Chapter 11

Andrew changed to go out with Pete and Suzanne drove him into town in the Golf. He and Pete met at the Guildford again, same as usual and their catching up was perfunctory. They both confirmed university was good and that was that, no need for pointless chat. Andrew told him about the trip to Paris and how he had met Manon while he was there. Manon had told Andrew that Yasmine was still the adventurous one, for which he figured meant she fucked around a lot, but that she didn’t see her often now that they were both working. Mentioning Yasmine set the tone for the night, Pete reminiscing about that week the previous summer before morphing into talking about women in general. For the first time he was feeling cramped living at home as he bemoaned the lack of opportunity to take things further several times during the evening. The obvious solution, which Andrew was embarrassed to admit he hesitated considering before chiding himself for being a selfish prick.

“Can you afford to move out Pete?”

“Yeah, I can if I can find the right place. Problem is that everyone has flatmates already and the ones that have space, have it for a reason. You know, drunken tossers.”

“I bought a place in September and other than when I am back during the breaks it sits empty. There is a second bedroom, do you want to move in?”

Pete looked at Andrew before bursting out laughing.

“Fuck me, you have your own flat and you don’t even go to university here. Where is it?”

“Marchmont, Spottiswoode Street at the top end near Warrender.”

“How much would the rent be?”

“Haven’t a clue. Look you just mentioned this to me and I extended the offer. I have not thought about this, rent, anything like that. You are a good friend and I thought why not. The only thing I ask is that you don’t be a dick with it. There is only one other student flat on the stair, and they are post-grads so it is quiet. It is also my home now, I moved out this year, so it is not a rented place to be treated poorly. Other than that you are welcome to move in. But it is only a two-bedroom place and so you would be on your own. What do you say?”

Pete wanted to move in the next day, but he was going to talk to his folks and they would talk over the weekend. Andrew was pretty sure Pete would be moved in before he left for London. As for the band, they were singularly unmemorable despite the volume of the music, Pete was babbling away and Andrew could see he was overjoyed to escape his parents’ clutches. He hoped they were supportive. Andrew had told Suzanne that he would be out early helping Tony so left her sleeping as he slipped out of the bed. He had stopped and made purchases for both that weekend and the following one on his way home the previous day. He had picked up a new pair of hiking boots and was wearing them that morning, starting to break them in. But more germane to the photo shoot, Andrew had bought two basic hard hats and a fluorescent vest. Maggie had been told to dress in her business suit and to bring some kind of clipboard.

There was a lot of construction happening in Edinburgh, including the new bypass round the city. It was there that they went in the hope of finding a quiet spot. It was too easy. The sun rose just before 6.30 so Andrew collected the two of them at 6.00. There were extensive excavations and they were able to get to a remote bulldozer without too much of a trek. There were pieces of plywood scattered about and so Andrew was able to lay two beside the huge tread of the bulldozer for Maggie to stand on. He then produced the bag with the two hard hats and the vest. Tony had not realised he had a starring role and was surprisingly reluctant to pose next to Maggie. Soon Andrew was getting some great shots of the sun highlighting the muddy yellow of the bulldozer as Tony pretended to be a construction worker, while Maggie was practicing her snooty face as some kind of office supervisor. For the next hour Maggie worked her way out of her clothes until she was wearing just her stockings and heels and the hard hat. She modelled in the vest as well, playfully trying to zip it up which was a lost cause due to the swell of her bosom. And she was still pushing her previously carefully defined limits. Her final pose was standing next to the bulldozer with one foot carefully resting on the machinery between the treads. Andrew caught a great stunned look on Tony’s face but Maggie motioned for Andrew to move and capture more of the shot. This was the most explicit open leg shot Maggie had ever posed for, at least for Andrew, but there was no reluctance and she cajoled him to take several clear shots. At 7.20 they were done and it was Maggie’s turn to be surprised as Tony produced the two coats and boots for her to walk back to the car. Maggie’s questions were all about where they were going, not about what she got to wear. Tony directed Andrew out to the little commuter station at Curriehill. At the weekend no trains stopped at the station, he had carefully checked that. As a result the place was deserted. No sign of any cars, any people, it was completely silent. Just as with the day at the end of the runway there were two trains passing within minutes of each other, eastbound first and then westbound.

