Page 82 of All Right No

“Go on, I think you’d better tell us what the other symptoms of anaemia are.”

Ash covered his eyes with his hand, then bit the bullet. “Fatigue.”

“Tick,” Ginny said.

“Weakness, dizziness, shortness of breath, pallor, heart palpitations.”

“Tick, tick, double tick.”

“Tingling sensations in the limbs.”

“Ash,” she stood.

Xane bashed his forehead against the table. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Seriously, you’re telling us we’ve suffered through months of your shit because you haven’t been eating your greens?”

“More like ’cause he flushed his medication down the crapper,” Rock Giant said. “I mean, good man on doing without the painkillers, but you might have considered looking at the other stuff to figure out why they’d prescribed it before you decided you didn’t need it.”

“So, I made a mistake, okay? And it hasn’t all been down to anaemia.”

“Crap bloody vampire you are,” Xane remarked. He swung his chair onto its back legs, then let it fall onto all four again.

Spook slid a bag of fresh spinach across the table to Ash. “Tuck in.”

Luthor provided him with a carton of orange juice. “Eat up, Popeye.”

“Yeah, yeah, you can all fuck off.”

They stayed to watch him munch through a handful of spinach, washed down with juice from the carton, then drifted off a couple at a time to get back to work on the album.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Ginny hugged him tight once they’d all left. “Are you going to join them, or shall I get you some proper breakfast?”

Ash upped and dropped the rest of the spinach in his hand into the kitchen waste. “Actually, I think I’m going to head to bed for a bit. Hospitals are the least restful place on the planet.”

Ginny slipped under his arm to give him an enormous hug. “Reckon I’ll join you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. If that’s okay.”

He snuggled her closer. “More than. I’m sorry I scared you. I’ll try not to do it again.”

“Please do. I don’t think I can deal with them carting you off again. I don’t know what I’d do if you never came back.”

He swept her up into his arms. “That’s not something you have to worry about. I’ll always come back. Strawberries and fish paste, remember? We belong together.”