“So would your dancing,” he tells me over the rim of his coffee cup. “You forget I’ve seen you dance. You’re good.”
“Have you heard from your brother?” I throw at him, getting more personal than I should.
“That’s a low blow.” He rolls his eyes, letting out a breath.
“Keep your nose out then.”
He glares at me, his eyes pinched tight as he says, “Christmas.”
“What?”
“I’m going home to see Jasper at Christmas. He wants to know more about Mum, and I know I need to face my shit and sort my life out.” He pops a brow and I roll my eyes.
“Touché, asshole.”
“I can come with you. If you decide to have a look,” he says, referring to the studio.
“I’ll think about it.”
He smirks at me. “Good.”
“Do you know what you’re going to say to Jasper?” I ask, giving him a pitiful look.
“Nope. He wants to know more about Mum. His therapist thinks it would help.” He runs his tongue over the front of his teeth. “I think being the oldest and having to take care of her, deal with the medicines and hospital visits, it made me desensitised to it all by the time she died.”
“That makes sense.” I give him a sad smile. “She would be proud of you, from what you’ve told me. That I’m certain of.”
He throws his head back, laughing, but I sense it’s not sincere. I know going home will be tough. I feel bad for even bringing his brother up. “You’re too nice, Nina.” He continues to laugh. “Oh, to have your innocence.”
“What?” I frown, shaking my head as a smile tugs at my lip.
“Nothing.” He shakes his head, draining the rest of his coffee. “Come on, let’s get you two home.”
The girls are spread around my lounge when I finish putting the little man to bed. One thing I have always stuck to is a bedtime routine. Bath, bottle, book, and bed.
“Please tell me you’ve ordered already!” I tell them, rubbing my stomach as it grumbles.
“It’s on the way.” Scarlet smiles.
“Thank God, I barely ate today. What was so funny just now? I was halfway out the door and you idiots woke him up.”
“Luce went official,” Megan tells me, waggling her brows at Lucy across the room.
“Really?!”
“No! Well, yes. I need to speak to him. The conversation was all kinds of fucked up.” She holds a hand up, shaking her head.
“In what way?”
“He—” The girls both burst out laughing. “He wanted to go bareback. I said I don’t do that with people I’m not in a relationship with and he just asked me, right there and then as he hovered at my…” She gestures down there.
“And you said yes?”
“What would it have looked like if I said no? I’d look like a slut.”
Lucy doesn’t do casual dating, or she didn’t. Something changed last year and honestly, I think it’s for the best. Her ‘relationships’ (with complete assholes like Hugh) used to kill her for weeks before, she was always too emotionally invested and always too willing to give ‘one more chance’.
“Lucy, it doesn’t make you a slut. It’s very normal to have sex and not be in a relationship. And if you want to use protection, you should.”
