Chapter 36

When Leslie and Andrew entered Mhairi’s office he apologised for calling her at the weekend; it was Leslie that had made the call but the principle was what was important. Julian Strong senior had sprung the problem on him at the last minute and they had a small window in which to act. Mhairi understood and told him that it was not that uncommon for lawyers to receive calls at the weekend from clients.

“I must admit I didn’t think you would be one of them so soon.”

She stopped and thought for a second.

“Although you are running a business where I imagine there are going to be lots of problems. If calls at the weekend mean more work for you and therefore for me all the better.”

They got down to business. Andrew repeated Saturday’s conversation. He told Mhairi that there would be another partner ready for a meeting at 11.00. Everyone’s relationship was known to the client.

“They know that there will be three of us. I do not think they will expect a lawyer with me. I have no damn clue how the meeting will go. He could be a pompous jackass and throw me out after two minutes. Leslie and I talked with Brian about pitching the pricing. I am going to stick firm for £1,000. They have spent at least £40,000 and we had nothing to do with it until now. None of the issues are our issues. We are the solution to the problem. Who talks? Leslie? You? I presume that I should sit quietly.”

“Leslie is the director of the Company. We will draft a short proposal for them. She will present it to them. Main terms will be; £1,000 fixed fee if the consulting hours are less than 100. Anything in addition is at £10/hour agreed in advance by the client. Included are the rights to use the VisiCalc templates that you will install on each computer. 25% on acceptance of the proposal. Balance on completion on January 4^th. Leslie are you comfortable presenting this?”

Leslie looked at Andrew.

“What the hell have you got me into? Delivering a proposal, and not a good kind of proposal, on Christmas Eve. Never a dull day with you is there Andrew?”

Turning to Mhairi she merely said.

“Yes I will be fine. You will keep me right from the legal side and Andrew can handle any computer questions.”

Less than 90 minutes later they were sitting with Stuart McBride in his firm’s boardroom. Leslie thanked him for meeting them at such short notice, like it wasn’t his idea, and then spent five minutes presenting the proposal. It went about as well as Andrew had expected.

“This seems an outrageous amount of money. I am sorry that you think that this is appropriate. We are expecting to pay a fraction of this.”

Mhairi and Leslie both looked at Andrew and he in turn looked at Mr. McBride.

“I think if you consider the benefits and value that you are receiving you will come to the conclusion that this is in fact an excellent proposal and that your firm and your clients will reap the benefits. Our proposal ensures that”

Andrew got no chance to go further.

“Spare me please, young man. Are you prepared to reduce your price?”

Direct and to the point.

“No sir.”

“Then I think this meeting is over. Let’s not waste any more of each other’s time. Merry Christmas to you all.”

Three handshakes later they were out on the street. Andrew fumed.

“Well that was fun. The next person that calls me ‘young man’ so help me I’ll”

He didn’t finish his thoughts.

“Look let’s go back to Mhairi’s office and think about the strategy going forward.”

Once they were in her office Andrew looked at the two of them.

“Do you mind if I start?”

They shook their heads.

“Next time we do one of these I shouldn’t be there. Now there may be some technical issues but let’s try it without me. My age gets in the way of everything. Secondly, they will be back. Julian senior was stressed on Saturday and I don’t know why this guy didn’t get the memo. We only have a short window with the holidays to get this done. They have asked around and no one is getting back to them or is prepared to help them. They need to learn a lesson.”

Andrew could feel his anger at controlling adults start to creep up again.

“Can you have your secretary prepare a new proposal and get two copies please? Double all the terms. If they think they can do this on their own then so be it. Our new proposal, £2,000 with £20/hour if in excess of 100 hours total. 50% up front, balance on completion and no end date since we don’t know when it is going to be signed.”

It was Mhairi who spoke first.

“That is incredibly aggressive Andrew. They are likely to just hang up if Leslie or I tell them that. Are you sure?”

Andrew looked at Leslie

“I am getting very fed up with the way adults are treating me. This is me trying take back some control. What do you think?”

