PartI
ChapterOne
September
‘Honey, I’m home,’ called Leo through the open door of the top-floor apartment, stepping past the suitcases left inside the doorway.
There was no response but Leo heard a muttered curse, so he walked to one of the open doorways to find a large man, his own sort of age, squinting down at the instructions for a flat-pack construction.
‘Hello, you must be my new flatmate,’ he said, dumping his rucksack on the floor and looking around the light airy room with Velux windows tucked into the sloping roof. At first glance, his home for the next six months didn’t look too bad at all. Hopefully his roomie would be okay, too, although Leo’s immediate impression was that he seemed a little taciturn – but then, who wouldn’t be when they were surrounded by little packets of screws and the pieces of a half-completed bed frame?
His new roommate glanced up. ‘What?’ he mumbled through a deep frown, his mind clearly on what bolt went where. ‘Yeah, right.’
‘Leo Knight.’ He waved as the other man clearly wasn’t in any sort of position to shake his hand. ‘Sorry to barge in. Looks like you’ve got your hands full there. Need a hand?’
‘I’m all right. Steve Munt.’ He lumbered to his feet. ‘You just got here?’
‘Yeah, I flew into Václav Havel this morning.’ He got a kick out of saying the Czech name with what he hoped was the correct pronunciation.
‘What?’ The man frowned, leaving Leo with impression number two, that his new room-mate was either a bit slow or a bit dull. The jury was out.
‘Prague airport,’ responded Leo. Maybe the guy needed a bit of tickle. ‘Great transport links. I only got off the plane an hour and a half ago. Looks like you’ve been here a while and had time to go shopping.’
‘No, drove here.’ The other man nodded towards the bedframe in pieces on the floor. ‘Brought it with us. My girlfriend’s gone out to do the shopping. We only got here half an hour ago.’ He gave Leo a careful and slightly suspicious study which almost had Leo checking himself over. Did he look that threatening? Or odd? They were both wearing T-shirts and jeans, although Leo’s Armanis had put in a few miles and the fashionable rip was actually genuine – the result of a close encounter with barbed wire when a very displeased boyfriend hadn’t taken kindly to Leo kissing his girlfriend. Not that she’d complained or even mentioned said boyfriend.
‘Looks okay, doesn’t it?’ Leo ploughed on, determined to give the guy the chance to warm up.
‘What?’
‘This place. Not bad at all.’
Leo turned and surveyed the hallway and the smaller, empty room opposite. Someone was very organised. His plan was to nip to the nearby Ikea, grab a mattress, bedding and the basics and come back in an Uber. The store was open until eight. Plenty of time. When you were offered a very low rent on an unfurnished flat, you weren’t going to turn it down, especially when you were going to be living on a bursary for six months.
‘Fancy a beer?’ he asked. ‘I picked up a couple of cold ones from the shop down the road.’
‘A beer?’ Steve looked at his watch and then down at the instructions he was following and then scrunched up his face. ‘Why not? This is doing my head in. It’s a two-man job, so I can’t do any more at the moment.
He rose to his feet.
Leo grinned. ‘You’d better tell me where the kitchen is. All I’ve had time to do is dump my bags.’
‘Up the stairs. This place is upside down for some reason.’ The other man scowled. ‘The kitchen and lounge are up there.’
Leo thought it sounded fun. ‘Cool. Great views, I’m guessing, as we’re top of the building.’
‘Not my idea of fun, traipsing up the stairs all the time but I’m not the one who’ll be living here.’
‘Oh.’ Leo, following him up the stairs paused, suddenly grateful for this news.
‘It’s my girlfriend. I’m helping her move in. Staying the weekend. Took the shuttle. Drove through. France, Belgium, Germany. Took fifteen hours.’
‘Oh, right. Well, nice to meet you.’ That explained the suspicious look, thought Leo. He wasn’t vain but he also wasn’t stupid.
Steve carried on, ‘She’s here on a cultural placement with some brewery. It’s a bloody long way to come to learn how to make lager, if you ask me.’
‘No sympathy, mate,’ said Leo with a forced grin, feeling solidarity with his unknown flatmate, delighted to find he’d have something in common with her. ‘I’ve got the same bee in my bonnet. I’m doing a placement, too.’ All he’d been told was that he’d be sharing an apartment with another European who was on the same scheme to further knowledge of Czech culture, produce and industry. If they were also into beer that was a big tick. There was an induction meeting on Monday, where he’d meet his brewery sponsor and find out where he’d be working for the next six months. Although securing the placement was pretty prestigious and had been fiercely contested, he was actually more interested in the prize that was up for grabs during the placement. There was an amazing opportunity, at least amazing to him, to win a couple of brewery tanks as well as all the equipment to fit out his own small, craft brewery. On paper it sounded relatively simple: create a bespoke beer, along with a marketing and distribution plan that needed to demonstrate how he would raise the profile of Czech beer in the UK. The winner would be the headline beer at the newly established Christmas Beer Festival. It would be an amazing publicity opportunity. He wondered how many of the other people who’d snagged a placement would be interested in winning their own brewery kit.
He stopped dead as they walked into the lounge area, grinning when he spotted the unexpected roof terrace. ‘Now that’s a bonus.’
