A Different Love - 5. Chapter 5

My first day at work was extremely daunting. For a start off, it was only the second time I’d ever been on a train before and it seemed an awfully long way to the city. In reality it was only about a twenty minute journey from Hamborough by train, but by the time I’d caught the bus from Dryford, it took just over an hour to get there. That was more than two hours travelling time a day, just to get to and from work! There was no way I would ever get used to it but surprisingly, I actually began to enjoy it and even looked forward to the time it gave me to either read or just simply stare out of the window.

By the time I arrived at the store on that first day, butterflies were racing around my stomach and I felt physically sick with apprehension. Mr. Buchan had told me to report to him at 9am and here I was, 15 minutes early, standing nervously at the main counter. A young woman, probably in her thirties, was tapping at the keyboard of a computer and I coughed slightly to catch her attention. After a while she looked up and asked how she could help me.

Encouraged by her friendly demeanor and pleasant smile, I wasted no time in introducing myself and explaining why I was there. She in turn introduced herself as Julie Smith, the assistant manager, and explained that Mr. Buchan had been held up and wouldn’t be in until later. Glancing at my slightly worried face, she explained that she would be taking care of me instead and asked me to follow her through to the staff area at the back of the store.

Apparently there were two of us starting on the same day, but the other guy hadn’t shown up yet. We sat down in her office and I fidgeted uncomfortably on the chair as we waited for him to arrive. Julie began dealing with some paperwork that was stacked untidily in front of her and my eyes soon began to wander around the room. It was a small, slightly drab office with a grey filing cabinet in one corner and another chair against the far wall. Two name badges sitting on the edge of the desk caught my attention and I shifted to one side slightly to read them. One of them was inscribed with my name below the company logo and the other one was for a Craig Smith. I couldn’t help absent mindedly wondering if he was some relation to Julie, but then again Smith was quite a common name, so it was probably just a coincidence.

“Craig shouldn’t be too long now” she remarked suddenly, with a sigh of resignation. “I don’t know where’s he’s got to”

The familiar way she used his first name meant that my earlier thought was probably true and there was a strong possibility they were related.

“You sound as if you know him Julie?” I asked innocently, not wishing to appear too inquisitive.

She stood up and began putting some papers in the filing cabinet before answering. “I do! He’s my nephew, so I’m not very pleased he isn’t here yet”

At that moment a knock on the door caused us both to turn around and I couldn’t help noticing that it was almost ten past nine.

“You’re late Craig” Julie remarked, as the door opened with a squeak.

He strode in and grabbed the spare chair, quickly placing it next to mine. He was tall and thin, with black curly hair and long sideboards that curled around his chin so they almost formed a beard.

“Sorry. Traffic”

The slight smirk on his face as he spoke did nothing to ease the tense atmosphere that heralded his arrival and when Julie responded, her voice was laced with frustration. “Your timekeeping better improve in the future Craig”

From the look on his face, I was pretty sure he was about to answer with some smart comment, but he obviously changed his mind and quickly apologized. “Sorry Aunty. It won’t happen again”

His answer seemed to satisfy her, but a frown still remained on her face. “Look Craig, I’d rather you didn’t call me Aunty at work. I don’t mind people knowing that we’re related, but I’d rather keep our working relationship on a more professional basis. You can call me Julie like everyone else does”

“Yes, of course Aun….Sorry I mean…Julie”

There were various procedures to go through before we could start work and first of all we were shown what to do in case of a fire. Next she gave us the code for the security door at the side of the building and then showed us where the staff facilities were. We returned to her office soon after and I proudly pinned the name badge onto my tie. Until we’d been on the official company induction course and received our uniforms, Julie had arranged for each of us to shadow an experienced member of staff and we were just waiting for them to finish serving customers and come to the office.

A few minutes later there was a tap on the door and a young guy came into the office, quickly followed by a slim attractive girl with blond hair fastened in a ponytail. I could see Craig’s eyes light up with appreciation as they swept up and down her body, whilst I secretly did the same thing with the guy. He was well worth checking out and my heart fluttered slightly as he smiled at me pleasantly. His handsome well chiselled features made him extremely good looking and his wide smile revealed a row of perfect white teeth. His cheeks had a tinge of pink and in complete contrast, the rest of his skin was smooth and slightly pale. The company uniform was unflattering to say the least, but much to my appreciation, he still managed to look pretty good in it.

