Page 55 of The Life Experiment
But as Angus heard himself speak, he realised he wasn’t saying any of that. ‘My parents have been together since they were teenagers. They’re childhood sweethearts.’
‘That’s nice. Are they happy? Did they grow together, not apart?’
Angus whistled. ‘What a question.’
‘Thank you, now answer it.’
Angus smiled, then thought of Gilly and Peter. Two people who would never deconstruct the life they shared, even if they were miserable. After all, what would people say if they did? Was there love there, underneath it all? In their private moments, did they still laugh, still cuddle, still conjure dreams together?
Or, like most things in Angus’s life, were they one big glossy charade?
‘They’re as happy as two people who have been together forever can be,’ Angus replied, thumbing the corner of his menu. ‘I don’t know if that means they’re happy, but it’s what they have, and I don’t think they’ll ever change it. They’re a tight unit. They’ve been that way since my brother died.’
It was hard to say who was more surprised at Angus’s revelation. Layla, at hearing it for the first time, or Angus, at saying it so freely.
The words didn’t come easy. In fact, in the Fairview-Whitley household, the words weren’t allowed at all. But ever since that day at Haven Hospice with Aleksander, Angus hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Hugo.
As Angus’s childhood came flooding back to him, his surroundings faded until all he saw was the brother who was there until suddenly, he wasn’t. The empty seat at the dinner table. The bedroom at the end of the hallway, locked as if to capture Hugo’s ghost inside. The person who taught Angus rugby passes, who roamed the gardens with him, who showed him the best hiding places in the house, gone.
As Angus’s vision blurred, Layla reached across the table for his hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Angus. When did he die?’
‘When we were kids. He was thirteen, I was eleven.’
Sadness burned in Layla’s eyes. ‘That’s so young.’
‘I know. He had his whole life ahead of him.’
‘Of course. But I meant you. You were so young to know such pain.’
Pressing his tongue into the back of his lower lip, Angus nodded. There was so much he wanted to say about that time. So much he knew Layla would understand if he shared, but the words would not come out. They were too painful.
Layla’s calm gaze travelled over Angus. ‘Thank you for telling me about your brother. I’d love to hear more about him, if you’d like to share. But I also understand if you need more time.’
‘Maybe not tonight,’ Angus replied, swallowing the knot of grief in his throat as best he could. ‘But I’d like to tell you more sometime.’
Layla squeezed his hand. ‘Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here.’
I’ll be here… Angus wasn’t alone anymore. It was a feeling he hadn’t been able to shake since meeting Layla, sour-faced and furious in a random cafe, the same day Angus found out he was going to live to be an old man. Thanks to her, life didn’t seem quite so dark. It had transformed into something to grab, something to chase…
And being with Layla, spending time with her? Well, Angus would grab and chase every opportunity he got, even if that meant lying along the way.
25Layla
With her stomach stuffed with ravioli and aching from laughing so much, Layla grabbed her coat from the back of her chair. ‘I’m so full, I can barely stand,’ she said.
‘Me too, but we need to leave. They’re going to kick us out,’ Angus replied.
Glancing around, Layla realised he had a point. She and Angus were the last people in Bella Vino and had been for a while. The waitstaff had politely started tidying around them half an hour ago, but in the last ten minutes their movements had become more aggressive. Layla could hardly blame them. It was after eleven, they wanted to go home. But that meant Layla and Angus had to leave too. It meant ending a night that, if she was honest with herself, Layla wished would never end.
‘Thank you again,’ Angus said to a passing waiter, who smiled widely in return. Layla suspected it was because of the tip Angus left. Layla hadn’t seen how much it was – Angus had been adamant about paying for dinner – but from the way the waiter’s eyes widened with delight, she guessed it was sizeable.
Layla loved that Angus tipped generously, mentally adding another tick to the chart she pretended she wasn’t keeping in her head.
With his hand resting gently on her lower back, Angus guided Layla through Bella Vino. Layla had no idea how her legs were moving.Her brain certainly wasn’t telling them to – it was too busy focusing on the fireworks exploding where Angus’s hand touched her skin.
It had been like that throughout dinner. Every innocent brush of hands as they reached for a drink, every moment their eyes met for a second too long, made Layla lose the ability to think.
This is bad. Bad, bad, bad,her brain flustered as Angus opened the door for her. Layla wished she could shut the voice out. How could something that felt so good be bad?
