a sideways glance and shoved her hands deep into her trench coat pockets.
“Your aunt told me,” Rhonda explained. “She said she recognized him from television. She’s worried about you.”
“She is?”
“She says you’ve not been the same since he came to visit. And she’s right, Brandy. We’ve all noticed. When you first came to Chez Vous you were like this little breath of fresh air that left a smile on everyone you met. Now, you walk around with your head down in this cloud of unhappiness all because he hasn’t called. Don’t let a man have that much power over you, honey.”
“I thought he loved me,” Brandy said sadly, unable to meet Rhonda’s gaze.
“We always do,” Rhonda said sympathetically. “As awful as it is, if he loved you, he’d call. I’m not saying that to be cruel, I’m saying it to set you free.”
Brandy flinched slightly at the bluntness of the comment and also the truth she knew it held.
“I appreciate you being honest with me,” Brandy managed to smile slightly. They’d arrived at the coffee shop and wandered in and joined the moderate queue.
“I’ll sort you out,” Rhonda promised. “I’ll take you out with me and find you a decent man.”
Brandy smiled politely and nodded as Rhonda began to detail her plan for securing her young colleague a new beau. But Brandy couldn’t focus on what she was saying, her mind, as always, had drifted back to Aiden, and Avalon. She just wished she knew why he hadn’t called.
Holding On
Edna Copes wearily opened the large front door and squinted into the sunlight at Aiden. If she was surprised to see him, she didn’t show it.
“Hi,” Aiden smiled gently at her. “I was hoping I could see Edmond.”
Normally Edna’s face was constantly adorned by a bright, welcoming smile, but her lips were now held in a straight line. Dark circles had gathered beneath her eyes and her skin was pale and lacked its usual lustre.
“I thought you’d come,” Edna sighed, gesturing for Aiden to come inside. “He didn’t want you to know. He thinks so highly of you. He kept fretting about worrying you. But I told him you’re a smart guy; you’d be here soon enough.”
Aiden steeled himself upon hearing Edna’s ominous tone. Clearly, Edmond was as gravely ill as Clyde White had stated.
“How bad is it?” he asked softly.
A shadow crossed Edna’s face as she closed her eyes and shuddered slightly. When she re-opened them to speak they were dull and distant. She recited words she’d heard in a sterile doctor’s office, words she refused to give power to here in her home.
“It was originally just in his bladder but it has since spread and last they checked it was in his lymph nodes.”
“Cancer?”
Edna nodded grimly.
“He’s just through here,” Edna continued through the hallway and led Aiden towards the sitting room. Already he could sense that something was different. The Copes’ household was usually alive with sounds and energy but now the air was still and his footsteps echoed off the walls.
The medicinal scent of antibacterial wash became almost overbearing as it lingered in uncirculated air. Edna opened the doors to the sitting area and it smelled like a hospital ward only without the garish white walls.
The sitting room had been rearranged to accommodate a hospital bed which was nestled in the far corner, surrounded by a web of monitors. The drapes were closed, bathing the whole area in unnatural darkness. Edmond was sat in an armchair wearing blue plaid pyjamas. He had a blanket across his knees despite the oppressive heat of the afternoon.
Aiden felt his breath catch in his throat when he saw his beloved colleague. Edmond was a wilted, watered-down version of his former self. He’d lost a drastic amount of weight so that his pyjamas were ill-fitting. The same dark circles which hung beneath his wife’s eyes were present on his own face, only they appeared denser and more permanent. His skin had become so pale that it was almost translucent.
“He’s being so strong,” Edna whispered to Aiden when they were just beyond Edmond’s earshot.
“Humour him.”
Aiden nodded, though he wasn’t sure what she meant, and carefully approached Edmond. As he neared the older man he suddenly looked up, surprisingly alert and as soon as he saw his young protégé, a huge smile spread across his thinning face.
“Aiden, my boy!”
“So this is where you’ve been hiding out,” Aiden replied, using all the energy he could muster to sound bright and upbeat.
“You found me,” Edmond winked cheekily as Aiden sat down on a nearby sofa.
“Can I get you boys some drinks?” Edna kindly enquired.
“I’ll take a scotch on the rocks,” Edmond chuckled. Edna looked at him sternly, clearly not amused.
“Fine, just water,” Edmond rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you, it’s like living with the Gestapo having her here!”
Edna glanced expectantly at Aiden.
“Just water for me, please.”
For a moment they listened to her retreating footsteps, which were easily carried in the vast, empty air of the house.
“She just worries,” Edmond wrinkled his nose slightly as he referenced his wife. “I do miss my scotch though.”
“You should have told me,” Aiden eyed his friend sternly and leaned forward, clasping his hands together.
“Told you what?” Edmond feigned mock ignorance. “There’s nothing to tell,” he waved a dismissive hand in front of him.
“I’ll be better soon enough. Once they’ve poured more of that damn poison into me I’ll kick this thing, just you see!”
Aiden was about to enquire about how aggressively the cancer had spread when he instead decided to keep his mouth shut, choosing to heed Edna’s advice and humour her husband.
“So who told you?” Edmond asked, his eyes bright with interest as Edna returned with two long glasses of water.
“Thanks,” Aiden nodded politely at her and then looked back at Edmond. “Clyde White. I was there earlier to amend his will.”
“That old dog never could hold his tongue,” Edmond remarked lightly.
“Did he talk to you about his will?”
“I know he’s leaving everything to the Copes’ dynasty,” Edmond quipped. “Someone should tell him to
