Page 50 of Part of Me
“I know,” I reply as I drink more water and close my eyes briefly.
“And how did you get on at Luke’s office?”
“No good,” I say with a shake of my head.
“What happened?” she asks.
“He wasn’t there. Andi answered the door.”
“Oh, you mean the bitch boss?”
“Yeah,” I say with a sigh. I pass Tori and go to the lounge, picking Oliver up in my arms. He lets out a gurgle and it makes me smile. If it wasn’t for this little guy, then I don’t know if I would still be here. I need to do what’s best for my son. It’s just a shame that I can’t figure out what the best thing is right now.
“So, where was he then?”
“Apparently he got called out to go on some emergency job.” I sit on the sofa and Tori takes a seat next to me.
“Emergency? He works in construction. What kind of emergency could there be?” She sounds just as confused as I feel.
“Exactly. He told me that he would be in the office all day to catch up on paperwork. Not only that, Tor, but his office isn’t actually an office.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, his office just so happens to be a very nice, red bricked house. It doesn’t look like an office block. It’s just a big house situated on a housing estate.”
“A housing estate?”
“Yeah. It was definitely not what I was expecting, that’s for sure.” My brain hurts. So many unanswered questions. “And I know that I don’t like Andi, but there’s something else about her that makes me nervous. She has this way in which she makes you feel like you are doing something wrong.”
“Maybe she has a thing for Luke?”
“That is a strong possibility,” I admit. I have already thought about this being one reason for Andi being so off-hand with me. “But there’s something else, I just can’t put my finger on what.”
“You need to shut this shit down and get the truth from Luke.”
“I know,” I agree as I hear the front door open.
“Charlie?” I hear Luke call out. I look at the clock on the mantelpiece. It has just gone two o’clock. He shouldn’t be home yet. I can only presume that Andi informed him about my visit, or that he actually was in that building and he did actually see me. He comes walking into the lounge and he looks a little flushed. “Everything okay?”
“Why do you ask?” I challenge him.
“Well, Andi called me and said that you showed up at work.”
“So?”
“So, you never come to my work. I just presumed that it meant that something was wrong.”
“Why don’t you tell me, Luke?” I am not going to back down this time. I need to get to the bottom of this fucked up situation.
“Uh, I think I’ll leave you guys to it,” Tori says as she stands up from the sofa. “Call me if you need to talk,” she says to me.
“Thanks, Tor.” She says goodbye to Luke and then leaves us to it. Once I hear the front door shut behind her, I get up and put Oliver in his bouncer. I pop one of the baby channels on for him and I indicate to Luke to come into the kitchen. Oliver may only be a few months old, but I don’t want to have a heated debate around him. I go over to the sink and brace my hands on the counter.
“What’s going on, Charlie?” I whirl around at Luke’s words. He has a cheek to ask me what is going on. I scoff and fold my arms across my chest.
“I have no idea, Luke. I have been trying to figure that out for a while now.” I see his body tense. He knows that I know something is amiss here. “You clearly have something else going on that you are keeping from me. I don’t understand why there is all of this secrecy. I let the Ricardo and Gavin situation go and I definitely shouldn’t have because those two fuckers chased me home, after I left your so called office––”
“They did what?” Luke shouts, his face going slightly red.
