She supposed it was a good thing that he had people other than her and it dawned then that the beer was likely why he looked more upbeat, alert.
‘I’m missed at the station,’ he went on. ‘And before you assume the worst, I didn’t have any of those beers. I can’t with my medication, you know that.’
And she also knew what he was like. She could see at least three bottles standing empty near the box and she doubted his colleague had had all of them.
When he spotted her looking, he jumped in with further defence. ‘You know Jerry, he likes a beer and a talk, so I cracked open a bottle.’ He laughed. ‘He didn’t notice I wasn’t even drinking it. I poured it down the sink when he wasn’t looking.’
He was lying, of that she had no doubt, but instead of calling him on it, she said, ‘It must’ve been good to catch up, have a bit of company. I’ll go and put all the food in the freezer seeing as you’ve eaten something. It’s labelled so take out whatever you need as you need it.’
He followed her this time. ‘The doctor stopped by before Jerry turned up. Says another month off work ought to do it. He recommended light exercise and I have to go in for a check-up in a couple of weeks.’ He tsked. ‘He suggested when I go back to work, I might need to be on desk duty for a while. Can you imagine it? Me?’
‘Not really.’ Her smile was half-hearted at best.
‘You know me so well.’
Unfortunately, she did.
Maya moved out of the conversation by heading for the discarded plates by the takeaway bags. Each of them had slops of ketchup on, one had a few discarded stubby fries.
‘Here, let me take those,’ he said.
‘No, it’s fi?—’
He was having none of it, took the plates she’d piled one on top of the other. But his outing to the kitchen to dump them in the sink didn’t go to plan when he stumbled into a wall and the plates went crashing to the floor.
He swore and Maya jumped. He swore again.
He froze in place, his good arm above him against the wall and she could see from his back that he was trying to take deep breaths and not lose it all together.
She picked up the plates, the food scraps and went to get a dustpan and brush. By the time she came back, he’d slumped onto the sofa and was rubbing his shoulder.
‘Let me get you your painkillers.’
‘I’m out,’ he said. ‘I forgot to ask you to get some more.’
‘I’ll go now.’
‘No, it’s fine, I’ll manage.’
‘You won’t, you need them.’
‘Then I’ll come with you.’
‘Conrad—’
‘No, I’m coming, Maya. I’ll go mental if I stay inside these walls any longer. Please, I won’t even get out of the car; it’s just a change of scene.’
She relented but only because the sooner they did this, the sooner she could bring him home and get going.
There was a parking spot right outside the pharmacy and Conrad waited in the car while Maya ran inside. And this time, she got him enough painkillers to last for a while.
‘Maya,’ a voice came from behind her as she let the door to the pharmacy fall closed after she came outside.
She turned to see Noah. ‘Hey.’
‘Hey, yourself.’
Maya looked at the little girl in the buggy. ‘She’s okay, isn’t she?’