His face was strangely familiar and my stomach gave a sudden lurch as the realization why hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. His name was Aiden Thompson and we’d attended the same secondary school in Hamborough. He’d left about two years before me, so he must be around 19 or 20 years old by now. When I looked at him closely he hadn’t really changed that much, but it was a while ago and he was the last person I was expecting to see. I felt a wave of anger as his behavior towards me at school came flooding back and I could feel my face beginning to redden. We had clashed on more than one occasion, mainly in defence of Liam and I suddenly recalled that back then he’d hated anyone whom he thought was gay. By the look on his face, he also remembered me and I was surprised to see him displaying a definite expression of guilt. Mentally crossing my fingers and praying that Julie would place me with the girl, I was mortified when she did exactly the opposite. I opened my mouth to ask her if it was possible to swap but quickly closed it again as I thought better of it. The last thing I wanted to do was appear to be awkward and troublesome on my first day.

Craig’s face held a superior expression that made him look like a cat that had got the cream and I had no choice but to accept the inevitable. Completely unaware that we even knew each other, Julie continued to introduce us. Aiden clearly wasn’t about to enlighten her either and I smiled at him nervously, aware that this could turn out to be a huge disaster.

“Aiden, this is Jason. It’s his first day and if you don’t mind I want him to work alongside you”

“That’s no problem Julie” he agreed, offering me his hand. “I’ll look after him”

My eyes opened slightly wider as I shook his hand warily and the knowing expression on his face immediately told me he definitely remembered who I was and what had happened between us. He indicated for me to leave the office before him and followed me into the corridor.

“Jason!” he hissed, as soon as the office door closed behind him.

This is it, I thought to myself, taking a deep breath and slowly turning around to face him. His worried expression made him slightly hesitant

“Look Jason, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye about things in the past, but…”

A sudden flash of anger flared up and I cut him off in mid sentence

“You mean about Liam!”

An expression of guilt was etched across his face and for a second or two he refused to meet my gaze. When he spoke again he sounded genuinely sorry and under the circumstances I decided to take him at face value. He put his hand on my shoulder and there was a slight tone of pleading in his voice as he continued.

“Look Jason, please can we start again?” he asked, offering me his hand “After all we’ve got to work together”

Something told me that getting along with each other was as important to him as it was to me and I vaguely wondered if he’d been in some sort of trouble. It seemed as though he was being pretty sincere, but it wouldn’t do any harm to make him think I was wrestling with my conscience.

“I don’t know Aiden…..”

“Look” he interrupted “I’m really sorry about…well you know…about…”

“Bullying Liam? I said quietly, finishing his sentence for him

“I didn’t mean to….”

It seemed as though he was incapable of putting into words what he’d done and once again I finished his sentence for him “you didn’t mean to try and beat him up because he was gay?”

“I’m sorry”

“He couldn’t help it you know” I answered, shaking my head “He didn’t choose to be that way”

“I know that now”

“You’d better make it up to me on his behalf then” I said, beginning to smile.

He gave a sigh of relief and offered me his hand again. This time I shook it firmly and we continued down the corridor towards the shop.

Once we’d got over the initial awkwardness surrounding our past differences, Aiden and I seemed to get on fine together. He took great pains to involve me fully with all the customers he served, making sure I understood everything he did. He couldn’t have been any better if he’d tried and I was grateful he was making my first day so enjoyable. He’d been particularly unpleasant towards me at school and I marvelled at how much someone could change so much in the space of a few years.

As it turned out I spent almost two weeks training with Aiden and he was extremely helpful and obliging. Although I was reasonably quick to pick things up, occasionally something more complicated would come along and he would patiently explain it again and again until it finally sank in. Sometimes I would deliberately get as near to him as possible and the intoxicating smell of his aftershave drove me mad with desire. Whilst I didn’t think that we’d ever become the best of friends, whenever we had to work together, he was always friendly and polite towards me.

The only problem was his rather odd behaviour if Craig was around. The first time it happened I didn’t think anything of it. After all, we were both new and I just presumed the two of them had become good friends.

We were sitting on our own in the staff room one lunch time and Aiden was telling me all about meeting his new girlfriend. I was just thinking how lucky she was when the door opened and in walked Craig with a couple of the other guys, laughing and joking. Aiden suddenly stopped talking to me virtually in mid sentence and began joining in with their conversation, completely ignoring me for the rest of our break. When it was time to go back he stood up, gave a curt flick of his head in my direction and left the room. I quickly followed him back into the store to ask him if I’d done something wrong, but was surprised to find that he’d reverted back to his old self again and we continued to get along as we had before. I soon discovered it was always the same. Whenever Craig was around he wouldn’t even talk to me, but if we happened to be alone he would just be his normal self again, laughing and joking with me. If indeed it was his normal self! It was pretty hard to tell. It seemed as if he wanted to be friends, but was ashamed to be associated with me whenever Craig was around. When I asked him why, he made some lame excuse about Craig been a really good friend, and how he wanted to talk to him on his own, but there was definitely more to it than that. I must admit that it hurt slightly and I certainly wasn’t keen to be associated with someone who let a friend influence the way he behaved. In the end I began to wonder if he really had changed that much since school, or if he was only being nice to me because he had to.