‘Well, I’m hardly going to be wearing polyester, am I? God, you ask some daft questions sometimes.’
‘I told you not to call me that!’ Chase shouted after her as she left the kitchen, Ellie hoppity-skipping in her wake, and gleefully imitating the harrumph that Angelina responded to Chase with, all the way down the hallway.
Alex watched as Chase tidied up the omelette mess and then gathered a stack of ingredients from the super-sized American fridge that dominated the kitchen with its cherry-red door and began washing and chopping.
‘You weren’t this skilled when we were at school and we had to live off oranges and toast stolen from the sixth form. It always amazes me how good you are in the kitchen.’
‘I know. An all-round renaissance man, who would have thought it? Especially as, let’s face it, our school was all about churning out entitled Neanderthals who could run a country but not wash a dish.’
‘You’ve let the side down by being such a thoroughly decent human being.’
‘I figured someone needed to balance out Hector!’
‘Ha! I haven’t seen him for years, are you still in touch?’
‘Of course, he’s in Morocco at the moment. Actually he’s coming to stay next month.’
‘Really? For all his evil, I’d like to catch up.’
‘Well do, then.’
‘I won’t be here next month.’
‘Interestingly, I wanted to talk to you about that. Maybe you could be. More importantly, maybe you should be.’
‘Eh?’
‘You surprised us all when you adopted Ellie. None of us saw that coming.’
Alex grimaced. Neither had he, truth be told, but life threw curveballs and that day, the day he had set eyes on Ellie, turned out to be one of those times.
He had been covering a story in South Sudan, about the civil war that had been raging through the country and the ceasefire that had just been agreed. It turned out to be the first of many. As Central African correspondent for a British news organization, Alex was used to being in dangerous situations, very dangerous situations, and relying upon his instincts to keep him and his team safe.
However, as he was getting older, he was beginning to wonder how much longer he could, or should, keep doing the things that had won him the reputation for cutting-edge journalism. And that regularly involved him putting himself in situations that could go badly wrong. He wasn’t sure if it was maturity or experience that was making him slightly more trepidatious in his line of work, or if he was just developing a bit of a cowardly streak – he really hoped it wasn’t that. But finding Ellie as he had, that seemed to embed these concerns even deeper, and he knew the time had come for some serious reassessment.
‘It was a shocker for me as well, mate. But you know the situation, I had no choice in the moment. Then afterwards, well, you know how it turned out, that little madam got her hooks into me, the minute she bunched my jacket in her little hand and stared up at me. It was like falling in love as I never had before. I fought a good fight, but I didn’t have a chance. It certainly wasn’t part of my life plan.’ Alex answered his friend honestly, although he knew Chase knew the ins and out of the story already, how he had lain awake thinking of the little girl for months, literally months, before he made the decision he had. And the wrangling to ensure that he made this adoption happen, and with no loopholes, that had taken years.
‘Ha! No, I imagine it wasn’t! And you’re a man that likes to plan, have every eventuality covered. Even when we used to have midnight raids on the tuck shop, do you remember? You’d insist we had a Plan A through to at least a Plan D, leaving nothing to chance.’
‘It saved both our arses more than once. And it helped me later. Always know your exits… it’s a good motto. For all parts of life.’
They heard some very loud squealing coming from the bathroom, which really was too far away to hear easily.
‘What the hell?’
‘Leave her, I reckon both of them have met their match in each other. It’s kinda cute. You would not believe the amount of people that think it’s OK to warn me off of Angelina, but they don’t see this side to her.’
‘The side that sounds like it’s trying to drown my daughter?’
‘Oh no, they see that side. The side that will at least make sure she looks pretty if she does end up killing her. But you know what, having met your daughter, it looks like a fairly even fight to me. Anyway, don’t try and distract me with talk about Angelina.’
‘Oh, I won’t. But we were talking exit plans and I was wondering if you had one. She’s a handful.’
‘Hey! I don’t have an exit strategy for Angelina because I don’t want an exit. I think this could work.’
‘I think that’s very noble but a little short-sighted.’
‘And not wanting to get too personal, Alex, an exit strategy has saved your bacon more times than I know, I should imagine. But a healthy relationship it does not make. Commitment doesn’t start by finding the best way out. You may be doing a grand job of distracting me, but no longer. I want to talk to you about something specific, something serious, whilst those two are no doubt waterlogging that entire side of the house.’
