Knowing Me Knowing You by Jeevani Charika

Author:Jeevani Charika [Charika, Jeevani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2023-08-28T17:00:00+00:00

That was good. He was still deliberating what to send next when another message arrived.

Thank you so much for all your help yesterday. I really appreciate it.

This was easier to reply to.

You’re welcome. I did what anyone else would have done if they’d been there. Glad Maureen is okay. Are you around this evening? Walking Penelope?

Not walking Penelope. Helping set up things for the fair, so I’ll be around in the village.

Great. Have a good evening.

Feeling buoyed by a text interaction, he took out the fruitcake left over from the lunch parcel the pub landlady had made for him. He may as well take a break and browse letting agency websites properly. He had arranged to go to view a flat on Saturday, but the estate agent had emailed to say that the flat was gone already. He should look at a few more places.

When Sam rang, he was mid-bite – cake in one hand, laptop open so that he could carry on searching. He put her on speakerphone.

‘Just calling to check how you were.’ Sam said. ‘Did everything go okay in the hospital?’

He closed his laptop. ‘Nobody died, so yes.’

A sharp intake of breath from his sister pulled him up short. ‘Sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean—’

‘It’s okay. You’re right. That’s a win.’

There was an awkward silence as they tried to work out how to work around their mutual grief.

‘Are you okay?’ He was furious at himself for his thoughtlessness. ‘Did I upset you?’

‘It’s fine,’ Sam said. ‘You deal with it your way, right?’

‘Yeah.’ He had always favoured being blunt when it came to talking to his sister. They’d spent enough time tiptoeing around their father. They didn’t have to do it around each other as well. ‘As far as I know, Maureen is still okay. I didn’t get home until the small hours, though.’ He rubbed his free hand over his face. ‘I’m shattered.’

‘You’re at work like normal?’

He looked at the laptop. ‘I have to get everything done today. The information gathering bit, at least. Work is going to allocate me some help for next week, but by the time they catch up, it’s going to be another day. I don’t think they’ll be moving the deadline.’

‘Will you be okay? Are you going to get it done?’

‘I’ll have to, won’t I?’ He was all too aware that the unfortunate timing of John having to leave, and him having to carry the rest of the project, wasn’t going to be taken into account when people looked at his performance. If he failed to deliver on his first project, that would follow him around for as long as he worked for the company.

‘Oh,’ said Sam. ‘That sucks.’

Gihan took a deep breath and pulled himself together. ‘Meh. It is what it is. I’ll get it done.’

‘Is … her job going to be okay?’

He knew exactly what Sam was talking about. ‘I can’t talk about that. You know I can’t.’

Sam, being Sam, understood. ‘I see. Hmm. Tell you what. When you get home tonight, we’ll get takeaway and some beer and play some SyrenQuest.

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