Page 71 of The Life Experiment
Opening his messages again, Angus fired off a reply to Jasper confirming his attendance at badminton later, then checked his thread with Peter. Their last exchange confirmed their lunch plans. Since then, nothing.
There wasn’t a message from his mother, either. Chewing his lip, Angus wondered if his charity idea was to blame. Gilly still wasn’t on board with Hugo’s House, but the purpose of this lunch was to sway her.
Beside Angus was a folder of research. It had been his secret project for the last week. He worked on it whenever he wasn’t volunteering at Haven or seeing Layla. Collating businesses he could partner with and generating a list of potential donors… it was the biggest project Angus had ever worked on.
While he wished he could have asked Layla to cast her discerning eye over it, Angus knew he couldn’t. She still had no idea of his plans. He had no idea how he was going to tell her without unveiling his list of lies, but that was a problem for another day. Today was all about impressing his parents.
They just needed to show up first.
When Angus craned his neck to check his parents weren’t waiting at the bar, a waiter approached him. ‘Is everything okay, sir? Can I get you a top-up, perhaps?’ he said, nodding to Angus’s almost empty whisky glass.
‘I’m fine, thank you. Although perhaps you could bring a bottle of champagne for the table.’
As soon as the words left his mouth, Angus regretted them. Champagne was a celebratory drink. He didn’t want his mother to think that he wasn’t taking this seriously or that he was partying before he’d crossed the finish line.
‘Actually, make that a bottle of white. Sommelier’s choice,’ he corrected.
‘Right away, sir,’ the waiter replied before retreating. But by the time the wine was brought to the table, Angus’s parents still hadn’t arrived. Taking his phone from his pocket once more, Angus called Peter. The phone rang three times before cutting to voicemail. When Angus tried Gilly, the same thing happened.
Embarrassment singed Angus’s cheeks. Scanning the restaurant, he saw that no one was looking, but Angus felt as if every eye were on him, laughing that he had been stood up.
On the table, Angus’s phone pinged with a message.
Sorry son, something came up. Your mother
and I will have to miss lunch.
A disbelieving laugh escaped Angus. Closing the message without replying, he set his phone down and glanced at the folder beside him.
How stupid could he have been to think that he could create something like Hugo’s House? A project like that wasn’t for a fuck-up like him. It was for someone who knew what they were doing. Someone people could get behind and support.
Someone like Layla.
It was as if thinking her name had conjured her, because Layla chose that moment to call.
‘Hey,’ Angus said, snatching his phone from the table to answer it.
‘Hey yourself,’ she replied. Her voice sounded echoey, as if she was speaking from the bottom of a well.
‘Where are you?’ Angus asked with a laugh. ‘The sound quality is so bad it’s like you’re calling from the 1950s.’
Layla responded with a giggle. ‘I’m in the stairwell at work.’
‘What are you doing in there?’
‘I didn’t want anyone to hear me make a personal call, but I couldn’t not thank you for reading my ideas. I really appreciate it.’
The knot that had tightened Angus’s chest unfurled. ‘You don’t have to thank me. I’ll check anything you want, you know that.’
‘Anything? Even under my bed for monsters?’
Now it was Angus’s turn to laugh. ‘Name the day and I will be there with a sword and a suit of armour.’
‘How chivalrous. Noble costume choice, too,’ Layla teased. ‘In all seriousness, though, thank you for making the time for me. It means a lot.’
As Angus’s eyes travelled to the door that his parents hadn’t walked through, his smile widened. So what if his parents didn’t value him enough to show up to an important lunch? So what if walking outof this restaurant was going to be embarrassing? Layla appreciated his time. Layla wanted him around.
Layla doesn’t know who you are, remember?his brain snarled.She thinks you work in IT.
