her friend’s receding figure. ‘If there’s something you want to talk about we could have coffee in my office.’
‘It might not be anything at all. I’m probably just being silly…’ Nisha twisted her mouth into a grimace.
‘If it matters to you then it’s something. The one thing I’m not going to do is tell you that you’re being silly. You’re the one who tells me what’s important.’
Nisha nodded. ‘It is important to me. I wish you could help me…’
Half an hour later Marie walked Nisha through to the reception area, which was now buzzing with activity. Nisha was grinning, clutching the information pack and the appointment card Marie had given her. Alex was nowhere to be seen, and it was another half hour before he appeared again.
‘Everything okay with Nisha and Carol?’
‘Yes, it’s all good.’
She nodded towards his office, and by silent agreement they walked away from the bustle of people. Alex closed the door.
‘I had a talk with Nisha; she says she hasn’t felt right about sex since having her baby. She’s worried about her relationship with her husband.’
He nodded. ‘So what did you both decide?’
‘Nisha’s coming back to see me tomorrow. I’ll examine her, and she’s given me permission to write to her doctor so he can send her for some tests. Once we’ve ruled anything physical out we can discuss relationship therapy here.’
‘She looked as if she was happy about that?’
‘Yes—she said she’d get her husband to come with her tomorrow. He’s tried to talk to her about it, but she says she panics and shuts him down.’
‘Just talking about it helps.’ He threw himself into his chair, staring at the ceiling. ‘Of course, I’m a proven expert on talking about things.’
The heavy irony in his tone set off an alarm bell. Something was up with Alex. His hand was shaking, and it didn’t seem that hopeful nerves about their opening day was the cause.
‘What’s up?’ She sat down.
‘It’s…’ He waved his hand dismissively. ‘Telling you it’s nothing and that we should be getting back isn’t going to wash, is it?’
‘No. There are plenty of people out there to greet visitors, and we’re confident the staff here can manage without us for ten minutes. Aren’t we, Alex?’
‘Yes. Absolutely.’ He puffed out a breath. ‘In that case… I had a boy who came in to ask about bodybuilding classes. He’s only ten. I talked to him a bit, and told him that he’d have to bring one of his parents with him before he could sign up for any kind of exercise class with us.’
‘Why did he want to do bodybuilding?’ she asked, knowing Alex must have had the same instinct she did.
‘It turned out that he’d skipped off school, so I got Tina to phone the school and they sent a teacher down to fetch him. He’s being bullied.’
‘Poor kid. And he wants to be able to fight back?’
‘Yes. His teacher’s going to talk to the parents, and I told her we would enrol him in our anti-bullying programme. He’s a little overweight, so if he wants to do exercises then I’ll get Mike to devise an exercise programme that suits his age and build.’
‘That makes sense.’
‘Yeah… But when he realised I wasn’t just going to sign him up for bodybuilding he threw a tantrum and then…started to cry—’ Alex’s voice broke, suddenly.
‘That’s good, Alex. You got through to him. He must have a lot of negative emotion bottled up.’
Alex was committed to setting up a programme for both kids and adults who were being bullied. He’d applied his customary insight and thoroughness and then left it to a specialist.
Marie had supposed that someone with Alex’s charm and natural leadership ability couldn’t possibly have first-hand knowledge of being bullied, so he’d left the finer points to the experts he’d recruited. But she’d based her supposition on what she’d thought she knew about Alex. The happy childhood she’d imagined for him.
‘You know, I always wanted you to have been happy as a child.’
He looked up at her. ‘Yeah? That’s nice.’
‘Not really. I just wanted to know someone who’d grown up normally. It made me feel better—as if that was something I could shoot for.’
‘Ah. Sorry to disappoint you, then.’ He turned the corners of his mouth down.
‘But, thinking about it, I guess it might have been a bit difficult to make friends when you were little.’
He was gazing at his desk, as if something there might provide an answer. ‘My father didn’t think I should play with any of the kids who lived nearby because I was a prince. I was taught at home until it came time for me to be packed off to an exclusive boarding school. I was a shy kid, with a name that invited a thousand jokes. Of course I got bullied.’
And so he’d become the student who everyone liked. He’d listened to what people said and charmed them all. Marie had never looked past that.
‘I wasn’t much of a friend, was I?’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘What? You were kind and honest. You brought me colour, and you showed me that however hard things are there’s always time to celebrate the good things. I wanted…’
He fell silent suddenly, and in the warmth of his gaze Marie knew what he’d wanted. He’d wanted her. She’d wanted him too. Honesty was good—but this was one place they couldn’t go.
‘I wanted to be like you.’
His smooth refusal to face that particular fact was a relief, because Marie couldn’t face it either. She’d never really moved on from wanting Alex.
‘Will you do me a favour?’ she asked.
‘Anything.’
The look in his eyes told her he meant it.
‘You’ve got a lot you can give to the anti-bullying programme. All those feelings and the things no one ever said. I want you to get more involved with it.’
He laughed suddenly. ‘Don’t underestimate me by giving me the easy option, will you.’
‘You want me to underestimate you?’
‘No, not really. Keeping me honest is what you do best.’ He held his hands up in a gesture of smiling surrender. ‘Yes, I’ll do it. And now we really should be getting back to our visitors.’
