Chapter 4 of A Net Too Wide To Break His Fall, by Matt Boothman
I wrote this story chapter by chapter, without outlining first. It was an experiment in writing consistently, producing a chapter once a month, without fail, for the Foggy Outline newsletter. So don’t expect something polished or finished; but what it does have is momentum, and a fluidity that came from wanting to change things up enough to keep myself interested enough to write more.
If you’d be interested in a properly edited, fleshed out, finished version of this story, let me know!
Callum savoured his last few moments alone, then left Vivian Hithercombe’s upstairs lounge and headed back down into the party. Here, he was the other kind of alone; not by himself, but among people who acted like he wasn’t there. If all went to plan, he wouldn’t have to be either kind of alone again, except by choice. Laughing voices bounced off each other in the downstairs lounge, passing around and through him. In the kitchen, eyelines skated over him frictionlessly on their way to lock onto each other. He bathed briefly in attention directed anywhere but at him, then slipped into the bathroom after Marielena.
In this small space where everyone was aware of him, and where Mari could talk to him without fear of looking like she was addressing a ghost, her gaze still glanced off him. She kept him in her periphery or reflected in the bathroom mirror. “You ready?”
Ready to hitch his fortune to Vivian Hithercombe, months after agreeing on her as a prospect, but only minutes after he’d got a proper glimpse into her operations.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now, after all the work we put in.”
Either Marielena didn’t know Vivian Hithercombe’s whole story, or she did, and hadn’t told Callum. She and Vivian had already been friendly enough before – Vivian wouldn’t have been a prospect otherwise – and she’d spent the past few months building up their connection, putting in the work to rise from ‘friendly enough’ to ‘welcomed houseguest’. In all that time, through that whole process of drawing herself and Vivian closer together, she surely had to have caught at least a glimpse of the Vivian Hithercombe inside the costume, felt at least some of the heat of the engine powering the socialite lifestyle. And she was late, and she was twitchy, and she wouldn’t focus on him even though she was the only person in the house who could.
“I’m not,” said Callum. “I mean, I’m ready.”
“Great.” Mari sagged twice, once in the bathroom and once in the mirror. A great weight left one and descended on the other. “Game face on then.”
“Game face on. Need to make this one stick.”
“It’ll stick.” Mari flushed and ran the tap for appearances. Washed her hands for real. “Long as you can get Vivian’s attention tonight, we won’t have to worry about her losing interest.” A reassurance. A threat. Mari met her own eyes in the mirror.
“Are you okay?” Callum let it out before he could decide to stop himself.
Her reflection looked him in the eye. “I’m great.”
“You are not. You were late and now you’re being weird. If there’s something not right—”
Mari shut off the tap. “It’s going to seem weird if I’m in here any longer.”
Marielena was one of the few people in Callum’s life who he’d never seen when they thought no one else was there. Most people he’d known, he’d had the chance to meet them before they met him. There was an insight that came with that. An idea of a person’s baseline, that made it easier to tell which parts of themselves they put on for the sake of other people. Marielena was the one person Callum had known all his life, and the one person he could never truly understand.
“Fine, let’s go,” said Callum. “Can’t wait to not have to deal with whatever this is any more.”
“So Elena darling, what can I do for you?”
Vivian Hithercombe preceded Marielena into the upstairs lounge, where Callum waited.
“It’s actually not for me.” Mari drew a breath and shot Callum a pointed look.
Last chance.
He nodded. Game face on. Whatever else Vivian Hithercombe was, she was a fresh start. He could handle that better than the tangle his relationship with his sister had turned into over the years.
Mari recited, “I actually wanted to introduce you to my brother, Callum.”
Most people, on being introduced to Callum, took a moment to readjust. There tended to be a blink, a head shake, a word that stuck sideways in the throat and had to be re-attempted, as the unthinkable thought He wasn’t there a moment ago was overwritten by the still worrying but more palatable Why didn’t I notice him before?
Mari stepped back and Callum slid into her space, hand out and open, inviting a handshake. Replacing Mari in Vivian Hithercombe’s eyeline so she wouldn’t have to refocus, limiting the physical response to ease the mental readjustment, in theory. “I’m so pleased to meet you—”
As smoothly as Callum stepped in, Vivian Hithercombe stepped back.
Her attention ticked from his face to Marielena’s and back. There was no blink. No shake of the head. Her words emerged flawless and controlled.
“That was interesting.” She dropped the words like a portcullis, spearing his opening pleasantries. “Were you already there but I couldn’t see you? Or did you appear from somewhere else?”
“The first one,” said Callum, “and—”
“You were right to bring this to me,” she said to Marielena. “Who else here can see him?”
“Only you and me.”
“But any of them could be induced to?”
“Yes,” said Callum. “And I can tell you’re already seeing the potential in working together. I really hope we’ll get on.” He needed a bridge between himself and Vivian Hithercombe. He could build it faster by bracing it against the one between her and Mari, but he needed it to stand on its own sooner rather than later.
“That is a strategic conversation,” said Vivian Hithercombe, “which is going to take longer than I can spend away from my guests tonight. So we,” meaning Marielena, “should continue the evening as planned, while you,” Callum, “wait for me at the Horizon Hotel. It has electronic check-in, so you can get a door card without needing anyone’s attention. A stable living situation must be a difficult ask for you?”
“Historically.”
“Of course. Make a base of the Horizon for now.”
“That’s very generous,” said Callum. Would a compliment give the bridge enough strength to withstand a test? “I had hoped I might swing an introduction to some of your friends, while they’re all together?”
“Not a chance,” said Vivian Hithercombe. “Not tonight. An uninvited guest, who some of the guests can see and talk to but the rest can’t? Impossible to manage on such short notice. We’d have a farce on our hands, and I don’t think you want me to appear farcical.”
“Of course not—”
“No, you hoped my solution would be to introduce you to everyone. But I’m not ready to take you that deeply into my confidence just yet – Callum, wasn’t it. So you go and enjoy the suite at the Horizon, and be ready to answer questions in the morning.”
“I’ll do that,” said Callum, “thank you.”
All his charm was for Vivian as they parted in the hallway, Callum to the front door, Marielena and Vivian Hithercombe back to the rumble of her soiree. That was the relationship he needed to work. He didn’t save so much as a glance for Mari.
Callum saw Vivian Hithercombe again a few hours later, and more after that than was good for him. His sister, he wouldn’t see again for five years.