Cecelia Ahern - The Gift & Thanks for the Memories

‘Poof!’ Gabe grinned at Lou. ‘That’s me all right.’

‘I like fast workers, I must say, but I prefer fast and efficient, and my goodness you certainly are that.’

Lou almost said thank you, but Gabe jumped in.

‘Thank you, Mr Patterson, and if there’s anything else at all you’d like me to do for you, please let me know. I finish my shift at lunchtime and would be only too happy to help out around here for the rest of the afternoon. I’m keen to work.’

Lou’s stomach tightened.

‘That’s wonderful, Gabe, thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. Right Lou,’ Mr Patterson turned to face him and Lou expected Gabe, no longer a part of this conversation, to leave. But he didn’t. ‘I wonder if you’d be able to meet with Bruce Archer this evening, you remember him.’

Lou nodded, his heart sinking.

‘I was supposed to meet him, but I was reminded this morning of something else I have to attend.’

‘This evening?’ Lou asked, his mind racing.

While thinking about the offer he was picturing Lucy twirling around the gym in her sleeping suit and Ruth’s face when he’d opened his eyes prematurely from that kiss and caught her looking as beautiful and serene as he’d ever remembered her.

He realised they were both staring at him, Gabe’s eyes in particular searing into him.

‘Yes, this evening. Only if you’re free. I can ask Alfred to do it otherwise, so please don’t worry.’ Mr Patterson waved his hand dismissively.

‘No, no,’ Lou jumped in quickly. ‘This evening is no problem. That’s no problem.’

In his mind, Lucy, dizzy from the twirling, fell to the ground, and Ruth opened her eyes and pulled away from their kiss, his promise of less than an hour ago having broken the spell.

‘Great. Great. Well, Melissa can fill you in on the details, time and venue, etc. I have a big night tonight,’ he winked at Gabe. ‘It’s my little one’s Christmas play, I’d forgotten about it until he came running to me dressed as star, would you believe. But I wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ Mr Patterson smiled.

‘Right, yeah.’ Lou felt a lump in his throat. ‘That’s important, all right.’

‘Right, so, enjoy tonight and well done for finding this lad.’ Mr Patterson patted Gabe on the back.

While Lou turned to glare at Gabe, he heard a familiar cheery call behind him.

‘Morning, Laurence.’

‘Ah, Alfred,’ Mr Patterson said.

Alfred was a tall man, six foot with white-blond hair, kind of like an oversized Milky Bar kid who had melted and been moulded back together by the hands of a child. He always spoke with a smirk on his face and in the kind of accent that came with being privately schooled in England, despite spending the summers in Ireland, where he was from. His nose was disjointed from his rugby days and he swanned around the office, as Gabe had observed the previous day, kicking the tassels of his boat shoes in the air, one hand in his pocket, with the air of someone – a naughty schoolboy – who was up to tricks.

Alfred’s eyes fell upon Gabe, then quite obviously looked him up and down in silence and waited to be introduced. Gabe imitated him, confidently giving Alfred the once-over.

‘Nice shoes,’ Gabe finally said, and Lou looked down at the brown loafers Gabe had described yesterday.

‘Thank you.’ Alfred was a little put out.

‘I also like your shoes, Mr Patterson,’ Gabe commented, looking across.

In a slightly awkward moment, all eyes looked down at the men’s feet. A peculiar thing for most, apart from Lou, whose heart was pumping at a ridiculous rate at the sight of the black slip-ons and the brown loafers. The exact shoes Gabe had described to Lou the previous morning. So Alfred was meeting with Mr Patterson. Lou looked from Alfred to Mr Patterson, feeling a sense of betrayal. It wasn’t official that Cliff ’s job was up for grabs, but if it was, Lou was hellbent on making sure it would be his, not Alfred’s.

Mr Patterson bid farewell and took off down the corridor, swinging his briefcase jollily in his hand.

‘Who are you?’ Alfred asked Gabe, bringing Lou back into the room.

‘I’m Gabriel.’ Gabe held out his hand. ‘Friends call me Gabe, but you can call me Gabriel,’ he smiled.

‘Charming. Alfred.’ Alfred reached out his hand.

Their shake was cold and limp and their hands quickly fell by their sides. Alfred even wiped his on his trouser leg, whether it was consciously done or not.

‘Do I know you?’ Alfred narrowed his eyes.

‘No, we’ve never actually met, but you may recognise me.’

‘Why’s that, were you in a reality show or something?’ Alfred studied him again, with a smirk but a less confident one.

‘You used to pass by me every day, just outside this building.’

Alfred narrowed his eyes, studying Gabe, and he looked back at Lou with a slightly nervous smile. ‘Help me out here, pal.’

‘I used to sit at the doorway next door. Lou gave me a job.’

Alfred’s face broke into a smile, the relief more than obvious on his arrogant face. His demeanour shifted and he became the big man of the fraternity again, knowing that his position wasn’t threatened by a homeless man.

He laughed as he turned to Lou, making a face and using a tone that he didn’t even attempt to disguise in Gabe’s company. ‘You gave him a job, Lou?’ he said, turning his back on Gabe. ‘Well isn’t it the season to be jolly, indeed. What the hell is going on with you?’

‘Alfred, just leave it,’ Lou replied, embarrassed.

‘Okay.’ Alfred held his hands up in defence and chuckled to himself. ‘Stress affects us all in different ways, I suppose. Hey, can I use your bathroom?’

‘What? No, not here, Alfred, just use the restrooms.’

‘Come on, don’t be a dick.’ His tongue sounded too big for his mouth as it rolled around his words. ‘I’ll just be a second. See you around, Gabe, I’ll try to aim my coins at your cart when you pass by,’ Alfred joked, giving Gabe the once-over again. He smirked and winked at Lou before making his way to the toilet.

From the office, Lou and Gabe could hear loud sniffing.

‘There seems to be a nasty cold going around this district,’ Gabe smiled.

Lou rolled his eyes. ‘Look, I’m sorry, Gabe – he’s, you know, don’t take him seriously.’

‘Oh, nobody should ever take anybody seriously really, you can’t control anything but what’s inside this circle.’ Gabe’s arms made a movement around his body. ‘Until we all do that, nobody can be taken seriously. Here, I got you this.’ He leaned down to the bottom tray of the cart and lifted up a Styrofoam cup of coffee. ‘I owe you from yesterday. It’s a latte, the machine was back working again.’

‘Oh, thanks.’ Lou felt even worse, now totally conflicted as to how he felt about this man.

‘So, you’re going for dinner tonight?’ Gabe undid the brake on the cart and started to move away, one of the wheels squeaking as he pushed it.

‘No, just a coffee. Not dinner.’ Lou was unsure if Gabe wanted to be invited. ‘It’s no big deal really. I’ll be in and out in an hour at most.’

‘Oh, come on, Lou,’ Gabe smiled, and he sounded alarmingly like Ruth. Oh, come on, Lou, you know this one . But he didn’t finish the sentence in quite the same way. ‘You know these things always turn into dinner,’ Gabe continued. ‘Then drinks and then whatever ,’ he winked. ‘You’ll be in trouble at home, won’t you, Aloysius,’ he said, in a sing-song voice that chilled Lou to the bone.

Gabe exited the office and made his way towards the elevator, the squeaking of the wheel loud in the empty hallway.

‘Hey!’ Lou called after him, but he didn’t turn around. ‘Hey!’ he repeated. ‘How did you know that? Nobody knows that!’