“Well, you wouldn’t catch me living there.Got to think about jobs, mind.What line are you in?No, don’t tell me, let me guess.”Bob peered intently at Zig, then nodded.“Car salesman.Am I right?”
Zig laughed.“Got it in one.”Not even close, thank God.He didn’t reckoncareer criminalwould get him that address.
And anyway, it wasn’t true, was it?Not anymore.He could be a salesman.He could be anything, so long as whoever was hiring wasn’t too picky.“So, uh, Si’s address?”
Bob rolled his eyes.“Forget me own head next.Now, paper and pen, paper and pen...”He looked around distractedly as if they were going to leap into existence on demand.
“Tell you what,” Zig said hastily.“You tell me the address, and I’ll put it in my phone, okay?”
Bob reeled off the street name and number.“And the shop’s called Sage & Seer.That’s double-e, note-r-e.Simon’s door is on the left of the shop.”
Serewas a word?Zig was still tapping it all into his phone when Mrs.G came back in with a plateful of food.“Here you go, my lover.You eat up.You’re all skin and bones.Doesn’t your mum feed you?”
Zig’s chest hurt, and Jesus, what waswrongwith him these days?“No, uh, she, uh...”Fuck, get a grip.Like they want you whining on about how she left you when you were a nipper?“I’m big enough to feed myself these days.”
He bent his head and set into the bacon, eggs, fried bread, and beans, balancing the plate on his lap, although his appetite had buggered off and left him.This wasn’t what he’d signed up for.He’d simply wanted to get Si’s address and go.
Fuck it, though, he should have known.Where had he thought Si had learned to be such a decent, honest-to-Godgoodman?Not in a family like Zig’s, that was for sure.
“Nice time to come here, with all the shops done up for Christmas,” Mrs.G said.
Bob rolled his eyes.“He’s from London, love.They’ll be way fancier over there, with Selfridges and Hamleys and what have you.”
“Ooh, and don’t they have ice rinks and Christmas fairs these days, like in Germany?I bet they’re lovely.Where do they have those?”Mrs.G asked.
Zig swallowed his mouthful of bacon.“Hyde Park?I don’t get up that way much.”
“Always the way, isn’t it, love?”Bob said to his wife.“When was the last time we were up the tor, eh?”
“You speak for yourself.Me and Rina took our lunch up there only last week, that day we had the sunshine.Bloomin’ freezing, it was.Lovely view, though.”Mrs.G turned to Zig.“You make sure Simon takes you up the tor on a clear day.No point going when you can’t see your hand in front of your face.”
Zig smiled and nodded, which seemed to be all that was called for, seeing as Mrs.G was now telling her husband all about her mate Rina’s car troubles.He managed to wolf down the last of his meal while they argued about timing belts, and stood up.“Cheers, Mrs.G.That was great.Really hit the spot.Kitchen that way?”He gestured with his plate.
Mrs.G promptly took it from his hands.“It’s Di.And don’t you worry about that.Bob’ll wash up.”
“Oh, will he, now?”Bob said good-naturedly.“It’s domestic abuse, this is.”
No, it really fucking isn’t.Zig controlled his expression.“Well, cheers again.I’d better be on my way, but it’s been great meeting you.”
They walked him to the door, and Bob shook his hand with a smile.“Hope we’ll be seeing you around some more.You go careful now, Zig!”
Zig grinned back at him.“Course I will.”Then he saw Mrs.G’s face.
She was staring at him wide-eyed, no trace of a smile.“Zig?”
Was he still smiling?His face felt frozen.“Yeah, that’s right.Cheers for everything, Mrs.G.Appreciate it.Be seeing you, yeah?”
Then he turned on his heel and headed out the door, sharpish.
Not quick enough, though, to avoid hearing Mrs.G’s tense whisper, “You never said it was that boy—”
Zig rounded the corner, heart thumping.Some girl coming down the street on her own looked at him like she was about to call 999, and he forced his pace to slow.So maybe Si had told his mum a few things about Zig.So what?He had that address now.He’d be okay.
Google told Zig it was a twenty-minute walk from Si’s parents’ house to his flat.Plenty of time for his mum to ring him.Zig jammed his hands into his pockets.It was bloody bitter out here now; the sun had been down for hours.What had Si told her?Did she know they’d messed around, back in the day?
Fuck, did she and Bob even know Si was into blokes?Maybe she knew and wasn’t happy about it?Did she reckon Zig had led her darling boy astray, all them years ago?
The shop Si lived over was up the far end of the high street, next to some kind of clothing boutique—vintage, maybe?Like most of the shops he’d passed on the way here, Sage & Seer had its window display done up for Christmas, only not like Zig would’ve expected.
