Silence and Tears

17

Alex had been running a little late for work that morning and it didn't help that ten minutes into his journey he got stuck in roadwork traffic, he had 15 minutes until he was meant to be in work and decided it was best to call now and let them know.

"Hi, Jake it's Alex" he said down the phone, "morning Alex, you alright? It's not like you to phone in" Jake asked, "uhm, I'm actually stuck in traffic. It's roadworks and I don't know how long I'm going to be stuck for it's quite a long queue already and I'm only at the start of the roadworks" alex said, "ok mate, well it's about 15 minutes until you're usual clock in time. Give me a call in ten minutes if you're not going to be here on time and I'll sort someone to cover perrie whilst you're not here" Jake explained, "Georgie has been on standby for perrie overnight, could you just let her know and ask her to let perrie know I'll probably be late. Georgie's the only other person perries really spoken to and she won't be comfortable with anyone else" alex asked, "erm yeh should be fine, you can phone Georgie and let her know if you want, I walked past the common room a few minutes ago and she was in there. That way it skips out the middleman and she's more likely to get the message on time. Just call me back if you're going to be anymore than 15 minutes late" Jake said, "alright, cheers Jake. See you" alex smiled, "cheers alex, bye" Jake said and hung up the call. Alex then selected Georgie's contact,

"Alex? You alright?" She asked as soon as she picked up, "yeh I'm stuck in roadwork traffic, I've let Jake know but if I'm not here on time, which I probably won't be could you let perrie know where I am and make sure she's alright" alex explained, "yeah of course, how long do you think you'll be?" Georgie said, "no idea if I'm honest. I've got to call Jake back if I'm going to be anymore than 15 minutes late but I'm not sure I'll even be close by then. I know the roadworks go on for a while as there's a few different jobs being done. I drove past them last night when the work had finished and they go on for ages. I've hardly moved in the last five minutes, like two cars worth pretty much. I'll probably be a while" alex said, "ok, I'll let perrie know, can you not slip off that road somewhere and come a different way?" Georgie asked, "I can't get to any of the side roads because of the roadworks, you can only get to those roads from other ones, so no I'm basically stuck. How was perrie last night? I didn't text to check she was alright when you checked in with her because I zonked out on the sofa after taking the dogs out, I only moved to the bed after mum phones and it work me up" alex laughed. "Oh my god, that's so not like you" Georgie laughed, "she was fine, I went in and asked if she needed anything, she said she didn't and I double checked she was ok and spoke a bit about seeing her family. We spoke about you a little bit as well, she told me how perfect you are and how happy you make her" she added, "she said that?" Alex asked, "yeah I asked her how things were going with you two and she said you're perfect and you make her so happy. She also mentioned something about it being nice how naturally everything was happening" Georgie explained, "thanks G. That's just what I needed to hear, it's nice to have the reassurance that I am actually making her happy. Anyway I'll call or text when I'm a bit closer and let you know where I'm at" alex said, "alright al, see you soon" Georgie smiled hanging up the phone.

20 minutes later alex had got about a third of the way through the queue and was now certain he'd be more than 15 minutes late since the 15 minutes would me up in one minute,

"Hi Jake, it's me again" alex said through the hands free speaker on his phone, "hi Alex, how're you getting on?" Jake asked, "I'm nowhere near, I'm about a third of the way through the queue after a good half hour, so if the rest of the journey is similar I'm probably about an hour and 10 minutes away" alex explained, "gosh man, that's some harsh roadwork queues, did you get hold of Georgie before?" Jake asked, "yeah, she's happy to standby for perrie until I get there" alex said, "are you staying tonight? Or going home?" Jake asked, "I'm staying tonight" alex answered, "alright mate, don't worry about your pay for what you're missing this morning, I know you're still working a lot of the time when you stay so I'll put down however long you miss this morning as overtime for tonight, you've been staying a lot recently and you've made good progress with perrie and also your precious patients, it's a little treat from me to say thanks" Jake said happily. "Ah man thanks, you didn't need to. It means a lot" alex smiled. "No problem mate, see you soon. Don't worry about phoning in again just make sure to clock in when you get here and the system will let me know" Jake said, "alright Jake, cheers see you later" alex said. Jake hung up after that and Alex was relieved as the queue was at least moving a little bit. He needed to phone Georgie and let her know that he was going to be quite a while.