The Empty Room Read online

  ‘Okay, how are your sisters, Georgia and Lisa? And is Lisa’s husband here as well for a while then?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I think they’re trying to find someone for Georgia to marry off to too,” Karen said, starting to laugh again,

  “Ha, good luck too them!”

  “I totally agree,” Karen joked as we both finished our drinks off, either because we were still nervous or we were thirsty – neither of us was going to admit to the other.

  “So, who’s over here that I’d know?” Karen asked.

  “Oh wow! Linda and Greg might ring a bell. Um, I’m not too sure who else, Cam got caught up in the terrorist stuff,” I said – immediately regretting it.

  “Oh wow, that was so sad,” Karen said. “My mum was flying over on that day,” she added.

  “Oh wow! Anyway, here’s our pizza,” I said, seeing our pizza arrive. We both took a wedge and began to eat.

  “Hey, you don’t eat pizza like that, aye,” Karen remarked, smiling at me.

  She took the crust and folded it kind of bracing the whole slice, only using her other hand to guide it into her mouth.

  I started laughing, so quickly took another bite and nearly ended up choking.

  “Serves you right,” Karen insisted, smiling back at me shaking her head.

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” I said. “Hey, do you want another drink?” I added.

  “Yeah, that’ll be great,” Karen said.

  I walked up to the bar and ordered us a drink each, while still looking back at Karen. We couldn’t take our eyes off each other, not wanting to waste a minute of our third night together. I nearly tripped walking back towards her. I could see her trying not to notice but she couldn’t hide the smile on her face as I took my seat and handed her the Bulmer’s with the most ice in it.

  “This is so good. I wish we’d done this sooner,” Karen said, at the same time noticing a woman heading toward us. I had a feeling it might have been her mum, but I looked at Karen as she kind of mouthed something at the woman, who turned and walked up to the bar. “Hey Phil,” Karen said, turning towards me.

  “Yeah,” I said, knowing exactly what she was about to say.

  “So, I went to see the doctor today and do you see that smartly dressed woman over there? She said we could go on a trip if you asked her nicely,” Karen commented. She paused long enough for me to wonder if she was being serious, only for her to stop me as I was about to get up and head to the toilet. “I’m only joking,” she insisted.

  “Yeah, I know, I’m just gonna quickly go to the toilet before she comes over,” I replied.

  “Oh okay, just leave your phone,” Karen remarked.

  I just laughed and pointed to it still being on the table where we were sitting.

  “No trust aye.”

  Karen just laughed.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I commented.

  When I got back, Karen introduced me to her mum, Christine before she went up to the bar to order us some food.

  “Hi Mrs Arkos, I’m Phil,” I said.

  “Hi Phil, great to finally meet you. You might remember I wrote you an email once, thanking you,” Christine commented.

  “Yes, I remember Mrs Arkos.” I replied as I took a quick sip of my drink and put it back down.

  “So, are you enjoying having Lisa and Karen in town?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I’m a little bit worried about what they got up to in Scotland, but you’ll find out. Just one thing, you have to promise me, if Karen gets worse, you have to bring her home, straight away,” Christine insisted, looking right at me for my answer.

  “So, the appointment didn’t go well?” I asked. “Just so you know, thank you for giving us that time together, if you’re free for some of it, feel free to come along or meet us along the way somewhere,” I added.

  “Phil, please, I have to hear you say this,” Christine said.

  “If she does get worse, I promise, I’ll bring her straight back,” I replied.

  “Okay, right. Then let’s settle in for a bit,” Christine remarked, smiling as Karen made her way back over.

  “So, you two okay?” Karen asked.

  “Yeah, we’re really good thanks darling,” Christine said.

  “Oh good, I’ve just ordered some more food,” Karen said.

  “Oh, and I’ll go get you two a couple more – Bulmer’s?” Christine asked.

  “Yeah, that’ll would be great thanks Mum,” Karen said.

  I just sat there quietly trying to process everything, then started laughing when Karen squeezed my leg.

  “Hey, what is it?” Karen asked.

