Page 74 of The Reluctant Billionaire
I’m glad he’s harnessed enough self-love and self-belief to create a little slice of heaven here, just for himself.
My heart sinks as we walk to his car. Andy’s already stowed my overnight bag in the boot. As a delightfully dirty mini-break, it’s been way too short. I refuse to consider whether I’ll ever be back here.
‘Last day,’ Aide says, reaching for my hand on the cream leather of his back seat and clasping it with an easy familiarity.
‘Are you sad?’ I ask.
He leans his head back against the seat and stares at the ceiling of the car. ‘Yeah. I’ll miss everyone. It’s been good working side-by-side with my old mates, you know?’
‘Hmm,’ I say, and he drops his head to the side to look at me.
‘What?’
I hesitate. ‘Nothing. I mean—I’m sure you’ll miss them. It makes sense. I just—I wonder if it’s also a bit bittersweet because you won’t be around to help them any more.’ I turn my hand palm up and intertwine my fingers with his. ‘I’ve seen what anamazing job you’ve done here, and I’m sure it’s hard for you to walk away.’
When there’s so much work still to be done in this community.
I don’t say the words, but I can feel them hanging in the air between us. Aide’s so loyal, so committed, and I know he feels he owes Judy and the community centre the world. I’ve seen how stuck in he gets. I think he even prefers playing footie with the kids and doling out meals to getting his hands dirty with the building work.
For someone like that, being perceived to be ‘walking away’ must be a real wrench.
‘Yeah,’ he says quietly, letting his head fall back on the headrest once again. ‘Tomorrow I’ll be sitting in my cushty office, eating fucking sushi, or something, and these guys will be slogging it out again. And again. Every fucking day. It’s never-ending, the work they have to do.’
‘I know,’ I tell him. I try to seize on the silver lining. ‘At least they’ll have a nice new centre to do it in. Sylvie seems really thrilled with the new kitchen. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect all the time. It beingbetteris a start.’
He squeezes my hand hard. ‘Thanks.’
‘What’s your charity about?’ I ask. ‘Is it linked to the centre?’ I’ve heard him mention his charity, Fresh Start, a few times, and it came up during my online stalking, but I don’t know much about it. Given how heavy the traffic looks as we head into London, now seems like a good time to get to know more about it.
He screws up his nose. ‘Kind of. So Totum has a foundation, and one thing it does is support community centres across the UK. Some of the money for the refurb has come from that, and some of it from me. But Fresh Start’s different. It runs before-and-after-school enrichment clubs in London, and hopefully, at some point, we’ll expand it across the country.’
‘What kind of enrichment clubs?’ I ask. ‘Like, coding and stuff?’
‘Among other things.’ He shifts in his seat, but he doesn’t let go of my hand. ‘Most state primary schools run a pretty limited syllabus. I mean, they cover the basics, but there are very few specialist teachers outside of PE. The kids don’t get a chance to explore many subjects until they hit secondary school, so we’re trying to change that. It’s also a good form of childcare for the parents.’
‘Go on,’ I say.
‘So we’ll go into a school. Take over the school hall, or any decent-sized space, and we’ll run two or three clubs a day, so ten to fifteen a week. Everything from dance to coding to sculpture to parkour. It’s just about trying to enrich these kids’ experience, open their eyes to talents and interests they wouldn’t get to explore otherwise. A lot of schools don’t have the capacity to set this stuff up themselves, and even if they could, the parents can’t afford to pay for clubs. So we make the classes free, and the kids who qualify for free school lunches get priority.’
‘Free school lunches…’ I frown, trying to get it straight in my head.
Aide grins at me. I’m sure he’s thinking I’m a rich, clueless princess, but he doesn’t say it. ‘Some families get free school lunches because they’ve been means-tested and shown not to be able to afford them. So we know they’re the families in each school who are struggling the most financially. Chances are, their kids aren’t going to be doing piano and tap-dancing after school.’
I nod. ‘Thank you,’ I say quietly. ‘It’s a really cool idea.’ I mean it. It is. I can’t imagine how much work it is going into God knows how many schools. Managing the logistics and redtape. Dealing with the admin side of schools who are totally overwhelmed already. It makes me tired just thinking about it.
Does Aide ever get tired?
Not of this stuff, I decide. This guy has a fire so powerful lit under his arse it’s like jet fuel. He’s on a mission to save every kid in Britain from his own fate, it seems.
The thought makes my heart hurt.
No wonder he has an OBE.
I reach over and cup his face with my free hand. ‘You are a very, very good guy, Aidan Duffy,’ I tell him, looking deeply into those blue eyes that once seemed icy cold and are now anything but.
He wriggles his shoulders like the compliment makes him uncomfortable. ‘I’m really not. I got a lucky break—I want to give back and make sure more children get the chances I got.’
I raise my eyebrows sceptically. ‘You did notgeta lucky break. You made your own luck, from everything I’ve heard. You’ve worked your arse off to be here, but I’m glad you’ve found something you find rewarding.’