Chapter Text
Robert sat on the sofa after an incredibly long day. In hindsight, that could have gone better. He wanted to forget about it, but the throbbing above his eye from the scuffle with Ross made that completely pointless. He poured himself a whisky, staring into space.
“Aren’t you coming upstairs?” Chrissie said, trailing her fingers across the back of the sofa. “It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, I’ll be up in five minutes,” Robert said. Truth be told, he didn’t want to be around Chrissie right now, with her moaning about Lawrence. He was going to be fine, the doctors had told her that so many times the words had started to lose their meaning. “Just need a drink first.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll be in the bath. I need to relax after that.” Robert forced a smile as she left, thinking what a complete idiot he’d been. Why exactly had he thought that getting Aaron and Ross to break in was a good idea? Ross knew what was expected of him, but Aaron had seemed strangely reluctant. Robert didn’t understand why. He seemed perfectly happy and capable stealing Robert’s car, why was burgling a house outside of his ethics? Robert couldn’t work him out. Couldn’t decide if he was just winding him up, or if Aaron didn’t like being thought of as a thief.
Maybe Ross had been the one who’d stolen his car. Maybe Aaron hadn’t been involved at all, though he clearly had the most to lose because of his suspended sentence. But it didn’t seem like he was happy about doing Robert’s dirty work, in spite of getting good money out of it. Though his scowling face was filling Robert's mind more than it probably should be right now.
“Aren’t you coming to bed?” Robert turned to the doorway to see Chrissie wrapped in a dressing gown, a towel around her hair. “You’ve been down here ages,” she added. Robert looked at his watch. No, that’s impossible. He’d been sitting on the sofa nursing his whisky and thinking of Aaron for nearly an hour. No, he corrected himself. He’d been thinking of a burglary gone wrong for an hour, and his father-in-law to be's heart problems. Not Aaron. Definitely not.
“I’ll be right up,” Robert said, downing the rest of his whisky in one.