  “Oh nothing,” I said, slowly calming down.

  We stayed there for a while; not really talking about the appointment and what had happened, but I was happy we could get into trip planning. The buffalo wings were on point and Christine and I had a fun night. We laughed a lot sharing stories about Karen when she was younger. She was a little upset about some of the stories – particularly the ones about the haircuts she had had. At one point Karen went up to the bar to get another drink for us all and Christine fished a picture out of her purse and showed to me. My eyes lit up and I looked straight at Karen at the bar. She turned and looked at me looking at the picture and she knew exactly what I had just seen. Her head bowed and she shook it as her hair covered her face. I could have sworn I saw her mouthing ‘no’.

  When she got back carrying the drinks I gave the photo back to her mum, and Karen saw what it was.

  “Mum, how could you?” Karen asked, more annoyed than anything.

  “What is it darling?” Christine asked, as she put the picture back into her purse.

  “I think you look lovely in your red overalls,” she added.

  “Oh, and peppermint patty hair-do,” I added as Karen folded her arms and dropped her bottom lip.

  Christine laughed, but I chose not to, which was wise – it was also very funny.

  “Mum, cut it out,” Karen said.

  “Okay dear, what have you guys got planned for this trip then?” Christine asked.

  “Um, really not too sure to be honest. Will see how we go the next week or so and sit down and plan,” I commented.

  “Yeah, that sounds really good,” Karen added.

  “Well keep me in the loop won’t you,” Christine said as Karen and I both agreed.

  Christine decided then to let us know she was starting to get tired and told us she was going head home. Finishing off our drinks we decided to walk her to the taxi rank and head back to Karen’s.

  “Bye Mum, see you soon,” Karen said.

  “Nice to meet you Mrs Arkos, will definitely see you before we head off,” I said.

  “Sounds good you two. Get home safe,” Christine said, as she hugged the both of us before she jumped in the taxi and headed off home.

  “Hey, let’s head back to mine,” Karen remarked.

  “Yeah, sounds good.”

  Karen took my hand as we walked along, walking past some dodgy looking people. Karen squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry I’ll protect you,” she whispered.

  “Oh, good, I might need it,” I replied as we both started laughing turning into her street. Only to stop when Karen saw Lisa and Jeff getting out of a cab.

  “Oh no,” Karen said.

  “Ha, I take it that’s Lisa and Jeff then?” I asked. “Any other surprises I should know about?” I added.

  “I really thought they were getting back tomorrow night,” Karen said.

  “Oh well, can’t do much about that now,” I joked.

  “Let’s slow down and walk straight past them and up to my room,” Karen remarked.

  “Okay – we could say hello and then sprint in different directions,” I commented, laughing as Karen stopped to think about it.

  “Might be a bit too obvious,” Karen laughed.

  “Hi guys,” I said, to Lisa and Jeff as we walked past them and Karen opened the door and we walked up to her room.

  “Sho
uld I have helped them with their bags?” I asked.

  “No, Jeff will be fine,” Karen said as we walked into her room and Karen got some clothes to sleep in and walked out to talk to her sister.

  I could hear them from Karen’s bed but thought nothing of it, I was just happy to be there. Waking up the next morning seeing a hand towel that Karen had been coughing into splattered with a little blood was interesting. I knew it wasn’t good though. I had expected more time before this.

  It was like under taking a terrible dawn, but I’d get to talk to her soon enough.

  “Hey how did you sleep?” Karen asked, walking back in and drying her hair.

  “Yeah pretty good. How are you feeling?” I asked as Karen noticed the hand towel and threw the towel she was drying her hair with on top of it.

  “Hey, do you want a coffee?” Karen asked.

  “Trying to change the subject? No, I’m good. I’ll sort something out on the way home.”

  “Oh, okay. I’m just gonna get ready for work,” Karen remarked.

  “Yeah, no worries. Then we can both head off to the tube together,” I said, smiling.

  “Yeah sounds like a plan. Is Audrey talking to you today?” Karen asked.

