“We’ve got a chess move that will destroy you next week at chess club, Mr Bailey,” said Freddie.
“I look forward to seeing it. Don’t get your hopes up, though.”
“It’s a killer, Mr Bailey. We’ve been working on it.”
“Good for you. What about the algebra homework I gave you yesterday? Have you been working on that, too?”
“It’s Saturday, Mr Leonard,” said Harry. “Why would we be working on our homework on a Saturday?”
“You could’ve done it last night,” Peter said.
This was greeted with howls of laughter.
“Who does homework on a Friday night?” the boys chorused.
“Smart kids who want to go somewhere in life, that’s who,” Peter said, clearly enjoying himself.
“We’re already going somewhere, Mr Bailey,” Freddie said and pushed off on his bike at speed. “See?”
“Yeah, we’re going somewherefast!” Harry chipped in, his tyres spinning.
“Bye, Mr Bailey!”
The boys zoomed off along the pathway, yelling and shouting the way young teenage boys do. When they’d vanished around the bend in the river, Peter turned to Gaby with a grin on his face.
“They’re monsters at that age.”
“I don’t know about that. They seemed pretty sweet to me.”
“You’re right, they are sweet. And they’re good kids.”
“They obviously love you.”
Peter laughed. “I doubt that. And I doubt they have anything but evil thoughts about me when they’re doing the homework I give them.”
He gestured to a wooden bench just off the pathway with a pretty view of the curve in the river and an old stone bridge. They sat down and listened to the ducks quacking as they swam past.
“Between seeing you chatting with your school pupils just now and spending time with you at the school last week, and with your family, and with your friends last night at the pub too, I’ve come to realise what a great life you have here, Peter,” Gaby said. “You’re a part of this community, a big part of it. I think that’s wonderful. And it makes me… sort of envious.”
His expression registered surprise. “You were just saying how much you love your life filled with travel and globe-trotting adventures.”
“I know. And I do love it. Maybe envious is the wrong word. Appreciative is maybe better. Because I’m always on the move, I rarely get to see people in their home environment, if that makes sense.”
“You don’t mix with the locals in the places where you work?”
“Oh, I do. But most of the friends I make, most of the friends Ihave, are other hospitality workers like me, often moving around the same way I am. That’s just the reality of the job and the nature of the employment base I tend to interact with. Add in the long hours I work and it doesn’t actually leave much time for making friends with the locals. It’s much easier to make friends with colleagues. And so I don’t usually get to see people ‘at home’, if you know what I mean.”
Peter nodded and looked thoughtful. “I understand.”
“It depends also on how long I’m staying somewhere. When I worked in Australia and New Zealand, I was there for a couple of years, so it was easier to make friends with local people. But if a contract is only running for a few months and the job is hectic, it doesn’t lend itself to local friendships.”
“You make friends easily though, whether they’re colleagues or locals.”
Gaby gave him a surprised look. “What makes you say that?”
“I saw how quickly you settled in with everyone last night at the pub. You were a natural. You were even swapping contact details before you left.”
She laughed. “You have lovely friends and I had fun meeting them. As for swapping contact details, I think a few of the women might want to grill me for holiday destination ideas.”
