by Ali McNamara
‘I wasn’t going to tell you everything just yet.’ I was going to butter him up with a few glasses of wine, a nice meal and me in my sexiest dress with a pair of very high heels. ‘But since you ask …’ I take a deep breath. ‘I had an idea last night while I was at Sunnyside. And, I think, quite a good one, too.’ I pause, but Sean just waits, his face wearing that patient yet neutral expression it does when I have one of my ‘ideas’.
‘I want to set up a business to help people find their lost relatives. Children, mainly, just like the ones in Sunnyside. But it will also extend to adults.’
Sean stares at me for a few seconds in surprise; this was obviously not what he was expecting. ‘Run that past me again, Red?’
‘I want to set up a service to help people trace their lost relatives. I think there’s a need for it. Take, for instance, all those children in Sunnyside who have been unnecessarily separated from their families, just because no one has the time or the finance to help them find someone who could take care of them. I could help them do that. And it’s not just children,’ I continue as Sean stares at me silently across the back of the cab. ‘There’s people like Oscar.’
Oscar, who has been trying to push himself further and further back into the seat while I talk, opens his eyes wide in a ‘don’t bring me into this’ fashion.
‘What’s Oscar got to do with this?’ Sean looks at him accusingly. ‘I might have known you’d be in on it!’
‘Don’t you look at me like that!’ Oscar waggles a finger at him. ‘This is the first I’ve heard of any of this!’
‘Oscar has managed to trace his family while we’ve been over here, on Ellis Island. But he might need help, if he wants to continue to trace them and find out where they are today, and that’s where a service like mine would come in very useful. And then there are people like Jamie.’
‘I should have guessed he’d be involved somehow,’ Sean says, folding his arms defensively.
‘Yes, Jamie does come into it, I’m afraid, Sean. The fact of the matter is that Jamie is in a very similar situation to the one I was in a year ago. He’s only ever known one parent and he wants to find the other, but wherever he’s tried looking he’s come up against a dead end. I want to help him, just like you helped me, remember? I want to help all the other people out there who are forever searching, always wondering what it’s like to know both their parents. I know how it feels to have that one piece of your jigsaw missing, then to have it fitted back in place again. How important it is. I want to give other people, whether they’re children or adults, that same feeling I’m able to have now.’
Oscar grabs his hankie from his pocket again and dabs at his eyes.
‘And how do you propose to finance this business?’ Sean enquires calmly, appearing unaffected by my dramatic speech.
‘I’m hoping you’re going to help me, Sean, at least to begin with.’
This is what Sean’s company Bond Enterprises did. Set up businesses. Well, normally they bought up businesses that were in trouble, or poured money into them until they were back on their feet again, in exchange for a small cut of the profits or some shares. But this wasn’t that different. I just needed help to get myself started.
Sean nods slowly. ‘And where do you see yourself running this business from – London?’
I swallow hard. ‘I thought maybe here, to begin with …’
‘Here?’
It’s my turn to nod now.
‘You want to come and live in New York?’ Sean asks in the same calm and steady voice.
‘Not permanently, but I want to help at Sunnyside. I want to help the kids you’ve just seen this morning.’
‘Hmm.’ Sean gazes out of the taxi window for a moment to think. ‘And how do you propose those children will finance the search for their relatives?’ He turns his face back to the interior of the cab now. ‘From their pocket money, or will they pay you in candy, perhaps?’
‘Now you’re just being silly.’
‘No, you’re being silly, Scarlett. You’ve dreamed up some ridiculous notion about helping everyone and his dog, and wanting all of them to have a happy ending, like you always do, and you haven’t thought through the practicalities of it.’
‘But this is what I want to do, Sean, and I’m going to find a way to do it, with or without you!’ My joy is fast turning to anger.
Poor Oscar sitting in between us tries to shrink back even further into the seat, and even our driver is taking the odd crafty glance in his rear-view mirror.
‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you, I just said that you hadn’t thought it through. You need to draw up a business plan. Some sound ideas. A strategy.’
