confusion. Something didn’t feel right, and no amount of secretive data from Rachel and BioChem could fully distract her from this.

When Rosie still hadn’t heard from Mitch by the end of the day, and all the messages she had left on his mobile and office phone had gone unanswered, she began to worry. As she pulled on her coat and picked up her bag to go home, she made her decision. Walking down the corridor, she saw the light on in Nadia’s office, so, knocking lightly, she opened the door and peered round.

‘You’re working late,’ she said, seeing Nadia bent over her keyboard tapping furiously away. The office was a mess, even more than usual. There were papers piled up against the wall and not for the first time Rosie wondered how Nadia managed to get any work done with all the folders on her desk.

‘Everything all right?’ she asked.

Nadia stopped typing and looked up at her, blinking as if seeing the light for the first time in hours. ‘Yes, I’m just looking into funding,’ she said shortly.

‘Oh, OK.’ Rosie paused. ‘What about the kids?’

‘Nico is picking them up tonight,’ Nadia said, turning back to her computer screen.

Rosie didn’t want to disturb her any further. ‘Don’t work too late, though,’ she said encouragingly, ‘and let me know if I can do anything.’

Nadia looked back up at her and smiled. ‘Thanks, and thanks for earlier.’

Rosie waved at her as if to say ‘it’s nothing’, then turned to go.

‘Hey,’ called Nadia, ‘Any news from Mitch?’

Rosie shook her head. ‘Nothing. It’s weird. I can’t reach him at his office, either. I’m going to go over to his flat now. Maybe he’s ill?’

Nadia nodded slowly. ‘Maybe,’ she agreed. ‘Let me know when you find out?’

Rosie nodded.

‘And give me an update tomorrow on Graham! I want to know you’ve lined up a date!’ she shouted at full volume as Rosie closed the door behind her.

Two post-doc students happened to be walking down the corridor just at that moment and turned as they heard Nadia’s shout. Rosie grimaced, the last thing she wanted was everyone at work knowing about her love life.

‘Night,’ she said in what she hoped was a professional and nonchalant manner as she walked past them heading for the exit.

It wasn’t a long tube journey from Rosie’s work to Mitch’s flat, but it did involve two changes of lines and navigating her way through the tourists congregating by the ticket barriers. Rosie tried to stay calm; she was normally sympathetic to their plight as they tried to get their newly purchased Oyster cards to work. But today she was not in the mood. Her anxiety about Mitch had only grown during the day and she was now convinced that something must really be wrong.

She pushed her way between two groups of tourists and apologised over her shoulder as she passed, quickly stepping through the ticket barriers and running down to the platform just in time to see a train pull in. Slightly flustered, she stepped on to the train and saw one seat free. This was a good sign, Rosie thought, perhaps everything would turn out to be fine. Mitch would have forgotten to charge his phone or something. He'd roll his eyes at her concern and then they'd get dinner together, maybe a couple of drinks, too.

Mitch lived in a new-build block of flats in a stupidly trendy part of East London, not far from the Hackney Marshes. On paper, hers and Mitch’s flats couldn’t have been more different. His was in a modern, architect-designed complex, whereas hers was a converted Victorian terrace. But once inside, their shared taste was evident. A mixture of antique and modern and whatever they had been able to afford at the time.

Rosie stopped outside the building and looked up. Mitch’s flat was a corner one, with a view of both the main entrance and the tastefully designed square to the side. He had a balcony overlooking the square, but even from the front Rosie could see the lights on in his flat. So, he must be home she thought to herself. She checked her phone for a final time, there was still nothing, so she pressed his buzzer and nervously tapped her foot as she waited for a reply. She thought back over the number of times she had stood here, never thinking about more than how long it always took Mitch to answer. She waited. The minutes ticked by.

Stepping back, she looked back up. She was sure she could see movement from the lit windows of Mitch’s flat. Hemustbe in, she thought to herself. Or at least someone was in? Perhaps he had been taken hostage? Perhaps they were just working out their demands right now, he was a journalist, after all. And then she remembered that Mitch was a science correspondent and that anyone stupid enough to kidnap him must have done so by mistake.

Suddenly the front door to the building swung open. Instinctively, Rosie turned wondering if it was Mitch but her heart fell. It wasn't. A girl came rushing through the doorway moving at pace. She was pulling on her coat as she went and flicked her long blonde curls over the collar as she passed Rosie. Pausing for a moment, she looked curiously at Rosie before walking past her out into the evening. Rosie couldn’t help but notice the height of her heels and felt a momentary pang of jealousy that this girl could walk in them with ease, before remembering that she much preferred her comfortable hi-tops, in which she didn’t have to worry about falling over.

Watching her go, Rosie wondered whether she ought to have taken the opportunity and raced through the open door behind her instead of getting distracted by her shoes, but at that moment the intercom buzzed into life and Mitch’s voice echoed out.

‘Hello?’ he said. ‘Rosie?’

She moved swiftly towards the intercom, ‘Yeah, hi. What’s going on? I’ve been worried about you.’

There was a pause. ‘I’m fine,’ came the response.

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