Ralph: Breaking free - 24. A question of time and space

The next couple of weeks were just mad. Nolan and Verne were frantically setting up their new venture at the gym, adjusting their existing classes and sessions whilst trying to create new opportunities. They were planning a launch event the following Friday, to introduce themselves to the existing gym membership and Beth was helping with publicity. So, Ralph and Nolan hardly saw each other; Nolan was busy but happy.

Some nights they slept apart, both found that they needed space. The house was a bit cramped, and Ralph was aware that at weekends, when Nolan was burning the candle at both ends, running existing classes and planning the new schedule, he fitted badly into the scheme of things with the twins, whose timetable was rather rigid. Ralph had forgotten that living with someone was difficult, it needed compromises. A few nights when Nolan slept away from Ralph in the twins’ room hit him hard, yet he also welcomed the space.

Though he had explained to Nolan what had happened, he didn’t say much about Gordon to anyone else. In fact, he rather played the whole thing down when talking to Beth and Therese. Beth, he was pretty sure, twigged that it had been a more significant meeting than he let on, but she kept quiet, giving him his space to work things out. As for Therese, well she took it at face value, delving into her husband’s psyche had never been her thing. As long as the twins were happy, then all was right with the world. Besides, she was frantically busy at work, too.

In fact, they all were. ‘WebIdeal’ had got another big contract and had somehow attracted lots of smaller prospects too. They all needed dealing with. Ralph had put off the photo session for Morrie, he and Ivor were just too busy to consider it and he daren’t mention the idea to Nolan. Morrie was disappointed, but understood, and the Iverson’s contract went quiet as Morrie was waiting for the right moment to launch the new product lines and the new parts of the website. There were some manufacturing issues too, which forced something of a delay, much to Ralph’s relief, otherwise everything would have happened at once.

Thursday was a day when Ralph had hoped to catch up, but instead he had spent most of the day being interrupted by the phone. Mid-afternoon he was feeling frazzled and went into the office kitchen to make tea for all of them. Beth had picked up some cookies as a treat, and they were burning a hole in a bag in the kitchen, just waiting to be eaten.

Ivor followed him, “You know, I think we ought to think about that admin person. Beth and I were talking about it last night, and it makes a lot of sense.”

Ralph frowned, “The firm could afford it, at last, and it makes sense in that if we’re not answering the phone all the time…”

“We can be more productive.” Ivor grinned. “That’s the theory.”

“And practice, we hope. It’s just. Well. Space.”

Ivor looked out into their office, “Yeah, with an extra desk it’d be a bit cramped, we’d be on top of each other.”

“Even more than we are now!” Ralph sighed. “I’d always hoped to have space for a proper design studio and that, somewhere to go and work and be quiet. But that won’t work here.”

Ivor looked at him, “Look, you can tell me to piss off and that it’s personal. But we work here, and you live here so things get a bit mixed up. OK?”

“OK?” Ralph stared at the man curiously, what was Ivor thinking of.

“From what you’ve said, and not said, your bloke needs his own space”, Ralph made to say something, but Ivor continued, “I can sympathise with that. Not everyone’s made to share living space from day one of a relationship like Beth and Carine. So, big idea.” He grinned. “Nolan moves into the ground floor here, pays you rent once he gets himself and his business back on an even keel, and you rent a space for us.”

“Come on, I bought this as a live-work unit so I can hardly turn it into my house.”

Ivor shrugged, “Well if the company’s business address is here, you can argue that you work from home. Shit, you could even do that.”

“Maybe…”

“Look, since that potter moved out from next-door-but-one, there’s no-one in this row who actually uses the ground floor as full-time workspace, everyone’s running offices from home. These sorts of live-work units only work if the council prioritises small businesses and artisans, and for fuck’s sake, Parborough doesn’t do that. Milly’s Dad is forever having problems with one bit of the council or another, it’s as if they don’t want him to have his own business.”

Ivor’s girlfriend Milly was a relatively new feature in his life. They didn’t live together but she seemed far more a settled institution than any previous girlfriend and Ralph knew that Ivor and she were at least talking about getting a place together. A major development for footloose and fancy-free Ivor, and Beth said that he’d even dropped a hint to her that they might be trying for a baby. Milly’s Father was a carpenter who ran his own business, including a nice line in hand-crafted furniture and household objects. And the man’s running battles with jobsworths at the council had become a feature of Ivor’s moans to his work colleagues.

Ralph stared at him. “It might work. A lot would be predicated on how the finances run, but I think it could be OK. “

“It doesn’t have to be fancy. You could still meet clients here.”

Ralph laughed, “When was the last time someone came here, usually its go to them or meet for coffee.”

Ivor grinned, “Reckon that coffee shop by the Cathedral Green ought to start charging us rent. Perhaps we should offer to do a website revamp for them?”

Ralph shook his head, laughing, “Well if you want to approach them. Look, I’ll think about it and talk to Nolan.”

“And look around for cheap office space.”

“Cheap office space?” Beth appeared in the kitchen doorway, “I thought you were supposed to be making tea.”

Ralph rolled his head and turned his attention back to the tea whilst Ivor updated Beth. She agreed and the three planned to look around at office space.

---

Even the twins got in on the act. A friend of Ivor’s had offered his services, effectively for free, to create a video. He would be attending football on Saturday. All the parents had been warned (yet another job for Nolan and Verne), and the twins were keen, convinced that they would feature and no amount of sense from Therese or Ralph seemed to curb their enthusiasm. Ralph only hoped that they would not be disappointed. And after Saturday's session, Ralph had not the heart to tell them that though the filmmaker, Vince, had done lots of filming only a tiny fraction of it would be in the final film. He’d deal with that later.

