If I Never Met You(89)

‘Hey, hey,’ Jamie soothed. ‘This is a few stitches and good as new. It’s frightening to see blood, that’s all.’

Claire nodded. Phil was a sickly beige colour and not fully with it, which Laurie judged maybe a good thing. She wouldn’t want to be there when they unwound the tea towel.

At A&E he got rushed straight through and Laurie and Jamie were left in their party clothes, under bright lights, surrounded by people with sections of their anatomy leaking or bandaged, a baby crying on the other side of the room.

‘Fresh air?’ Jamie said, and Laurie nodded. ‘Let me wash this off and I’ll meet you out front.’

‘Well, that was the most dramatic way to get out of cooking fifty burgers I’ve ever seen,’ Jamie said, joining her five minutes later, a few rusty specks on his sleeves and a massive Nike swoosh across the front as trophy of the evening’s unexpected turn.

‘Your shirt,’ Laurie said, gesturing at its ruin.

‘TM Lewin,’ Jamie inspected it, pulling it away from his abdomen, ‘RIP.’

Laurie had a split second of imagining unbuttoning it before a shower, and wondered if there was something in the adrenaline of emergency that made you randy, because she really wanted to.

Minutes later, Claire found them, looking considerably more composed.

‘They’re giving him a transfusion and they might keep him in overnight for observation, but he’s going to be fine.’

‘See, told you. Let us know how he gets on, won’t you,’ Jamie said, kindly.

‘I can’t thank you enough,’ Claire said, to the Hammer Horror splattered Jamie.

‘No thanks necessary,’ he said, returning her car keys.

‘You were an uncompromising man of action and a general hero tonight,’ Laurie said, as they waited for their taxis.

It was only when Laurie hugged him goodbye, she felt how hard he was trembling. He drew back and could see in her expression, she’d felt it.

‘You OK?’

‘I … I find stuff like this difficult, after my brother.’

Of course. Laurie hadn’t thought of that until this moment, how was that possible? Of course Jamie might have learned what to do, that he’d want some basic skills.

‘But you helped anyway?’ she said. ‘There were tons of people who knew Phil, there, one of them would have stepped in eventually.’

Jamie looked slightly baffled. ‘My dad always says if you can help someone, you should help someone.’

‘I love your dad,’ Laurie said, on reflex.

‘Thank you,’ Jamie said.

‘Can I … will you let me write to them, when we go our separate ways? To tell them how much it meant to me, meeting them? I couldn’t bear for them to think I flitted in and flitted out without a backward glance.’

‘Yes,’ Jamie said, looking drawn. ‘Sorry I’ve put you in that position.’

‘I would rather be in that position than have not met them. That’s the truth.’

Jamie stared at her heavily for a second. ‘There’s something I said. That weekend away. I think I suggested that …’

A car horn interrupted them and a cab driver waved at Laurie.

‘Suggested what?’

‘Ah. It’ll keep,’ Jamie said.





36


As Christmas drew ever closer, Laurie was back on form at work, and it highlighted how unfair it had been to accuse her of falling standards. She’d known this, but it was reassuring to have it confirmed.

She saw Colm McClaverty on the court steps, after her Disturbance of the Peace client had got off with a mere knuckle rap.

‘Thanks for the hatchet job reviews you’ve been giving me,’ she said.

‘It’s just Chinatown, Jake!’

‘Pranny.’

‘Oh God, if one of Arsenal’s strikers is off form, Man U don’t let them win to be nice.’

‘Yeah, but winning or losing happens in court, there’s no need to garbage talk me outside afterwards.’

‘All I said was you didn’t seem like yourself, and that – Malcolm is it? Michael, yeah, took it and ran with it. Like you had other things going on.’ He raised his eyebrows.

Laurie wasn’t going to bite.

‘Next time, can you not?’

‘You have my word.’

Colm ducked down, grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it, while Laurie said: ‘UGH GERROFF.’

Men in her profession, honestly.

‘Coffee and a Pret at lunch?’ Jamie had WhatsApped her. They’d done this a few times, and when Laurie today commended him on attention to detail in keeping up appearances, Jamie said, ‘To be honest, it’s nice to have a friend at work. Nothing more than that to it.’

‘Aw God! You poor thing,’ Laurie said.

‘Don’t worry about me, I’m used to it. “I’m married to the sea.”’

Laurie snorted, digging a wooden fork into her crayfish and avocado.

‘I have a question for you, and you don’t have to answer. When Dan and Michael were having a go, they mentioned a woman in Liverpool who had a nervous breakdown. Was that your ex?’

‘Yeah, God. Michael has people everywhere, huh?’ Jamie said. ‘Stephanie had time off work and said she’d had a breakdown, I’m not sure if it was true. Yes that sounds … unkind, but she leaned hard on how it looked unchivalrous of me to contradict her. I was screwed. Stay silent and tacitly accept her version, or speak up and be the bastard adding to her pain. By the end I had no friends, a whack reputation, and I had to leave.’