Chapter 10

Andrew didn’t think of himself as a drama queen. Sure he had his moments but they tended to be with Suzanne or Leslie, not his parents. His attitude of walking away from confrontation with his sister, where did it come from? He didn’t think it was because she always got her own way but as he drove down to the Commonwealth that morning Andrew was beginning to think that may have driven some of his behaviour when he was younger. Whatever the reason it was clear that when he was away at university, even before that, when he was away at the farm or on holiday, then Rowan was going to be rummaging through his stuff. It was many lengths before Andrew let the baggage that was his family sink to the bottom of the pool. As always swimming cleansed his mind and calmed him.

He stopped at Julian’s flat when he was done swimming but only just caught Julian. He was about to drive off and so they only spoke for a couple of minutes. They arranged to meet the following morning at the flat and they would figure out what to do, both for the day but also for the summer. Andrew had a key for the flat so went up and used the phone to see if he could chat with Leslie. She too was busy but would come over to the flat the next day and Andrew would see her and her parents on Sunday night as usual. Suzanne was in fine, flirty form when he called. She had plans for that night but they would swim on Sunday and arrange something for the following week.

Andrew got in his car and went for a drive, it was Friday July 15^th, 1983, and he had 10 weeks left until he started at Cambridge, assuming he passed all his exams. Life was, for him, clutter free.

He had completed school, been awarded his Open University degree and the sale of the software through licencing agreements was finalised. All the money had been received and the new companies and trusts had been set up. He was rich and trying to help other people with some of that money, both at a very small, individual level and at a larger company level. Other than the distillery, they had not made any investments as yet, but had acquired premises for the expansion of the investment business. The progress would be slow and measured for another year until Leslie graduated. For the first time in five summers Andrew had nothing to do, causing him complete and utter confusion. He had trained himself to always expect to be busy and now had to figure out what to do with his time. The usual teenage summer of staying up late, sleeping in and doing nothing held no appeal to him. What to do? He had time, that most precious of resources and he wanted to use it well. Of the ten weeks Andrew resolved to spend one final summer at the farm and help the Strachans, so there were two weeks accounted for. The last week would all be goodbyes, packing, getting ready and there was no need to worry about that. Andrew wondered about taking a holiday, if only to see what all the fuss was about. It would be his first in six years which was sad when he thought about it but it had been his choice. Andrew idly wondered if Suzanne would be want to come with him, would she even be allowed to come with him? A week with Suzanne, hmmm. He would need another week just to recover. Andrew had spent his last month at school wrapping up relationships, saying goodbye, making plans with the people he wanted to stay in touch with, preparing to move on with his life. The remainder of the summer would be a continuation of that. He needed to spend time with his extended family, especially his Grandma, Suzanne, Leslie, Julian, Maggie and Tony, and Fran & Nikki. Andrew also wanted to spend time with Brian and Mary Campbell. These were the key people that had got him to this point.

As he randomly drove, now heading west out of town, Andrew started to think about his compulsive nature. There was a clear and obvious reason why he was always busy. Faith Campbell, and his promise to her to live his life to the maximum and to live life for both of them. Andrew had been a full time student twice over for more than three years plus fitting everything else in on top of it. Did he know how to switch off? He laughed to himself as he thought about the idea of relaxing twice as hard. Julian’s infamous holiday in Spain sprang to mind for some reason! But as he thought about it, more and more Andrew realised that the issue was someone to relax with. Studying was a solitary pastime, even in the library. Whenever he spent time with other people, be it the CCF, hockey, dates, Food Bank, whatever, then he was perfectly capable of being social and relaxed. Looking back on the couple of days in London, the whole thing was better when he was not on his own, although some of the adventures would have been constrained with a companion. Andrew would like to go on holiday with Suzanne, spend a week or two with her, all day, every day. Seeing someone all the time, not retreating to study, even the experience of regular, daily sex would all be new to him. He smiled at the thought of Suzanne naked in his arms every day. Hopefully her parents could be persuaded about the holiday!

