Page 76 of One Day Like This (Excess All Areas 1)

Silence fell between them. The radiator in the room clanged. A door in the hallway slammed shut. A child ran down the corridor laughing. Life going on as usual while his own world felt like it was crashing down.

“You won’t tell Luke or Jase, will you?” Matt asked eventually.

“Ah, don’t put me in the middle. I love you both.”

“I’m not asking you to take sides. I’m just asking you to keep this to yourself until I figure out what the hell I’m going to do.”

Ben held the chain out towards Matt and dropped it into his palm. “I don’t think you don’t know what to do. I think you know and fear the outcome. The band will implode. Jase and/or Luke will quit.”

Matt groaned. “You think I don’t know, Ben? I live with it every day.”

Ben stood. “Is she worth it?”

Is she worth it?

The way she always asked him how his day went? The way she slid him handwritten notes beneath his door when she left for work, the way she held him and listened to him as he talked and ranted and played. The way the darkest room was illuminated by her very presence, the way he could feel the living vibration of her when they lay next to each other in bed. The way she held him and sucked him and made love with him and fucked him.

“It’s an impossible equation. Why am I not entitled to have both? In one breath, I want to yell at Luke and tell him it’s none of his business who his sister is with because she’s a grown woman. On the next breath, I totally get where he is coming from.”

Ben sighed. “Fine. I’ll not tell Luke. For now.”

Matt stood and squeezed Ben’s shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I’ve put you in this position.”

“Yeah, well, just don’t leave me hanging here. It’ll only be worse the longer this goes on. You need to tell him, Matt.”

Matt nodded.

But as the door clicked shut, he realised he was no closer to figuring out how.

13

Izabel fiddled with her necklace, rubbing her fingertips over the smooth rose gold surface, and shivering as she recalled the way Matt had fastened the chain and laid a trail of kisses down her neck. The last of the late September sunshine warmed her face.

“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” The Irish lilt could only belong to one person.

Joe Lockwood, owner of Lockwood Fades, the barber shop over by Affleck’s, walked towards her with the confident stride of a man who knew his place in the world. With a severe fade on the sides and a mess of hair on the top, his hair walked the talk for his barber shop.

He was joined by two other barbers from the shop, Dominic, a transplant from Devon, and Jackson, a former resident of the shelter who’d been given an apprenticeship by Joe.

“Hey. I’d manage to forget it was the last Monday in the month.”

Joe mimicked a dagger being plunged into his heart. “And here I was, living under the illusion you lived for my monthly visits.”

Izabel laughed. “Dude. Don’t joke about monthly visits with a woman.”

Joe waved Dominic and Jackson inside as they laughed. “How’ve you been, Izabel?”

“Did you know the building’s been sold?”

Joe cursed and placed his hand on the brickwork, stroking it as if it had feelings. “That’s too bad. Where are you moving to?”

Izabel shook her head. “Doesn’t look good. Rent is just too high in the city right now.”

Joe placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. “If you can think of any way we can help, beyond coming here once a month to cut your residents’ hair, just ask me.”

He’d set up his barbers’ shop in Manchester and had gotten to know Dennis, a former cabbie who’d slept in the shop doorway every night. Joe had offered him a haircut and a decent outfit for a job interview. Even let him use the shop as his home address to apply. Dennis found a job, and Joe found a passion for helping homeless men get back on their feet.

Izabel looked up at Joe, and for the first time, realised there was something more in Joe’s eyes. It was more than friendship, more than a mutual admiration for the work each of them did. His hand had slid down to her bicep, his thumb tracing circles on her arm.

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