Nolan was present in body but not spirit on Saturday evening, even during dinner with the girls his mind was elsewhere. After the twins had gone to bed, Nolan finally shut his laptop.

“Sorry, I’ve been such a dead loss.”

“Hey. It’s not your fault and I know what businesses are like, OK. I’ve done my share of burning the candle.”

Nolan nodded, “Tonight, would you like me to sleep downstairs?”

“Only if you can’t stand the thought of sharing a bed”, Ralph’s heart thumped at the thought, but the question had to be raised.

“It’s not that”, Nolan sighed, “I just won’t be good for anything.”

Ralph shrugged, “So? We’ll cuddle and fall asleep. Right?”

Nolan nodded, “If you’re sure.”

“Look, I know this isn’t ideal. Living on top of each other, but I like us being around together.”

“Yeah. But”, another sigh, “a bit of space would be nice. Your daughters are nice, but…” Nolan went a bit pink.

“More than a little overwhelming. I get that. I had an idea. Well Ivor did.”

“Ivor?”

So, Ralph explained about getting new premises for ‘WebIdeal’ and Nolan using the ground floor.

“Does your mortgage let you sub-let?”

Ralph shrugged, “I’d reckoned that it’s not subletting if you’re my boyfriend. Just sharing expenses.”

“And the live-work thing?”

“Most of the residents of the terrace are working from home type businesses, rather than anything else.”

“Wasn’t there a potter?”

“And a carpenter. Originally. That was the idea, but costs are just too high. The potter moved out finally a few months ago.”

“Does anyone check?”

“No-one’s ever come round here. And besides, I’d keep this as our registered office.”

“I’d have to check with Verne, but we could probably have this as our registered office too.”

“What about the gym?”

“It’s a partnership, oh, on attractive terms and that, but we’re not limited to being based there. And Verne thinks we need to keep a base elsewhere.”

“To establish that you’re separate?”

“Yeah. So, it would work. I couldn’t pay much.”

“We’ll work that out. Right? See how things go.”

Nolan nodded, “So, we’d have space.”

“You could hide from the twins”, Ralph grinned, “mind, it’ll be fun teaching them that they can’t simply wander in down there.”

Nolan giggled, “Never know what they might see.”

“Don’t! Anyway, I’m looking forward to the launch on Friday.”

“You’re coming”, Nolan was clearly surprised.

Ralph smiled, “Of course. Whole office outing, after all, we’ve all been involved, one way or another. Mind, I’ll have the twins with me too.”

“To check if they’re on the video!”

“You got that too.”

“Proper little film stars.”

“I only hope.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I put in a word, besides Vince said that twins are very photogenic.”

“Hmm. Therese won’t be best pleased.”

“Why ever not?”

“Her little fairy princesses all over social media dressed in football gear. And loving it.”

“Is that so bad?”

Ralph shrugged, “We’ll see. She’s getting accustomed to the T word.”

Nolan smiled, then went thoughtful. “You know that your Gordon and his Brian are members of the gym, they might be around on Friday too.”

Ralph’s eyebrows shot up, “Let’s hope we don’t overlap, but I suppose there’s no harm in bumping into each other and it might be interesting to meet Brian. But the gym’s surely a bit pricey for them?”

Nolan’s left eyebrow raised, “Present from their dear friend Russ!”

“Russ Kahn! Are they so tight then?”

Nolan shrugged, “Intriguing isn’t it, but it seems so. Leastwise, Russ Kahn regards them as friends.”

“You reckon there’s history there?”

“Well, if your Gordon’s Brian is a late developer, like you said, it would mean Gordon being Russ Kahn’s ex.”

“And still friendly. Maybe. You’ll have to ask Russ Kahn.”

“Oh yes.” Nolan laughed, “In between talking about structuring loan repayments and the details of our partnership! Besides, you might be able to ask him yourself, he’s going to be there on Friday, too.”

“Figures. He has an interest in the gym.”

“Quite a big financial investment, evidently.”

There was a pause, then Ralph’s mind turned to the morrow. “I’ll have to be up promptly to get the twins ready in time.”

Nolan’s eyes sparkled, “Ah, boating with Beth and Carine.”

“Yeah, and a darn sight earlier start than when we did it with Morrie.”

“Still, they’ll enjoy it.”

“You bet. You’re tied up all day?”

“Yes, a couple of classes and lots of admin to wade through. Verne is coming over and we’ll take advantage of your absence by taking over.”

Ralph laughed, “Best of luck.”

“Will you have eaten?”

“Lunch and tea, so the girls might not need much. Why?”

“Verne and I were going to get supplies. I thought that we’d make the effort and be sociable.”

Ralph smiled, “In that case, I’d be delighted, and I’ll be the girls will be too.”

Sunday’s boating trip had been a bit of a surprise. On Monday, Beth had asked him if they had any plans for Sunday. Evidently the weather was supposed to be fine and her plans for Sunday with Carine had taken an unexpected turn. Lunch with Carine’s family had had to be postponed because Carine’s mother was ill. So, Beth smiled, they were free. And suddenly it was all organised. Carine booked a boat, and they’d drift along the canal, with a picnic lunch they hoped. The weather promised fair, but it was well into Autumn so would need to wrap up well.

But, whatever the weather, Ralph knew the girls would be delighted.