Again Andrew was struck by how quickly something so risky and illicit became normal. Maggie was posing in just her boots, her coats at Andrew’s feet while Tony had brought along his video camera and was on the other platform filming the whole scene. And it was the perfect spot. The driver spotted Maggie in time to hit his horn for a long blast. Once the train had passed Maggie jumped up and down with excitement. The three of them swapped sides for the westbound train, there was a small pedestrian bridge over the tracks. Maggie didn’t even bother taking her coats. The only way back to them, and back to the car was to return over the bridge, naked but for her boots. The westbound driver either didn’t see her in time or was just a miserable sod because there was no blast from the train’s horn but again Maggie was naked on the platform as the train went past. Both times the trains had been going at a reasonable speed and with Maggie being right next to the train Andrew guessed that she was nothing more than a pink blur to the passengers. Increasing the distance between the train and Maggie would allow people to at least register what they were seeing even if there were no details. The last five shots on the roll were of Maggie standing on the bridge looking down on the tracks. Then she skipped over to where Tony was standing and enveloped him in a big hug. But before she bothered getting dressed she came over and hugged Andrew as well.

“What a great morning. You two spoil me, you know that?”

As they chatted on the drive back into the city Andrew thought about Maggie’s comment. It was 8.30 in the morning and he had been up for three hours already. But the ‘why?’ of his behaviour still didn’t make much sense. Andrew took the photographs and had reviewed them with Tony and Maggie, but it wasn’t as if he had them at home and was constantly looking at them. With Suzanne or Helena in his bed he didn’t need to resort to photos of Maggie. In fact all the photos were kept at Tony’s shop, in a locked filing cabinet in the back corner of the darkroom. The best analogy Andrew could come up with, and it wasn’t perfect, was he was the roadie for a band, he was there as Maggie posed. But the truth was they were his friends and this was their thing. Maggie got off on posing for him, Tony got off on seeing Maggie posing for him, and he got to see Maggie naked. He dropped them off at the shop, there was a couple going straight to the bedroom, and drove up to the flat.

That Saturday Andrew finally got to welcome Nikki and Francesca to his home. They had let him stay with them more than ten times but at last he could repay at least a little of that hospitality. Having seen how his Grandma, Leslie and Suzanne had all reacted to the Hermès scarves Andrew had made the decision to order twelve more of them from Manon. They were a unique luxury at the time in Edinburgh and everyone seemed so blown away by them. He had been daydreaming about it during the meeting the previous day and had asked Mhairi if he could call Paris from her office. He thanked Manon profusely for the gift of the six scarves, worth a lot more than he was paid for the two modelling shoots. The scarves were a corporate gift from Beatrice rather than Manon personally but she had selected them and so he asked her to select twelve more for him and would send a cheque to her to cover the cost. Andrew had figured out that the original six were not going to be enough. He wanted to give scarves to his mother, again, after she was bumped from the original list for Navya; as well as Mhairi, Mary Campbell, Nikki and Fran. The others, well he was a complete slut so was sure they would find a good home.

Suzanne had been up and ready to swim as usual and they were now waiting impatiently for Nikki and Fran to arrive. Suzanne did not seem nervous as she had met Nikki several times and Fran at Andrew’s party in September. When they arrived it was a moment that made him both happy and sad. He was so proud to show off his place yet was suddenly sad that his family had not seen it. Not even his Grandma had been over, and Andrew resolved to rectify that oversight the following week.

The two of them had not changed, a few more grey hairs but they were still as cute together as ever. He showed them were they would be staying and then the rest of the flat. It took all of two minutes, it was a two bedroom flat not a mansion. They sit in the living room drinking tea and catching up. Francesca was a paediatric surgeon at the Yorkhill Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow. It had the same name and the same nickname as the equivalent hospital in Edinburgh which did cause confusion at times. Every time Andrew listened to Francesca talk about her medical training he was sure they were adding things on to the end, as it never seemed to finish. Having finished foundation training, the dreaded junior doctor phase full of insane shifts, she was now a qualified surgeon and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. But she still had six more years to go before she had completed all her training. Now she was working as a surgeon during this time so she was a qualified doctor and surgeon but it still seemed to be a daunting amount of training. But she was established at Yorkhill and doing well there, so she was happy. Nikki had more reasonable hours, lower stress hours and an unchanging schedule so she was the one who kept their flat organised and clean and did simple things like grocery shopping. But as they talked about their life together it was clear that they were still happily in love. They were both inclusive with Suzanne, asking her about life in Glasgow, her halls of residence were not that far from their flat and they knew all the areas that she went to. Not the hottest new clubs but they were familiar with lots of the take-out places for example.

When Andrew gave the two of them their Hermès scarves the reaction was over the top but wonderful none the less. The scarves complemented each other while still being distinct and different. As he was engulfed in hugs and kisses from the two of them he knew he had made the right decision to gift them to all the women in his life. Manon had confirmed that they package would be sent express and should be delivered early next week, in time for Andrew to give scarves to his mum, Maggie, Mary and Mhairi. The Hermès scarves led to Suzanne retelling his week in Paris with particular emphasis on the bare arsed naked part of Thursday. Fran just laughed.

