Love to Hate You: Three's a Crowd

Chapter Twenty-Eight - At Last!

It was Wednesday afternoon. Rafe and Mattie had left early to get home in time for their marriage counselling appointment, but Tobias didn't know that. All he knew was that he was single – dumped, because two cats didn't think he was up to scratch – and that something iffy had occurred with his brother earlier in the week. He knew, because Vicky had a Big Mouth, because Rafe was his brother and he had a sixth sense about those things, and because Vicky had a Big Mouth. Mostly because of Vicky's Big Mouth. In truth, he wasn't a very intuitive person at all. He wouldn't have known were it not for Vicky's Big Mouth.

Said mouth had let slip in the form of a phone call where he'd contacted Vicky to ask why he couldn't get hold of Mattie (he wanted to update her on the status of his relationship with Monica and Joan). Vicky had promptly referred to "Rafe totally losing it and smashing the glass wall". When he asked for further details, she'd realised that her oral cavity was oversized and had promptly shut it. Thus, all Tobias knew was that Rafe had totally lost it and smashed a glass wall. He did not know why. He did not know if his brother had "found it" after he had "lost it", and he did not know how Chris's heart had taken the shock. He also hadn't been able to find anyone to whinge to about his separation from Monica and Joan.

The remedy to this was, of course, to hot-foot it to the Paxton and Colville office as soon as the school bell rang for the afternoon. Thus, he was stood outside Rafe's empty office, wondering where his brother was. Wondering how quickly they'd managed to replace the glass wall; where glass that big came from. He supposed it helped that they were a firm of architects and therefore in the know when it came to walls and windows. He spun on his heel, faced the opposite direction, and noticed that there was no Mattie, either.

Once upon a time he'd have assumed that they were having a shag somewhere, but now he thought it unlikely. But the meeting rooms had glass walls and he could see that they were devoid of Rafe and Mattie also. He was flummoxed. He couldn't even ask Vicky, because she was on the phone! He did the most sensible thing he could think of. He went to find Lydia.

'Hi,' he said, knocking on her open door. It swung open even further and she looked up at him in irritation.

'What?' demanding, accusatory.

'I just wondered if you knew where Raffey is?'

'You do realise that it's still the working day. For those who can and don't have to teach, at least.' He scowled.

'I can do lots of things. I chose to teach.' He straightened his spine. 'Anyway,' he said dismissively, 'where is Raffey?'

'Gone home. Why?'

'Did he lose it again?'

'Excuse me?'

'Vicky mentioned that he lost it on Monday. Wouldn't say why. I wanted to check on him.'

'I'm sure he'd appreciate your concern,' she told him with an insincere smile, before turning her attention back to her computer.

'Do you know where Mattie is?' he tried.

'Gone home.'

'So, it's obviously not still the working day for all of those who can and don't have to teach!' he declared triumphantly.

'What do you want? More woman trouble I presume, if you're looking for Mattie. Nice cover story with concern for Raffey, by the way. It would have been more believable if you hadn't shagged his wife for four years, but what can you do...?' she said with a small smile.

'Hey!' Tobias grumbled. 'That was low.'

'No, what you did was low. I'm merely stating fact.'