Andrew had been driving like he swam, to do some thinking. He was well out of the city by now, closer to the Strachans than home. Figuring why not, he carried on out to the farm and parked the Golf over to the side of the yard, out of the way. He sat and chatted with Josephine, there was no sign of Harry, over lunch and then helped her with some paperwork. Andrew stayed for dinner and agreed to work there for the middle two weeks of August. It was a relaxing day, the Strachans had always been very good to him, going all the way back to that first post-cancer summer. It also conveniently got him away from his family. When he got back to the house Andrew heard his dad on the phone speaking French. His father motioned for him to come and take the phone, and once he had explained to the person on the other end of the line handed the receiver to him. It was Manon.

“Hello Andrew, it is Manon, you met Yasmine and I in London two weeks ago.”

Andrew reassured her that he knew who it was. They were in York and hoped to visit Edinburgh the following week, although they were unsure when. Andrew knew he would be around so told them to call the house the night before they were due to head north and he would meet them at the train or bus station. It would be like Mareikura, a chance to play tourist in his own city. Well maybe not completely like Mareikura! His dad was all set to give Andrew a hard time for having more women call the house, foreign women to boot, but when explained the story he changed his tune. His dad loved to talk about history, and so two new victims were something to look forward to. Andrew had no idea if Manon and Yasmine wanted an all-day history lesson but it diverted his attention from his son picking up cute French women in London. Probably just as well he had not given Judy the home phone number. It also diffused the tension from the morning. Andrew was able to retreat to his room. He spent close to an hour sorting out the mess that Rowan had made. At first it he didn’t know what the solution was but it came through his own clumsy fingers. He was trying to slip a record into the inner sleeve before putting it away when the sleeve slipped from his fingers and went down the back of the stereo. Grumbling under his breath Andrew reached his long arm down to snag the errant sleeve. It was then he spotted that his amplifier had a detachable power cord. All the other components had integral power cords but the cord for the amp was detachable. For his weeks away at the farm, or on holiday, he would simply remove the power cord. The amp wouldn’t work and thus Rowan would have no reason to be in his room. He did consider it to be somewhat petty but it was clear he would get no support from his parents. Fuck her.

With this mighty triumph ringing in his head Andrew slept well. Saturday started as normal with Andrew going for another swim rather than running. He was early at the flat and was blithely chatting away to Julian, who outright laughed at him when Andrew explained his ‘nothing to do’ problem.

“Enjoy it you freak. Bloody hell, you are the only person I know that has to be busy 100% of the time. Cambridge will take care of that for you, just enjoy the summer and relax.”

Well that was him told. But then Leslie turned up and Julian suddenly seemed out of sorts and Leslie was even more shifty.

“Andrew, come and sit down a minute, we have to talk to you.”

In hindsight he could see all the clues were there but let’s face it, it was Andrew and this wasn’t his strong suit. He looked at them expectantly. Seeing his blank face Leslie laughed.

“You really are clueless at reading signs. Andrew, Julian and I have been dating for more than four months and we needed to tell you.”

He looked at the pair of them in shock and then smiling widely leapt up. First Leslie and then Julian got huge hugs before Andrew demanded to know how all this had happened. Drink was involved at first, surprise, surprise, but it had quickly grown to something more. Leslie had been talking to Julian a lot during the winter when she was estranged with Andrew and once everything returned to normal their relationship had blossomed. They saw each other all the time at university, were out most Friday nights at the Union and Leslie stayed over at his place more than she spent time at home. Andrew shook his head and smiled.

“I really am a self-absorbed, clueless git, I had no idea. I am so pleased for the pair of you, two of my best friends end up as a couple.”

The thought of the consequences of a break-up had already flitted across his mind but that was a topic for a one on one conversation not now. Voting at meetings if they ever had a disagreement were also going to be interesting. All topics for another day. The two of them hoped and expected his reaction to be this positive but they were still nervous in case he was upset. That tension had all gone.

“What do the two sets of parents think?”