“Andrew, you have to find out which magazines the advert is going to run in. It will be hilarious to have lots of copies, let the nurses see you, let the other librarians see you.”

She was having way too much fun with this.

“How do you describe our relationship Fran if someone asks you?”

“I call you my sort of nephew, why?”

“I don’t think you are meant to carry round pictures of your 18-year-old nephew’s naked arse. And anyway, I doubt they are going to use them. They haven’t decided on the film yet.”

Andrew had forgotten to mention that they had filmed the session.

“What, it is not just still photos but a film as well?”

“Yes, although like I said, no decision. A nice way of burying it and forgetting about it.”

Fran waved her hand in front of her face like a Victorian with the vapours. That pretty much set the tone for the day. The wine was opened early and they made do with take out as no one was in any state to eat out in a restaurant. The time with his friends just flew by, just catching up, relaxing and enjoying the company. The wine hit them all hard around 10.00 and everyone headed to bed, far earlier than normal. Andrew felt rough as hell the next morning, he had not drunk enough water and decided not to run that day. He did go to the pool, the rest of the flat dead to the world but Andrew coasted along for 30 minutes and felt much better for it. To save hot water in the flat he showered at the pool and was back there by 9.00. Nikki was in the kitchen drinking water and looking awful.

“Why did you let me drink so much red wine?”

He kissed her on the cheek.

“You will recall I did try to stop you opening the fourth bottle.”

“Oh shut up. Where have you been? Please don’t tell me you have been out running.”

“No, I couldn’t face it this morning, I went swimming instead.”

Nikki just shuddered and sat at the dining room table with a glass of water. Andrew put the coffee machine on and figured the smell of fresh coffee would bring the other two through. Ten minutes later Fran walked in wearing a long tee-shirt, a thin tight long tee-shirt that every second challenged him to keep looking her in the eye. Andrew at least had somewhere to look when Suzanne pitched up wearing one of the robes carelessly tied round the middle highlighting her fabulous cleavage. There was no danger of using any of the hot water, at this rate he would need a cold shower. Andrew remained a gentleman but only just. Fran and Nikki were heading back to Glasgow that afternoon but the three of them all went down to the Food Bank warehouse to say hi to Dave and Gord. The two old timers were pleased to see both of them, they had spoken at the party but they spent a few minutes catching up before Andrew said his farewells to Nikki and Fran.

“Thank you for inviting us through, it was a fun night and nice to blow of some steam like that. It also made me realise that I am not 25 anymore. I felt rough as hell this morning.”

Nikki hugged and kissed him and Fran did likewise.

“Don’t ever change Andrew. Now the list of millionaires that I know only has you on it, but I doubt there are many that would be photographed bollock naked for a fashion magazine. It is just yet another story to add to the tales of Andrew McLeod.”

With a final kiss on the cheek she jumped into the car with Nikki and they drove off down the street with a toot and a wave. Andrew worked a full shift that afternoon, the beginning of which was funny as some bossy middle-aged woman was trying to tell him what to do, until Gord told her to pack it in. Andrew quietly explained he had worked there for four years and knew what he was doing. She flushed and stopped bossing him about.

That night at the Campbell’s Andrew gave Mary the 6^th and final scarf from the original gift set that he had from Hermès, he only hoped that Manon’s delivery was not held up in customs or something. As with the other five recipients she was embarrassingly grateful and Andrew was pleased to do something for her. His relationship with Brian was much stronger but in the last two years Mary had started to come out of her shell. The talk around the dinner table quickly turned to the three days of meetings.

“Andrew, you were pretty quiet during all the meetings, what was wrong?” This was Julian.

“The reality not matching up to the dream. Can you imagine how quickly we would have pissed all that money away without Doug. There seems to be endless reminders of all the things that we can’t do, rather than focusing and accentuating the positive. It is necessary but it can be dispiriting. The other thing is making sure that I don’t end up leaving the two of you with all the work to do. I don’t know what I am doing this summer but there is no guarantee I will be in Edinburgh, at least for the whole break. So I am keen for things in both funds to be as low maintenance as possible. You two should not be shouldering a disproportionate burden just because you are here.

“And for all the talk, and all the investments, it still seems so little. I struggle with how we as a country are meant to get all these people back into work. Sure we are helping and I know that every little helps, but it does feel like a little and the problems seem so insurmountable. I am idealistic, probably naïve and without sufficient knowledge, I feel as if Pope was writing about me, and wish there was more being done.”

He finished with his usual shrug.