“Just as Dad said last night, if you make a mistake in business you have to pay. They made a mistake and asked us to fix it for them. They just made another mistake and they will have to pay twice now. I agree with you both. I do think it is aggressive and we will likely not end up doing the work but I also agree with your sentiment.”

She looked at Mhairi.

“Price it as Andrew has directed.”

“Okay let me go and instruct my secretary with the changes. I will leave the proposal undated since we don’t know when it will be signed, if ever.”

When Andrew got home he called Julian to let him know what had happened. He understood that this was a risk and when Andrew told him they were looking to pay only a fraction of what had been proposed he snorted.

“Good luck finding anyone with that attitude and budget.”

Andrew wished him a merry Christmas and they agreed to touch base on the 27^th to organise some more computing time.

After all that the rest of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were uneventful. The gifts that Andrew gave were better than normal this year and were well received. Books for his dad, a fancy pair of gloves for his mum and a horseback riding lesson for Rowan. You can’t be a Princess without being able to ride! He had spoken to his parents about what to get Scott. He was not even two months old so Andrew gave some money to his mother and Scott ended up with some new baby clothes, not that he would ever remember. Andrew received a new SLR camera. Just as three years earlier the family all chipped in and so he had a nice new Olympus. Andrew took it with him to his aunt and uncle’s for the Christmas lunch. Nikki arrived on time and Andrew gave his present to her in his room. She also got a nice pair of gloves, although different than the pair he got his mother. Nikki got him the David Wilkie biography and it was a signed copy, just fantastic. Andrew had watched on TV as Wilkie won gold in Montreal three years earlier. The two of them drove over to Davina and Nathan’s. She was his dad’s older sister and a really nice person, nice enough to let her nephew invite a stranger into her house for Christmas.

When they arrived they were both right into the middle of conversations. His mother had given Davina a head’s up as to stay away from bringing up why she was there. No point in a teary scene on Christmas Day! At least they were spared the ‘is she your girlfriend?’ chat. Andrew’s mum was only 39 that year and so Nikki was considerably closer to his mum’s age than his own. People were confused as to how he had a 29 year old friend.

“When I first met Andrew it was in February. Here was this emaciated stick insect of a boy bundled up against the weather, who comes in every day. You only had to take one look at him to realise that he had been through chemo and that he was off school.”

Everyone nodded sombrely.

“But as he started to put on weight and look less skeletal we would chat each day. Mostly nothing more than good morning, something like that. Then one day he came in looking for information on volunteering. We didn’t have any information like he was after so I told him about the place that I volunteered and he turned up the following Sunday. He has missed one weekend in nine months and that was his CCF camp. We work together at the Food Bank Warehouse packing individual food parcels for distribution. He hauls all the cases and boxes of food over and then we break them down. Three hours every Sunday for most of the year. He is my closest male friend and yet his is almost young enough to be my son. It is a strange world but I am proud to call Andrew McLeod my friend.”

Andrew was blushing and smiling when she was finished and gave her a big hug. That seemed to break the ice and the family started to share Andrew stories. These continued as they sat down to lunch. In a pause in the conversation his cousin Shona piped up.

“Nikki, we have been teasing Andrew with stories of his childhood. Do you have a more recent story?”

Nikki smiled the biggest fucking grin Andrew have ever seen. There was only one place this was going.

“Well Shona, I can tell you a very recent Andrew story. One that has cemented Andrew’s legend at the warehouse. People will occasionally overhear us talking and are always amazed at what he is up to. School, computers, exercise. You name it Andrew is trying to do it to the maximum. So one day Andrew shows up at the warehouse. First weekend of December. Andrew arrives with two pretty girls. Young women. The sort of young women that set a young man’s heart racing.”

Nikki was a natural storyteller. She had the family eating out of the palm of her hand.

“One of things that Andrew gets me to help him with is dealing with a bunch of guys giving him a hard time. Not mean but banter, taking the mickey, that kind of thing. There are two guys at the warehouse who give some pretty good zingers. Andrew has been their target before and he and they have built up a typical male bond. So anyway Gord and Mike are in the warehouse when Andrew arrives with the two pretty young women. Did I happen to mention that Andrew arrived with a couple of hotties?”

