Page 55 of The Best of Times

Paul padded into the walk-in shower. Aron leant against the sink and watched him lathering up.

Will he ever talk about them? Isn’t that the whole fucking problem? How did the plan go so horribly wrong?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The shrill ring of his mobile phone cut through Aron’s sleep. He opened his eyes.

Where the fuck am I?

Then it all came rushing back.

Shit!

Paul sat upright, rubbing his eyes. His hair stuck out everywhere, giving him a more than passing resemblance to an eighties Jon Bon Jovi.

“Are you going to answer that?” he grumbled.

Aron scrambled out of bed and grabbed the offending item off the dressing table. The screen lit up.

“Fuck, it’s Granny,” Aron said, running his hand through his own hair. “And fuck, it’s only half eight. That’s not a good sign.”

“Just make it stop. I beg of you.”

A kaleidoscope of options ran through his mind from her worried about his whereabouts to her in the intensive care unit with alcohol poisoning. He pressed Answer.

“Granny? Is everything all right?”

“No it isn’t,” she said, her voice tremoring. “The registry office has been flooded. A burst pipe or something.”

Aron held on to the wall. This was indeed an emergency. His day of fun preparations for the wedding had suddenly nosedived into a huge vat of shit. And all before he’d had coffee.

“I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Thank you. We need all hands on deck. I don’t know what we’re going to do. We’ll have to come up with something very quickly.”

“We’ll fix this. Give me fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, Aron?”

“Yes?”

“Paul is on the missing list too. The Professor has texted him but if you could try and get through to him, that would be wonderful.”

Once again, he felt exposed under the light of Beatrice Wimpole.

“I’ll do my best.”

He finished the call and stared at a bleary-eyed Paul.

“There’s been a serious incident at HQ. Immediate recall. The fucking registry office is out of action.”

Paul’s jaw almost hit the duvet. “Are you kidding me? Does Dad know? He’ll have kittens.”

Paul threw the duvet back and joined Aron in the middle of the room.

“Come on,” Paul said. “Get dressed.”

“Wait. We need to think about this,” Aron said. “Granny is already giving me vibes that she’s sussed us. If we rock up together, it’s obvious what we’re up to.”