  “Yeah, possibly. So I might talk to you later,” I said.

  “So, what else is happening today?” Karen asked.

  “Well, I might start putting our trip together. Anywhere you want to go, let me know later,” I mentioned.

  “No, I trust you’ll come up with something fun,” Karen remarked.

  She took a while to get ready, but we were finally at the tube station and I changed over at Notting Hill, kissing Karen and heading towards the District line. I jumped off at Putney Bridge so I could get a coffee.

  As I walked home in yesterday’s kit, I was getting a few funny looks. It may have been the outfit or I may have looked as though I was talking to myself as I planned our trip on the walk home. Luckily, I had an idea where we should go and where we should meet Hannah and possibly Devin.

  8

  Trip Planned

  Walking out of the café, flat white in hand and heading up the hill planning the trip, a thought struck me as I opened the door to the apartment.

  “Hey Phil, have you been for a run?” Hannah asked, before she turned around and noticed I was wearing jeans and only carrying one coffee.

  “What, where’s my coffee?” Hannah asked, with a massive smile on her face.

  “Ha, I thought you might have left for work,” I said.

  Hannah just laughed, “Nah, I’m gonna work from home today,” she remarked.

  “Oh, okay cool. You can help me,” I said.

  “Help you with what?” Hannah asked.

  “Trip planning. Hey where do you want to meet us?” I asked.

  “Well I’ve always wanted to do the Trans-Siberian, so let’s meet up in China,” Hannah remarked, thinking that sounded so insane and I’d never do it.

  “Ah, cool done,” I said as I walked into my room and grabbed a couple of pieces of paper. When I walked back out Hannah told me she was only joking. Still, after laughing with her and discussing it, we agreed on meeting in China for a few days and having a look around Beijing and then jumping on the train to Russia. After that Karen and I would head to Amsterdam, while Hannah would come home and go back to work.

  I was smiling to myself when Hannah looked at me funny.

  “Hey, what’s that look on your face?” Hannah asked.

  “Huh what, it’s just my face Hannah,” I replied, as we both laughed for what seemed like forever. Then I pencilled-in the rest of the trip.

  “Hey, I don’t see Croatia,” Hannah grumbled.

  “No, I think if we fly out of Switzerland, we won’t have much time to see Croatia or Greece, but China should be awesome,” I insisted. “Though we’ll start off in Paris and then follow some of the Contiki route,” I added.

  “Yeah that sounds really good,” Hannah commented on her way to the kitchen to turn the jug on.

  “Yeah and Italy, should be awesome,” I said laughing.

  “Are you gonna make sure you try the gelato this time?” Hannah asked.

  “Yeah won’t be making that mistake twice,” I replied, as Hannah finished off making us both a coffee.

  After that she laughed and went off to her room to get changed, and I went to my room to grab a towel and a change of clothes. Then I headed to the bathroom to have a shower, turning toward Hannah’s room as she was taking her top off and noticing a bruise on her left side just around her lower ribs.

  She must have seen me looking as she turned and smiled at me, and so she walked over and closed her door. I just went and had my shower then headed back to my room with my nearly cold coffee and looked at hotels and transport and booked a few things, so we could get started in a few weeks’ time. Just as I got back to my room, Karen rang me for Audrey.

  “Hi Phil, Audrey needs to speak to you,” Karen insisted.

  “Yeah, no worries. I’ve sorted out our trip. Should be set to go in about a fortnight, so you might have to put up with my lame dad jokes til’ we head off,” I said.

  “Oh cool, I’ll let Audrey know once you’re both finished talking,” Karen mentioned.

  “Okay speak soon,” I replied, as Karen put me through.

  “Hey Audrey, how’s it going?” I asked.

  “Hi Phil. Good thanks. How’s the new book coming along? You’re so far ahead of where you need to be, you must be excited to get it finished?” Audrey asked.

  “Yeah finding the second one easier to write, just because I know how to set everything out better than the last one,” I said.

  “Well, your last one was really good, so don’t change too much up,” Audrey insisted.