‘And you need to find a heart,’ I reply coldly. ‘This isn’t about business plans and strategies, Sean. This is about a need. A feeling. An urge to do something to help people. And do you know what? Maybe I would be better off doing it without you, if you don’t understand why I need to do this. Maybe it’s time I did stand on my own two feet, for once in my life, without any help from you or Dad. I’ll be the one to sort my own problems out this time. Not my knight in shining armour. Just me, Scarlett O’Brien.’
At that moment, the taxi pulls up outside the hotel and in my haste to exit the cab, I almost knock poor Sam out as I fling open my door.
I will do this, I promise myself as I storm through the foyer of the hotel. I’ll do it for me, and for all the people out there just like me.
There’s a very frosty atmosphere in the room when Sean enters not long after me. Considering how hot it is outside on the streets of Manhattan, the temperature inside Room 510 is decidedly chilly.
Sean is the first of the two of us prepared to thrust a pickaxe into the thick ice, after we’ve stomped about in silence for a few minutes.
‘Look, Scarlett, we can’t carry on like this. We need to talk about this idea of yours.’
‘So it’s an idea now? I thought back in the cab it was just a silly daydream.’
‘I never said that!’
‘You suggested that I was trying to be some sort of fairy godmother with my head in the clouds, floating around trying to make wishes come true so that people can have a happy ending.’
Sean sits down on the edge of the bed and folds his arms. ‘I never mentioned a fairy godmother. I may have said you were trying to give people a happy ending, yes, I’ll accept that. But you are.’
‘And what’s wrong with that?’ I put down the hair-brush I’ve been using on my hair a bit too vigorously for the past few minutes, and face him full on. ‘What’s wrong with trying to make people happy?’
‘Nothing, nothing at all. I admire you for your constant positivity. But if you want to make a business out of your idea you need a strong business plan, some proof that it’s going to work, not just some pie-in-the-sky dream like the one you have at the moment because you’ve visited a children’s home and you want to help.’ He sighs. ‘I do understand your desire to help the kids, Scarlett, I spent time there this morning too, remember? Look, how about we set up a regular donation to Sunny-side from the company?’
‘No, Sean!’ I run my hand through my hair now, and feel like ripping it out in frustration. ‘You don’t understand. It’s not about the money, it’s about helping people find what they’re missing.’
Sean runs both his hands over his own short hair and then massages his temples. ‘OK, then. Let’s approach this in a different way,’ he says, lifting his head. ‘How are you going to go about helping people find what they’re missing?’
‘I don’t know yet, but I bet I can. I did it myself, didn’t I, when I found my mother last year?’
‘Ahem.’ Sean opens his eyes wide.
‘All right, so you helped me find what I was missing. But it can be done, and you know it.’
Sean goes silent for a bit, and I know he’s thinking hard because the same little furrow appears in his brow that he always gets when he’s thinking deeply about something.
He ge
ts up, walks over to the window and gazes out at the New York skyline, still deep in thought. I keep quiet. I know Sean when he’s like this. This is a good sign.
Eventually he turns around from his window-gazing to face me. ‘I have to hand it to you, Scarlett, it’s a fine and noble idea you’ve had. And any idea that comes from the heart is usually a good one.’
I look at him hopefully.
‘And you’ve got the passion to carry it through, that’s for sure. Anything you put your mind to usually comes to pass eventually. Even if there are a few hiccups along the way.’
I wring my hands together nervously. I really want Sean’s approval on this. It’s not just about the money. I’m going to do this with or without him, I’ve already decided that, but knowing I have his support would be wonderful.
‘And you know I’ll back you all the way, if this is what you really want to do. That goes without question. But if you want me to back you financially to begin with to get this business off the ground, I’m going to need to see some sort of proof that it will work. It’s standard business practice,’ he says almost apologetically. ‘It’s not just me that makes the financial decisions at Bond Enterprises; you know that. I have a board of directors that I’ll have to put it to as well.’
