Big Ben (See No Evil Trilogy #1) - Nana Malone Page 0,53
to share with you that I’d been mugged. You know the deal; don’t be a problem child.”
“You’re not a problem child. I take offense to someone trying to hurt you.” He spoke through gritted teeth.
“Yeah? Why is that?” He didn’t even really know me.
“Well, considering you blackmailed yourself into the job, I want to protect my investment.”
“I did not blackmail you.” How could he still think that? It was only after I caught the corner of his lips turning up that I realized he was kidding. “Are you just trying to get a rise out of me?”
“It’s so easy, honestly, you have got to work on your poker face.” We walked past a bustling boutique of women fighting over bargain-bin clothing. “Can you tell me more about the thing with the ashes? What were you doing?”
“My mom passed away six months ago. Cancer.”
“You were saying. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I mean, not fine, but anyway, I haven’t been able to spread her ashes yet. Every time I even think about it, I get locked up. She was so full of life. And I’ve been trying to finish her book by the one-year anniversary of her death. In Ghana, the one-year mark is a huge celebration of someone’s life. I’d love to have it done by then.”
He stopped right in front of the La Perla store, and it was all I could do not to stare at the display behind him. “You’re writing a book?”
“Well, she was. I’m just trying to finish it for her. It’s kind of a fictionalized true crime.”
He blinked at me several times as if only just now seeing me. “That’s incredible.”
I shrugged. “Yeah well. According to my therapist, it’s also helping me cope with the grief. But sometimes I wonder when I’ll feel better, you know?” It was far too easy to talk to him.
“Well, that’s... I’m pretty sure that’s normal. I think it took me years before I came to terms with my mother’s death.”
My heart cracked in two for him. “How old were you?”
“I was eight. The worst part was watching my father, who had never been overly affectionate, completely shut down. She was the bridge, you know. Between us. And it’s like without her there, we had no idea how to talk. We grew further and further apart, and our relationship deteriorated. And let’s just say lots of mistakes have been made along the way.”
“Families are complicated. Mom was always working. My dad died when I was a kid. A car accident. And from that point on, she was always on the move. I needed to have a bag packed and ready to go for whenever a quick move would happen.”
“That must have been rough on you.”
“It was. But I thought, you know, she needed me. I think she threw herself into work. She would take any assignment. I spent a lot of time in embassies around the world, never really getting to explore or see the countries we lived in. It wasn’t until she was much older and she retired that she decided she was going to live life a different way, you know? Enjoy it. That’s when she and I got really close.”
“I’m glad you got that time with her when you were older, when you could really talk. That must have been really special.”
I nodded and tried to blink away the tears at the same time. “Yeah, it was.”
“So, since I didn’t get to interview you, tell me, who is Olivia Ashong?”
I laughed then. “Well, my friends call me Livy, and there’s not that much to tell. Like I said, I was a diplomatic brat. Went to Uni, partially in the States, then when Mom retired and opted to settle in the UK, I transferred here to be with her and finished school at LSE. It was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I fell in love with London. I fell in love with travel and food and, I don’t know, it was just a very impressionable time for me.”
“Well, for a Yank, you fit in decently.”
I took offense to that. “What? I’m almost more a Londoner than you are. I doubt you know the London I know.”
He laughed. “I grew up in Downing Street. You don’t get more London than that.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Snooty posh London. Not the same.”
“What? You think I haven’t run around in South London in dodgy clubs and partied in East London so drunk off my arse I couldn’t see straight?”