Guilt hits me. I haven’t explained to anyone outside of my family what is going on, not even Jade. I wasn’t due to have my show air until tomorrow, and at that point, they’re going to realize something is up. Until now, my sabbatical status is known only to my colleagues, and other than Lucy, the head of programming, no one knows why. Personal problems is all they’ve been told.

I pause and think for a few minutes. I can meet her, but I’ll have a man with the nickname of Reaperman with me. A man who looks like he fell off the set of the next Mad Max movie. Turning up with Samuel on my tail, at the same time my sabbatical becomes noticeable, is too much. Tongues won’t wag; they’ll salivate. We need somewhere off the beaten track.

Okay, but I can’t do any of the usual haunts. You’ll understand when we meet. Is there somewhere out of the way we can go? A spit and sawdust type of place you know about?

Jade is into rock music and spends a lot of time watching Indie bands in out of the way bars. Surely, she’ll know somewhere.

Her reply is fast.

Yeah, The Grindhouse on Lexway Road is somewhere we won’t bump into any of your usual crowd. Meet me there at eight?

I reply, Deal. x

Jade is probably the only true friend I have. We are chalk and cheese in lots of ways, but she is a sweetheart, and I love her deeply. She’s the working-class rough to my cultured smooth, yet she has more money than me these days since her design business went viral. She’s a graphic artist who has created some of the coolest album and twelve-inch sleeves around. People who still like their music old school, on a turntable, talk about her in the same hushed tones they do the artists in the bands.

I smile as I snuggle down under the sheets. The thought of seeing her tomorrow has me cheered.

6. Samuel

Chapter 6

Samuel

The day passed uneventfully. Now it’s early evening, and I’m getting ready to take Carolina out. I don’t like the idea of us going out because it’s risky, but I promised her I would let her do her thing, and that I’d keep her safe, so I push my worries to the backburner and prepare myself for the evening.

“Is this place smart?” I ask her.

“Nah, it’s a dive apparently.”

She couldn’t have surprised me more. I don’t envisage her as a dive sort of a woman.