  “So, I take it by the way Karen wanted to talk to me you two have organised your trip abroad?” Audrey asked.

  “Ha, actually sitting down and sorting that out now, I think Karen’s mum might appreciate a rough itinerary of where we might be and where we might be staying,” I said.

  “Actually, if I could get one as well, that would be great. We might need you back,” Audrey said, with a funny tone.

  “You’re kidding, aren’t you?” I asked, as Audrey started laughing.

  “Yeah, a little, but just in case,” Audrey added.

  “Yeah, no worries. I’m gonna make one for Hannah as well as we’ll be meeting along the way in China probably before taking the Trans-Siberian back to Russia. Then there’ll be a couple of days in Amsterdam before heading home,” I declared.

  “Oh nice, well I’m sure you will both have a great time,” Audrey insisted.

  “Thanks Audrey, I’ll be sending you chapters from all over,” I replied.

  “Well, you better! And don’t forget – gifts for your friends!” Audrey demanded, laughing away to herself.

  While the phone was silent, Hannah poked her head in the door and gave me a funny look. I mouthed the words to her that I was on the phone with Audrey.

  “Tell her I said hello,” Hannah said.

  Hearing this Audrey started laughing again.

  “Audrey says hello back Hannah,” I said as Hannah left and I turned back to my computer.

  “So not much else to say. Do you need a hand booking anything?” Audrey asked.

  “Actually, what are you up to the next few days? Do you want to pop over and give me a hand with this stuff?” I asked.

  “Yeah, all right. I’ve got another cheque to give you as well,” Audrey said.

  “Oh, nice. I’ll see you in a few night’s time then,” I replied.

  “Yeah, sounds good. Book Paris and I’ll help with the rest. I talk to Karen’s mum all the time, so I can let her know how you guys are doing along the way,” Audrey said.

  “I’ll see you in a few nights. Have a great day, okay? Bye Phil,” Audrey added.

  “Bye Audrey, see you soon,” I replied.

  Putting the phone back on the desk, I turned back to organise the t
rain and two night’s accommodation in Paris. Once that was all sorted, I went out to see what Hannah was up to for lunch.

  “Hey, do you want to head out and get something for lunch?” Hannah asked.

  “Yeah, sounds good I was gonna ask you the same thing,” I said.

  “Well, I beat you to it, so there,” Hannah joked laughing.

  “Cool, I’ll grab some stuff then we can head off,” I replied.

  “Sounds good. I still need to put some shoes on,” Hannah commented.

  We set off down the road a few minutes later, finding ourselves back at The Dukes Head for a couple of beers and a pale ale battered cod which, to be fair, was really good. Hannah laughed at me when she asked if we were going to order the steak, only for me to tell her I might enjoy a lighter lunch. Some of the other people in the place looked over as Hannah’s laughter got a little loud – until she also noticed them. I think we all noticed her holding her ribs as she got up to order a jug of beer.

  “Hey this was a great idea,” Hannah insisted.

  “Yeah, it’s been a while – and we can discuss the trip.”

  “Yeah, meeting in China – I was only joking, aye,” Hannah said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “We don’t have to meet in China.”

  “Why not, it’ll be fun and neither Karen nor I have ever been there, so it will be something different,” I replied.

  Hannah looked on and thought about it for a few seconds before saying, “Yeah, why not! Once you’ve sorted what dates you’ll be there, I’ll meet you both.”

  “Cool, and take the train back through Russia. Then Karen and I will go to Amsterdam to relax before coming back to – who knows what!”

  “So, how is Karen’s health?” Hannah asked

  “I think it’s really bad – bad enough that her mother made me promise if it gets worse I’d bring her straight back.”

  “Oh wow! So, what else?” Hannah asked, knowing I might have been up to something.

  “To be fair Hannah it’s a great reason to escape and get away from the whole Anna thing for a while and get to really know someone I’ve known for so long – if that makes sense,” I said.

  “Oh wow, Anna! She’s been texting me a bit,” Hannah revealed.