Oh please stop her now.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Andrew is friends with a lot of feisty women.”

She laughed at herself at this point.

“The guys are introducing themselves to Paula and Suzanne when Paula announces bold as brass that they were on a date. Andrew has brought a girl to the Food Bank warehouse on a December afternoon as a date. Of course, being Andrew and not one to do things by half measures, he in fact has invited two women at the same time on a date to the Food Bank warehouse. He asked them at the same time too. So gentlemen, when you are looking back on your lives and considering various aspects of that life ask yourself this ‘Did I ever ask two women out at the same time in front of each other and bring them to a warehouse in December on a date.’ Andrew did and then took them to dinner afterwards. And do you know what. They loved it. Rather than go and see another movie he decided to do something that would make a difference. The two of them are just good friends with Andrew and often do things together so he decided that they would do this. Paula knew about Gord and Mike and so hammed it up for them at the beginning. Like I said, a legend.”

Everyone was smiling. Nikki told a great story and all Andrew’s relatives from Grandma through his aunts and uncles to his cousin were all smiling. There was no point in trying to deny anything as nobody would believe it. Also most of the story was true. He and Nikki made their escape for a walk around 4pm. The evening was already pretty dark when they set out.

“Thank you for the story. I would like to claim some exaggeration but other than a dramatic flair it is all true. Dad is in there right now telling everyone about being kissed by the two of them when I met them at the stadium.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Andrew was walking alongside her, close but not crowding her. She just turned into him. His arms came out to hug her and she leant against him. It reminded him of the long terrible cry that Leslie had on the day that Faith found out she was dying. The same abject sorrow coming out in gulps. Wails and cries and tears all mixed together. A huge cathartic unburdening. Andrew just held her and waited. Eventually she stopped crying and he just held her in his arms.

“I don’t know what to do. I am so unhappy Andrew.”

The tears started again. The hankie in his pocket was clean that morning and fortunately unused so Andrew fished it out for her and let Nikki use it to wipe her eyes.

“I don’t know that my family cares about me. Every single day there have been calls to the house. I am bringing shame to the family, how could I do this to them, do you know what the neighbours think? Do you know what they care about? Their neighbours at church. Not me. Their standing in the community.”

Having always had similar vibes from his own mother Andrew understood her completely. Even then his mum was prone to moments of ‘what will the neighbours think?’.

“I have had enough. I am only renting my place so I can give up the lease. I have enquired as to whether there is an opening with the Glasgow library district and have put an application in. I am looking to move over to Glasgow, move away from the family.”

She quickly checked both ways although the street was empty.

“Francesca and I are going to live together.”

She smiled the sweetest heart-melting smile.

“Purely as flatmates you understand.”

She shrieked as Andrew lifted her up and spun her round.

“I am so, so happy for you. Yes. Best Christmas present of the day.”

She looked at him.

“Really. I knew that you would support me but you are that happy?”

“Nikki, of course I am that happy. You deserve to be happy. I wish I could have captured the smile on your face when you told me. It was radiant. You have been fighting so much for so long. Next Christmas you will be kicking yourself that you took so long.”

He finally put her feet back on the ground.

“Andrew McLeod, you man child. You are a wise old guy trapped in this young man’s body. You have a knack for saying the right thing. By the way, you threw me around like I was a rag doll. Seriously hunky body my friend. It was a shame those two girls of yours never got to see it.”

“Enough of the teasing about Paula and Suzanne. Anyway the PE next term is swimming. We double up the classes and my guess is they will put all the girls together. They can admire me to their hearts content.”

They had started walking back. Andrew stopped her.

“We sort of glossed over the family. You come from a large interconnected family and I am sure they are not all arses. But Nikki you have never looked happier. Drop by St. Andrew’s and see the priest. Let him know that you attend St. Luke’s now. Word will seep out and it will calm them down. And you will feel better with the priest knowing you are still attending church, I know you. When you need help to move I will be there. I will drag Dad and Brian Campbell, Gord and Mike, whoever we need. You have friends never forget it.”