“We haven’t told anyone yet.” This was Julian. “Some of our friends on the course know but we haven’t told either set of parents yet. We wanted you to hear about it first. We are going to tell them over the course of next week.”

Dinner at the Campbell’s would be interesting tomorrow night but it was their story to tell. Andrew was just pleased for them both. The sister of the girl next to him in the cancer ward and the computer geek, two years older than him, who answered a flyer about computing. Now his millionaire couple friends.

Eventually they settled down and caught up on each other’s lives. Julian was two years into his degree and was thinking about his future. He had secured a summer job at Ferranti in the city and was working on non-security clearance activities. If he accepted a permanent job there after graduation then he would be vetted for a security clearance, as the company did a large amount of work for the Ministry of Defence. He was happy to be in the city and Andrew could tell that he was looking to put down roots there. He had the money to be independently wealthy so the job was for satisfaction and intellectual stimulation. Andrew guessed that Leslie and Julian would be in a house as soon as he graduated, maybe even sooner.

As for Leslie, she was ready to take on the world. She exuded impatience about getting finished with her degree so that she could start to work on the Trust, and the Venture fund as well. More and more when they had discussions about the future, she would talk not so much with authority, she was collegial rather than dictatorial, but with knowledge. She thought about investing, she thought about property, she thought about spending the income of the fund. One of the reasons Andrew didn’t sweat the detail of the financial aspects of everything that he and they achieved was because Leslie took care of all of those details. She was talking to Doug Somers most weeks now and meeting him at least once a month. They had £3m to invest in Scotland and northern England and Leslie was shouldering a lot of the responsibility. The £100,000 in the distillery was a modest start but she was now talking to Doug about all sorts of other investments.

Andrew would talk to her about his concerns the following evening so kept it high level with them. He did confess about Judy and Leslie just shook her head, he would hear more about that from her the next day. The Computer Science degree was acknowledged but Andrew didn’t make much of a fuss about it. It was done and being feted was not him. But most of the day was just spent basking in the happiness of his friends. They asked him to not tell his parents until they had told their own, but they gave him the okay to tell Suzanne. They all went out for an early dinner but Andrew left them to go home together and instead drove out to Cramond. In the fading evening sun he walked along the shore thinking about his life, the intersection of his friend’s lives and whether it changed anything with the Trust. Both the medical research trust as well as the venture investment trust were well set up and Andrew trusted Mhairi. What were they going to fight over? Spending the money to help find a cure for cancer? He couldn’t see it; the fund would always lean towards childhood cancers. The investment decisions? Maybe, but that would require him and Julian coming up with alternatives. Again, the three of them wanted to ensure that this was sustainable. Julian and his main investment contributions would relate to computer hardware and software companies. Even then they were leery, so many companies were rising and falling. It was the constant evolution of the industry that convinced Andrew that it was better to sell Jullesand, or rather licence the software, while they were getting a good price. The sale of the various parts of the company took up a lot of energy last year. He always had to remind himself that they didn’t sell the company. In his own mind Andrew’s shorthand was a sale, whereas legally they had licenced the software three times over.

At the end of the day, Andrew trusted his friends and wasn’t worried about the impact of their relationship on the Trust. He was more worried about the impact if they broke up, and would talk to Leslie first of all about that tomorrow night. That Leslie and Julian were a couple reinforced the need for him to find a way to spend his time, he couldn’t just assume he could spend time with them.

Andrew thought through all the weeks of his remaining time in Scotland. Assuming that Suzanne wanted to vacation with him and could convince her parents then August was taken care of with two weeks at the farm and two weeks on vacation. He would call Nikki when he got home because he wanted to spend time with her and Fran. Their calls had been sporadic over the last year and four or five days with them would be nice, assuming that they wanted to spend time with him. He was overdue to spend time with Maggie, and maybe Tony as well. Another call for next week, maybe stop by the shop and catch up, organise some shoots. They were very different than his other friends, but no less close because of it. The only other person that Andrew really wanted to spend time with was Pete. Dragging him out with the two French girls would be fun, if only to see the tormented look on his face. As he drove home Andrew sheepishly realised that he was trying to plan everything again. What’s that line, spontaneity has a time and a place. That was him alright.

