The viewing

He had arrived about an hour early. The journey in from mid Sussex was often stop-start, but on this occasion the roads had been clear. It probably helped that, thanks to a lack of work, he'd left his desk at half past three. The little green dot beside his name on Teams had turned red two hours before the end of the working day and nobody seemed to have noticed.

 

He found himself meandering towards the Northcote road, sweat gathering at the rim of his green cap and escaping over his furrowed brow, into his deep set eyes. The next hour was made up of a combination of sitting in a coffee shop as it closed, wandering up and down the street while listening to the latest episode of the ‘Elis and John’ podcast, and buying a ‘protein bar’ from Sainsbury’s in the hope that whatever good the run he went on earlier in the day had done, would not be lost from his desire to snack.

 

As the time came closer he text Ash to find out how far away she was. She wasn’t going to be on time. So they agreed that he would go ahead, meet the estate agent and she would get there as soon as she could after that.

 

Realising he was only just going to be on time Joe began to move up the hill towards the common. As he approached, a man in his mid 20’s, wearing the standard estate agents uniform (a dark, slightly ill-fitting suit in a just too shiny material with black pointed brogues) stood legs astride in front of the property. Red hair styled into rough, choppy points and a smile which seemed to reflect the sun, such was its artificial whiteness, gave him a friendly demeanour.

‘How’s it goin? I’m Toby, you must be Joe?’ Toby asked in a thick Scouse accent

 

Joe could feel his face turning the same colour as Toby’s hair. Nevertheless he managed to subtly wipe his hand on his shirt and thrust it out in front of himself, nod politely and rack his brain for words. Looking down at his hand clasped around Toby’s he finally extracted a response.

 

‘Yeah, not bad thanks. You? Been a busy one?’

 

‘You’re not wrong, endless! But you’re my last for the day. Will it just be you?’ Toby fired back.

 

‘Umm’ said Joe.

 

‘My wife is actually on her way, she is running a bit late’. He glanced down the road in the direction of the station. ‘I think the trains are a bit of a nightmare today, typical eh?’

 

Toby nodded slightly wearily, his head darting downward toward the thick, silver watch wrapped around his wrist before smiling and answering genially, ‘ah, no problem mate, we can wait here for a bit, I am sure she won’t be long.’

 

Joe didn’t really understand how he could be so sure, but he prayed he was right. Looking once again down the sun bleached road, heat shimmering above the jet black tarmac.

 

‘So, has it been manic today?’ Joe asked, again.

 

Toby’s smile wavered at the corners. ‘Yeah mate, non stop.’

 

The pair half-smiled at each other. ‘I guess we could start having a look around and Ash can just join us when she gets here?’

 

Again Joe turned his head, and this time the effort was rewarded.

 

Ash walked towards them, long dark hair bouncing with every step; ‘Sorry, sorry, took me a bit longer than hoped. Hope you haven’t been waiting too long’ she said before placing a quick peck on Joe’s cheek and then extending her hand out toward Toby for quick, easy hand shake.

 

Joe breathed.

 

‘Right then, follow me’ said Toby, opening the small metal gate and walking purposefully toward the apparently once white front door.

 

Inside, a narrow corridor lit only by a small overhead bulb was described as ‘a spacious entryway’, while the master bedroom which contained only a long, thin strip of window along the top of the far wall was called ‘charming’ by Toby.

 

Ash caught Joe’s eye.

 

Toward the back of the ground floor flat and through an aging kitchen space was the second ‘bedroom’ which may have been more aptly described as ‘additional storage’ but which Toby called ‘ideal as a nursery’ at which Joe and Ash both looked down at their shoes in unison. Toby was already on his way out into the kitchen and through to the courtyard where he reiterated just how rare such a space was and how extremely lucky they would be to have this two square meters of cracked paving for such a reasonable price.

 

Ash asked Toby if she could take photos?

 

‘Sure, sure, let me leave you to it for a few minutes’ he replied, stressing the ‘few minutes’.

 

Joe and Ash looked at each other, alone now but unsure how far out of earshot Toby could realistically get within the flat they started to whisper.

 

‘What do you think?’ Said Ash.

 

‘What do you think I think? Do you really need to ask?’ Joe replied, before over exaggeratedly rolling his eyes.

 

Laughing, Ash said ‘shall we go get a drink?’