A Long Way Back (Unfinished Business #2) - Barbara Elsborg Page 0,22
their cruise ship, you’ll tell me to fuck off. But I’m not going anywhere for a week. If you want me to go then, I will.”
Tay gaped at him.
“Right. Now that’s settled, tell me what you won’t eat and what you like to eat. Describe your average day.”
Don’t fucking order me around. I’m in charge.
“Please,” Ink added. “I don’t want to get something wrong and piss you off even more than you’re currently pissed off, which looks to be about level six on the pissed-off scale of one to ten.”
And just like that, Tay was no longer in a bad mood. “I order food online every ten days or so. My mum has just stocked the fridge and cupboards, so I don’t need to put an order in until sometime next week. I eat most things, just not anchovies, tomatoes, or kippers. I don’t like broccoli or cauliflower.”
“I saw chicken in the fridge. How about chicken and salad for dinner?”
“Fine.”
“I can…eat with you, yeah?”
Tay shrugged. He wasn’t going to force him.
“I’m finding my way by fingertips, right? I don’t know if you want me sitting at attention in my room waiting for you to ring a bell, or whether you want me around to fork food into your mouth, or to watch TV with you, or just to talk to you, or to annoy you.”
“I don’t have a bell.”
“Want me to buy one?”
“I can phone you.”
“Or shout.”
Tay huffed.
“What time do you get up?”
“When I feel like it.”
“And go to bed?”
“Ditto. I don’t need that sort of personal help.”
“So when do you need help?”
Tay sighed. “To get meals ready, to make a drink, to tidy my bed, to do my laundry—though my mother has just done that, to just be there if I do need help. I often get bad headaches and need to lie down. I guess you were told I don’t like to be touched.”
“Not just no shaking hands then?”
“No.”
“So I shouldn’t catch you if you’re about to fall over?”
Tay sucked in his cheeks.
“Or wash your back in the shower?”
He wasn’t answering that.
“What the hell did the physios do? Wave their hands over you and mutter incantations?”
“I bit down on a piece of wood and thought of England.”
Ink smiled. “Right. Do you have a job?”
“No, I laze about all day watching porn.”
Ink laughed.
“I’m a part-time forensic accountant.”
“In between watching porn?”
Tay shrugged.
“Do you take any medication?”
“Painkillers. I can handle my own meds.”
“What do you do when you’re not working? Apart from the porn.”
“Not much. I try to exercise. My dad mended my wheelchair, so I’ll be back to using that if I want to go any distance. I should be walking more, but as you saw, I couldn’t even make it back from the high street.”
“But you walked all the way there. I could take you out in your wheelchair and you could use your crutches for a while, then ride when you were tired. We could go to the river or one of the big parks. How much of London have you seen?”
“Not much.”
Ink frowned. “Why did you want to come here?”
“That’s my business. You’re annoying me now. Level eight.”
Ink laughed. “That didn’t take long.”
“How much of London have you seen?”
“Most parts that are free. A few that weren’t and I was able to sneak in. I’ve ogled meteorites in the Natural History Museum, pressed lots of buttons in the Science Museum, spent a day getting wet in Kew Gardens, walked by the side of the Thames until my feet were sore, spied on deer in Richmond Park, slept under the stars, played my guitar everywhere I could.” He paused. “Would you like to go out for lunch?”
Tay’s head was aching. Too much noise and it was hard to concentrate. He needed his pills. Not that they’d make his headache go, more that they’d take him to a place where he felt…right. He wanted to say no, but thought of his mother’s final words. Say yes not no.
“How many times should I ask a question before you’d like me to accept that you’re not going to answer?”
Tay just stared at him. The pain was a deep throb right over his eyes.
“Do you need anything right now?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“For you to fuck off.”
Ink pushed to his feet. “I’ll go and do my laundry. Call or phone if you want me. I don’t really want to annoy you. I only want to help, but I do get you’re proud and don’t want to admit to needing anyone, let alone me. But I’d like