“Batman Lego,” she suggested a couple of minutes later, her mind having turned to ways to help him with his motor skills without him griping over things being primary coloured.
“Do you want to qualify that remark?” Spook asked, laughing at her sudden exclamation.
“Sorry. It was something one of the physiotherapists in Karlstad recommended for exercising his fingers, but Ash is only prepared to consider it if the pieces are as gothic as he is.”
“I can think of more interesting work outs for my fingers,” Ash sighed without opening his eyes.
Ginny ignored his innuendo. Much as she enjoyed being the centre of his universe, he really needed to take the idea of doing some finger exercises more seriously. “I’ve been thinking about the jigsaw idea too. I’m sure there are plenty of puzzles with patterns more to your tastes, and you could easily have a custom one made from a photograph. You could create a Black Halo jigsaw.”
This time he full-on groaned. “Have you been talking to Sally? That’s the sort of crazy idea she comes out with. No one wants to spend their time piecing us together.”
She saw Spook raise his eyebrows, but he kept whatever he was thinking to himself. Actually, there was probably a market for exactly that. Super fan Dani Fosbrook would definitely have purchased such a thing. Ginny had a couple of other marketing ideas tucked in her head too. She’d been kind of avoiding that Sally woman so far, owing to the incident with her laminate being stolen on a certain night at a certain gig where she might just have gate-crashed a certain dressing room, but maybe they could get past that in the interests of rampant consumerism.
“What about a picture of Ginny?” Spook suggested.
Ash actually perked up. His eyes opened, and he looked her over in a decidedly lecherous way. “Naked,” he mouthed. “Now we’re talking.”
“Who would even print it?”
“Specialist print shops,” Spook asserted.
Damn, he wasn’t helping, but he was making Ash cackle, so that was good.
“But then if you’re genuinely thinking of going the custom route, you might want to consider something more interesting than a straightforward nude.”
“Oh, I don’t know, having a reason to get Ric to photograph her sounds pretty good.”
She knew Ric was Xane’s cousin, and was a highly successful and respected photographer. He was also responsible for the legendary photobook of the band that the record company had censored.
“What are you suggesting?”
“A vulva puzzle.”
“A what?” Ash barked, sitting forward in his seat so that his folded arms rested against the headrest of the passenger seat.
“That is not even a thing,” Ginny protested. “No way.”
“You two must have heard of that artist, the one who gets women to send pubic hair and incorporates them into paintings of—”
“—their private bits. Yeah, I’m aware.” Ash said. “Not seeing how that translates to jigsaws.”
“I happened across someone else who’s using 3D printing to create… You know what, never mind. You’re never going to sit still and do a jigsaw puzzle anyway, and if you got one like that, the guys would be lining up to help, so you’d not get any benefit.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of them fingering my girlfriend’s snatch,” Ash muttered.
Ginny dug an elbow into his ribs. “You’re assuming I’d even agree to you having such a thing created.”
“You would.” He slid an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight. “Especially if it could help fix me.”
Damn, he had her there. “How about we see what this doctor says first, eh? She might have some other ideas about what the best course of action is.”
Ash rolled his eyes. He spent the rest of the journey snoring quietly against her shoulder. It wasn’t until they pulled up in the car park of the neurologists consulting rooms that he spoke to her again, and then it was only to say he didn’t want her to come in with him. “I’m only taking Spook with me in case he needs to translate.”
Fair enough, he was a grown man. He didn’t need to hold her hand while he saw the doctor, but they’d come a hell of a long way for her to now sit in the car.
“I don’t think you need to take it personally.” Spook leaned back into the vehicle once Ash had exited in order to hand her the car keys, presumably in case she wanted to stretch her legs. Ash had already tromped off towards the centre’s main entrance without so much as a backward glance, let alone a kiss goodbye. He was in a sodding weird mood. All innuendo and sex talk one minute, and the next moody as fuck. “He’s shit scared,” Spook remarked, as if he’d heard her thoughts. “Unknowns make him pissy, and he knows exactly how precarious the situation with the band is, no matter how much we’re all putting a brave face on it.”
“You can all get through this,” she caught hold of his hand and squeezed it. Spook smiled at her in a sad way that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Hopefully, if we tackle one thing at a time.”
“Are you coming, or are you too busy chatting up my girlfriend?” Ash hollered.
“We’re talking about you, imbecile,” Spook shouted back. “Back in a bit.” He patted Ginny’s hand. “I’m not sure how long this is going to take. If he’s this pissy with the doc, probably not as long as either of us would like.”
Ginny watched Spook stalk across the car park to join Ash by the entrance. It was too normal an environment for either of them. It didn’t matter how hard they tried to dress down and blend in, there was something about them that always screamed rock star. Once they’d entered the building, Ginny retrieved her mobile phone from her knapsack and stared at the screen. No missed calls, or messages. Not that she’d expected any. “You’re an idiot,” she told herself, tapping the device to her forehead. She ought to have dealt with this mess three years back instead of putting it off for the future. Now it was a far greater deal than it needed to be. She crossed her fingers, and mumbled a prayer to whichever gods were listening.Please let it go smoothly. Please make it happen fast. And please don’t let Ash find out.She would tell him, but in her own time and in her own way, when the time was right. Currently, he had enough worries of his own without having to deal with her shit too. Later though…at some point in the future, then of course, she’d tell him everything.