I nod at him, wondering what he’s going to say next.
‘So here’s the deal. You show me you can match some-one up with their long-lost relative while you’re here in New York. You can extend your stay by a few days if you like, I don’t mind. But prove to me and my board that you can do what you’re intending to do with this company in the future. Show it to us as a viable business proposition, and then I can take it to them and try and sell it for you.’
‘Really?’ I ask him. ‘Do you mean it?’
Sean nods. ‘Of course. I’d say yes right now if it were up to me. You know I only want to see you happy.’
‘Sean, thank you!’ I say, running over to him and wrapping my arms around his neck. ‘I knew you’d help me!’
Sean holds me in his arms, then gently away from him and says, ‘Remember this is business, Scarlett – you’ve got to prove yourself first before you’re taken seriously. This will be your business alone if it works. You won’t have your dad’s hand to hold on to now.’
‘Oh, I’ll prove it,’ I reply, looking up at him happily. ‘I’ll prove to you and everyone else that I can do this, and I know just where I’m going to start.’
‘Where, at Sunnyside?’
‘No, with Jamie.’
Twenty-seven
The news that I was going to help Jamie find his father hadn’t exactly gone down too well with Sean.
But when I explained the reasons I was choosing Jamie – that starting with someone I knew who had already begun searching themselves would give me a better chance of succeeding – Sean seemed to relax slightly.
As I walk over to Jamie’s apartment the next morning, I think about Sean’s reaction. I’ve never known him to be like this before. Jealousy just isn’t a word I’d associate with him, yet that was the only way I could describe his odd behaviour since he’d been here in New York. Sean is so relaxed and laid-back about everything, and he never seems to stress. I often wonder how he ever gets anything done at work with an attitude like his. But he seems to, and Bond Enterprises is an incredibly successful and thriving company as a result.
I’d phoned Jamie this morning, and asked if I could meet up with him to discuss something. He’d agreed, but asked would I mind coming round to his apartment because he needed to wait in for a delivery.
So here I am, walking across town towards the address he’s given me on the West Side. I know Jamie will be OK with the idea of me trying to trace his father. I don’t know how I know this, I just do. So I don’t feel at all nervous when I reach the red-brick apartment block and press the buzzer with his name on.
‘Yep,’ comes the familiar voice back through the intercom.
‘It’s me, Scarlett.’
‘Hi, I’ll just buzz you in.’
The door opens and I’m allowed access to the building. I climb the stairs to Jamie’s apartment on the second floor, where I find he’s already waiting for me at the door.
‘Hi,’ he says, opening the door wide for me to come in. ‘Sorry about asking you to come here, but I’m waiting for a new sofa to be delivered this morning, and have to wait in.’
I look around the apartment. ‘What’s wrong with the old one?’
Jamie’s apartment is surprisingly quite big. There’s an open-plan kitchen and living area with a couple of doors leading off it, I presume to the bathroom and bedroom.
‘Nothing really,’ he shrugs. ‘I just fancied a new one.’
‘Oh, cool.’
‘You can sit on it for now, though,’ Jamie says, gesturing towards a brown leather sofa. ‘It’s quite safe.’
‘From … you, you mean?’ I joke, then immediately regret it. After what happened the other night at the party, and Sean’s reaction to Jamie, I didn’t really want to go down that road today.
‘Er … yes,’ Jamie says, his cheeks flushing slightly. ‘I think we can avoid a repeat of the swing-seat incident as long as we stay off the cocktails this morning, don’t you?’
‘I’m so sorry about that, Jamie.’ My own face reddens too. ‘I don’t know what happened.’
Jamie shrugs. ‘You drank too much. We both did. You poured your heart out to me about many things, and then you crashed out on my lap. I wasn’t far behind you, I reckon.’
‘And then after we were disturbed you took me back to my hotel?’ I ask hesitantly.
‘Yes, but you crashed out again as soon as your face hit the bed. And I mean, hit the bed. I had to turn you around to get you up the right way so I could pull the covers over you.’
