Networked by L.K. Chapman

Author:L.K. Chapman [Chapman, L.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Dan arrived back in a very different mood to when he’d left.

He was holding several sheets of paper which he threw on the desk before plonking himself down on the sofa. Lily was kneeling on the kitchen floor sorting washing into different piles, while I was idly scanning through business emails-opening very few, mainly just looking at the subject then ignoring them.

I glanced over at the papers he’d just thrown on the desk, and saw they were all property details.

‘Were none of them any good?’ I asked him.

‘They were fine,’ he said, ‘I could live in any of them.’

‘Then what’s the problem?’

He sighed and didn’t answer. I looked round at Lily, but she wasn’t paying a great deal of attention, she just carried on sorting the clothes out. There was something strange about the way she was doing it, though it took a moment to figure out quite what it was. She was just being so slow about it. She’d pick up a single sock, look at it for a while, then lay it on top of the appropriate pile, then pick up another, look at it, lay it down. It was as though she’d never done anything like it before.

‘Lily,’ I said, ‘Dan’s back.’

She gave a little jump like I’d startled her, then she shook her head as if to clear it.

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘hi Dan. Good day?’

Dan looked across at me and inclined his head towards Lily in a kind of unspoken question. I shrugged.

‘Not so good,’ he said to her.

‘Oh,’ she said again, going back to her sorting. ‘That’s a shame.’

Dan moved to the edge of the sofa and leant over the arm to whisper to me. ‘Is she alright?’

‘I think so,’ I said, ‘she’s been a bit like this all day. Tell me what’s happened with the flats though. I thought you were really keen.’

‘I was. I mean, I am, I guess.’

‘So...’ I said. I stopped checking my emails briefly to look at him and it was kind of a relief to take my mind off them for a second. The heat surrounding Affrayed was getting so intense and with Interface’s threat hanging over us I just didn’t have a clue what to say to anybody anymore.

Dan rubbed his eyes wearily and I didn’t think he was going to answer. But suddenly he took a breath and said, ‘so, how am I supposed to find somewhere to live when I don’t know what the fuck is going on anymore? These places are all near you, but if you and me aren’t going to work together anymore I don’t need to live near you necessarily, do I? I’ll just need to move wherever I can get a job. It’s like... I want to move on, have some sense of progress, but how can I when everything’s so fucked up?’

His raised voice was enough to shake Lily from her reverie, and we were both surprised when she spoke.

‘Why don’t you go and see your mum and Robyn tonight?’ she suggested.

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