‘Hello,’ he said, his voice thick as if he had only just woken up.
‘Tiger? It’s Maggie.’
‘Oh hi. Sorry, I was asleep. Jet lag. Body clock’s all over the shop. You okay?’
Maggie smiled to herself. No change there then. Would there ever come a time when having no base and being constantly on the move lost its appeal for him? She had to assume that he would reach that square eventually, but they weren’t there yet, it appeared.
‘Yes, I’m fine. I’m ringing because Angie asked me to. She’s had the baby. It’s a girl.’
The whoop that came down the line was so loud that Maggie had to hold the phone away from her ear until he had finished. She smiled as she waited for him to return to her. That natural exuberance of his was contagious, even now.
‘So,’ she continued once he had stopped shouting, ‘she asked if you, me and Leon will go and see them tomorrow. I’m not sure when visiting is but it’s usually around two o’clock. I can swing by and pick you up if you like,’ she added.
‘That would be great. I could walk, but I’ve got no idea where the hospital is.’
‘It’s no trouble. You’re on my way,’ Maggie said. ‘I’ll be with you around one thirty. That should give us plenty of time to get there and park.’
‘Fantastic. Thanks Mags. See you then.’
He had put the phone down leaving Maggie feeling as if an opportunity had somehow been squandered. Should she ring him back and ask if he was busy that evening? She was pretty sure he wouldn’t be, and she certainly didn’t have anything on. Her hand hovered over the redial button, her finger outstretched, but she didn’t press it.
24
Maggie’s stomach was like jelly as she drove up Angie’s street the following day searching for a parking space. It was ridiculous, she told herself, that she should be so nervous, and yet . . .
She found a spot a couple of doors down from Angie’s flat and turned off the engine. She felt compelled to check her appearance in the vanity mirror, but she resisted. She had looked fine when she had left her house not fifteen minutes before. Why would anything have changed since then? She needed to get a grip. This was not a date. She was picking up Tiger to take him to see Angie and the new baby. That was all.
She rang the doorbell to Angie’s flat and moments later she could hear Tiger locking the door and then pounding down the stairs towards her. She saw his shape through the opaque glass of the internal door and then there he was.
Tiger.
He hadn’t changed. His hair was still bleached blond by the sun and spiking up around his face like a corona. His skin was tanned to a rich mahogany, which made his eyes appear even more blue and his teeth white. He was a little heavier than he had been, his rounded stomach pushing gently against the buttons of his cambric shirt, but in essence he was just the same. She wondered what he saw when he looked at her, but she felt confident that she wasn’t ageing too badly. She certainly wasn’t in danger of bursting out of her clothing.
‘Well, look at you,’ he said. His face was lit up with what certainly looked like genuine pleasure and Maggie felt herself relax a little.
‘Hi. You look well. Just in from . . . ?’
‘Vietnam,’ he said. ‘The killing fields and all that. Landed a week ago and got here on Wednesday.’
‘Didn’t you want to go with Angie into hospital, be her birthing partner?’
He pulled a face. ‘God, no. All that blood and . . .’ He blanched before her eyes, the healthy tan fading instantaneously. ‘I don’t do well with . . . Never been that good with medical stuff.’
Even describing what he didn’t like was too much of a challenge for him, it seemed. Maggie shook her head like she might if he were a boy who didn’t like carrots.
‘It’s not really medical though, is it,’ she said, ‘having a baby? I would love to have been there. It must be incredible to see a baby born.’
And as she said this, she realised that it was true. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? She could have asked to be Angie’s birth partner. She was never going to experience childbirth for herself so that might have been the perfect alternative. Too late now, though.
‘So, why weren’t you there?’ he asked, a little defensively.
‘Wasn’t asked,’ Maggie replied simply, and immediately realised the flaw in her embryonic and now unfulfilled plan.
Tiger grinned again, the chilliness leaving him as quickly as it had arrived. ‘That’s Ange all over. Independent to the last.’