Day 6 - Wednesday 22nd May
Steve sat there, waiting anxiously. He didn't really know what to expect. It was five past five already - he had only just got back from Dorset - and Lucy was due at seven. He hoped this wouldn't last too long, as he wanted to get everything ready for when she arrived.
He wasn't sure what to make of Tim's call, which he had taken as he was driving back. All he had said was that they needed to chat and that he would be over as soon as he could. Steve asked plenty of questions, but Tim wouldn't answer any of them on the phone, saying that they would talk later. Although Tim was Steve's best mate, he wasn't really somebody who would just 'chat'. Any deep or personal conversations were usually initiated by Steve, not Tim. And he normally had to prise information from him if he thought they needed to talk. And that didn't happen very often at all.
So what would he be calling about? He worried that it had something to do with yesterday, but it couldn't have been, could it? They only had a brief chat, but it didn't last long and then they went their separate ways. It couldn't be about his back that he had lied about. If his back had really been playing up, it wasn't something that was going to lead to deep conversations. No. Something like cancer maybe, but not his back.
Tim didn't have any family and he lived alone. He didn't do too much beside work long hours and drink at the pub. On the phone he didn't sound worried at all, he seemed pretty normal, so maybe it was some idea he had that he wanted to chat through. Who knows. But he would find out soon.
Steve walked into the kitchen and switched the kettle on. If he offered Tim a beer he was more likely to stay longer and have a few more, he thought, whereas a cup of tea would hopefully keep him to fifteen or twenty minutes and then he would be off.
Then the doorbell rang.
"Hi Tim, how are you doing? Come on in" he said, as he opened the door to him. "I've just put the kettle on - cup of tea?"
"Sounds good, thanks" Tim replied and followed him through to the kitchen. "Everything ok with your back?"
"Oh, yeah, sure. It's gonna be fine. Just need to keep a check on it, that's all."
Steve took the milk out of the fridge, and started to make the tea. "Anyway, how are you doing?"
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. All good. I'm on nights tonight, so have been taking it pretty easy today. Making my way through 'Breaking Bad'."
"What on a day like this? We're having one of the best summers in years, and you are spending your day in front of the box?"
"I went for a short walk this morning, but I'm not the biggest fan of this heat. It's alright when you're abroad on holiday on the beach, but here? In England? It doesn't really seem right."
"Fair enough."
Steve motioned for Tim to come through to the lounge and sit down, they both ambled through and Tim sat down on one of the sofas. Steve handed him his tea and sat down on the other sofa, facing him. He put his own tea on the coffee table.
"So what's up Tim? What did you want to talk about?" he asked, appearing relaxed, but still uncertain.
"I'm not really sure how best to go about this, so I'm just going to say it" Tim said, with obvious unease at the situation. He too had put his cup on the coffee table, and was playing nervously with his hands. Steve was intrigued.
"I know you didn't go and see Clive yesterday" Tim claimed. Steve raised his eyebrows, trying to hide his surprise and his frustration.
"I saw you and Lucy together" he said, seriously, looking directly at Steve.
Steve sighed deeply and lent back in the sofa. "What exactly did you see?" he asked.
"I'm pretty sure I saw everything" Tim said, laughing nervously. "I followed you into the storeroom and watched everything you did to her. Seems like things are a bit more serious than you were letting on."
"Christ, I thought we had got away with it" he said angrily, and then sighed again. "I'm not really sure what you want me to say." He was deeply unhappy at the situation.
"Well, I just wanted to say that you should be careful, you know? It was lucky that it was me who saw you, and not anybody else. You know that I should really report it. And I don't know what would happen to Lucy, or to you for that matter, if I did."
"You wouldn't do that would you?" Steve said, worried.
"No, of course I wouldn't. I wouldn't do that to you. But if it was somebody else, they may have done. I'm just saying you need to be careful, especially somewhere as busy as the hospital. Anyway, how long have you two been together?"
"Ok, thank you, I appreciate that. We've only been together a few days." He shuddered a bit at saying 'been together', but thought he should probably go along with the idea that she was his girlfriend.
"A few days? Really? How did you meet?"
Steve laughed. "She was the girl I crashed into on Friday."
"Oh yeah, I see you've still not got your car back yet. But if you only met on Friday, how did you manage to get in a situation where you had her tied up and gagged" he counted on his fingers mouthing the days of the week "four days later?