It had been more than two weeks since Andrew had seen Suzanne and her face when she saw the way he was looking at her was wonderful.

“You are good for a woman’s ego that is for sure. You looked like you were going to strip me right here in the foyer.”

He kissed her in response and it lasted a long time, a very long time.

“Well that has got me all hot and horny.”

Her tone was part joking, part serious.

“We need to stay here for a few minutes, if I go into the changing rooms right now, people are going to get the wrong idea. You look fantastic, in case you were unsure how I felt.”

“Oh, I could feel your reaction alright.”

“But it is more than that. It is good to see you, to catch up with you.”

Suzanne beamed happily and Andrew knew it was true. It wasn’t just that Suzanne was physically magnificent, it was she understood him. And as Leslie acknowledged, Suzanne was closer to him than she would or could ever be. Andrew hadn’t anticipated how great it would be just to spend time with her. They sat and chatted for a few minutes until everything had calmed down and then went and swam. They spent more time fondling each other below the surface than they did swimming. It was a long extended session of foreplay, which given that they were not immediately going to bed, was masochistic in the extreme. They did spend the last 20 minutes swimming hard just to try and burn off some of their excess energy. Sitting in the café down the street afterwards Andrew filled Suzanne in on the trip. He never talked to her about other women, although it occasionally came up circumstantially, so made no mention of Judy. But he did talk at length about his doubts about his leadership both at the Royal Engineer course and even with the two Sloans.

“This has you rattled, doesn’t it?”

Andrew nodded in agreement.

“What triggered this? You are normally confident in your abilities.”

“A bunch of things. Pete is a better leader than I am, it is obvious at CCF. We are a very complementary pair, he is the motivator, the good cop, I am the planner and the bad cop. Pete is so relaxed at leading, whereas it never comes instinctively to me. I watched the regular Sapper officers on the first two days of the camp, they were much more like Pete than me. Yes, there was a ton of planning, logistics and details but the leading of men part was such a huge component. And yes even those two Sloans were just so effortlessly confident. Normally I would shake something like this off but it seems to be staying in my mind at the moment.”

Suzanne listened but didn’t immediately offer a solution. As Andrew had with June, Kate, Gail, even Nikki all those years ago, so Suzanne just listened and let him talk it through with someone else. She was more and more fulfilling the role that had once been exclusively Leslie’s. He changed topics and asked her about a holiday together.

“Would you like to go on holiday with me this summer Suzanne?”

Andrew was feeling quite nervous waiting for her response.

“Oh I would love to Andrew, but I don’t know that I can afford it. Since I am going to Glasgow, money is a little tighter than before.”

“Would you let me pay?”

He was quiet and hesitant and Suzanne looked at him for a long time.

“It raises a lot of issues, not least my parent’s reaction.”

“I know but I want to spend two weeks with you, see you every day, wake up next to you, hold your hand as we walk wherever we are. Listen, you are the person I am going to miss the most in October, it is not even close. I have seen you every school day for each of the last three years. Most weekdays you see me more than my parents. And I am going to miss you way more than my parents.”

Suzanne looked sad as he talked about their impending separation.

“I know what you mean. There is going to be a hole in my life that is going to take a long time to fill. Part of me really wants to go on holiday with you, it would be wonderful just to see you every day, as you say, just walk hand in hand, never mind the nights, but will it not just make it worse four weeks later? You are never going to be back during term time. I don’t want to move on but I know that I have to let you go.”

This was turning into him and Ara all over again. Suzanne promised to think about it but they both knew that what she worried about made sense. Andrew headed to the Food Bank thinking about life without Suzanne. Hmmm. And not in a good way. He told Dave that his last day was going to be Sunday September 18^th, and that he could miss several days over the summer as well. Dave understood and already knew that Andrew was heading south to university.

“Barely 18 and been here for four plus years. If only there were more like you Andrew. You will be missed.”