A huge sigh of relief escapes from within me.
‘Why, what did you think had happened?’ Jamie asks quizzically.
‘Nothing. I mean, I assumed that’s what you’d done. You’re my friend, after all.’ I smile back at him.
‘Yes. Your friend, that’s all,’ he repeats. ‘Look, Scarlett, no offence. You’re a very attractive woman, but I just don’t feel that way about you.’
‘You don’t?’ I exclaim, sounding a bit too pleased. ‘I mean, you don’t,’ I lower my voice an octave.
Jamie smiles. ‘You obviously feel the same way.’
I nod. ‘Yes, it’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, I really like you and everything, but I don’t fancy you, if that makes sense.’
‘Perfectly. Although after I met your boyfriend the other night I think that’s just as well, don’t you?’
‘I’m really sorry about Sean; he’s not normally like that at all. I think it was just finding you in my room like that, and the camera, and me dressed the way I was.’
‘No, that probably didn’t help much.’ Jamie grins. ‘It was like something out of a movie, wasn’t it?’
I roll my eyes. ‘Why, just when I don’t want it to, does my life choose that very moment to resemble a movie scene? Oh, it doesn’t matter now,’ I say, waving my hand dismissively at Jamie. ‘It wasn’t just finding you two in the room that day; Jen has been stirring up trouble, too.’
‘Jen? Do you mean Jennifer from the other night?’
I nod. ‘That’s the one. She’s Sean’s ex. Jennifer has always had it in for me after Sean knocked back her advances after they’d broken up. She thinks it was because he wanted to be with me. It really wasn’t – there was more to it.’
‘Oh,’ Jamie says, then he screws up his face, ‘Uh-oh …’
‘Uh-oh what?’
‘I think I might have done something similar to her.’
‘What? How?’
Jamie comes and sits next to me on the sofa. ‘She was coming on to me really strongly, and to get away from her I told her I was going outside for some fresh air. When she wanted to come with me I told her I was going to find you.’
I screw up my own face now. Jennifer w
ould have loved that. Not. No wonder she delighted in phoning Sean.
‘Why weren’t you interested in Jennifer?’ I ask. ‘Much as I hate to say it, she’s an attractive woman. Was she coming on too strong for you?’
‘Not my type,’ Jamie says, sitting back on the sofa.
‘What is your type then?’ I ask, starting to wonder if Oscar might be wrong and Jamie is gay.
‘Funnily enough, usually someone like you, Scarlett. Pretty, bright, easy-going, yet challenging too.’
I was quite enjoying his description of me until he got to the challenging part.
‘I’m challenging?’
Jamie smiles. ‘Come on, you know you are!’
‘I prefer “interesting to be with”,’ I grimace, then I smile at him. ‘But not your type this time, eh?’
‘Nope, not this time,’ Jamie grins. ‘Ah, well, there’s a first time for everything. I now have a proper female friend I don’t fancy.’
‘That’s great! I think?’
‘Just like in the movie When Harry Met Sally,’ Jamie suggests helpfully.
‘They end up sleeping together and getting married.’
‘Yes, they do, don’t they?’ Jamie pulls a face. ‘So not the best of examples, there. But the basic principle is the same, and until I can think of a better movie scenario it will have to do for now.’
‘Deal,’ I say, holding out my hand to him.
‘Deal,’ he says, taking hold of it.
As we shake hands, we catch each other’s eye for a split second and I feel that same connection again. And by the look on Jamie’s face, he feels it too.
*
Jamie returns from the kitchen a few minutes later with an ice-cold Pepsi for us both, and we settle down again on his sofa and begin to discuss the real reason I’ve come over here today.
‘Do you really think you can find my father?’ Jamie asks, after I’ve explained everything. He drains the last of the Pepsi from his glass. ‘If I’ve never had any luck, why should you?’
‘I really don’t know, but it’s my chance to prove to Sean that my idea can work.’
