‘What? Oh, yes, she’s fine; I’m not going inside.’ He indicated the pharmacy.
The sound of Conrad’s window coming down on the car they were standing beside alerted her to the fact he wanted to be in on the exchange. She didn’t even look at him but it was obvious Noah had registered his presence.
‘I’m out for a sanity walk,’ Noah continued when Maya’s discomfort had her lost for words.
‘I remember those when Isaac was little.’ But she couldn’t linger; already she knew this conversation would be dissected tothe nth degree all the way back to Conrad’s house. ‘Well, it was good to see you.’
‘See you at work,’ he smiled.
Their exchange had been long enough that by the time Maya got in the car, Conrad’s good fist was clenched on top of his knee, the vein in his temple pulsed and his lips stayed pursed shut but only until she pulled away from the kerb.
‘Who was that?’ he asked.
‘I work with him.’
‘Wasn’t what I asked. Does pretty boy have a name?’
‘Noah.’
‘Noah… he building an ark or something?’ He thought he was funny; Maya just hoped he’d let it go. But he didn’t. ‘He’s interested in you.’
‘Conrad—’
‘I’m a bloke, I know the signs. Couldn’t take his eyes off you.’
She gave way to her right and turned the corner. ‘Neither could the baby but that doesn’t mean she’s interested in me, does it?’
He snorted. ‘Watch yourself there, Maya.’
She knew that didn’t mean he was worried about Noah treating her right if something were to happen between them. He meant watch what she did, or he’d make her life difficult in whatever way he saw fit.
She helped him back inside the house and dished out a couple of painkillers.
Conrad swore again after he swallowed the pills, his frustration showing through. ‘I hate this, you know.’
Not as much as she did. But instead of labouring the point, she got herself back on course for what she needed from him. ‘Did Isaac call today?’ Their son had been good with contact since Conrad was discharged from the hospital. Maya had towonder how much was for his dad and how much was as moral support for her.
‘He called but he was on his way to another exam.’ He said the wordexamlike Isaac was off to a pole-dancing class rather than studying to improve his future prospects. ‘Good of him to care about his old man. Thought he might have hung around Whistlestop River a bit longer, though.’
‘He came all this way from Scotland between exams, important exams,’ Maya reminded him.
Conrad for once didn’t leap in and accuse her of being on the defensive for her son. She watched as he laid his head back against the sofa as though his body was telling him he was doing too much too soon.
‘Are you going to be okay on your own this evening?’Please say yes. Please say she didn’t have to stay for too much longer.
‘Watch a movie with me?’
‘What?’
He had his eyes closed. There was no observing her closely like he usually did, the way he let others know he thought she belonged to him. ‘You can choose what it is,’ he said gently. ‘I don’t mind; I’d just appreciate the company.’
It was easier to do it than not. ‘I’ll stay another hour but then I have to get back to Whizzy.’
She picked up the remote control from the side table, ready to flip through Netflix and Prime and see what she could find. Anything to make the time pass as quickly as possible.
But she didn’t absorb much of anything as Conrad began to fall asleep beside her. She wasn’t thinking about a television show; her head was with the air ambulance’s newest recruit, the kindness and excitement in his eyes earlier when they met in the street.
She was in trouble; a workplace romance had never been on her agenda. Especially with an ex-husband who refused to go away quietly.
