Blake:Bye.
His short reply makes me laugh. He really does need to learn to cope with his frustration. Oh, to be in my mid-twenties and horny every five seconds again.
* * *
Cal and I meet at Fenchurch Street station and head to Blake’s house together. We aim for eight thirty, which gives our boy plenty of time to get his niece to bed and settled. His three-storey townhouse has been painted lemon yellow. All the houses in the row are different colours, which is super cute. We ring the doorbell. We don’t have to wait long. Blake opens the door, looking utterly adorable in a skin-tight ombré rainbow T-shirt and faded skinny jeans. He steps back to let us in.
“Please take your shoes off, or Archie will kill me,” Blake says.
I bend down to take my shoes off, noting that Blake’s boots aren’t neatly placed on the shoe rack like everyone else’s.
“I think you forgot to do something, baby boy.” I keep my voice quiet just in case Lexi is still up. Although if she was, I suspect she’d have come to say hi by now.
“What?” Blake looks at me blankly.
I point at his boots. “Do we need to set you a new rule?”
“Really?” He puts his boots away and then grabs my and Cal’s shoes and puts them on the rack too.
“Is your niece asleep?” Cal asks.
“She’s in bed. That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s asleep, but hopefully, she won’t come down.”
Blake leads us into the living area, which is a long room, roughly separated into a lounge at the front, a dining area with a tiny table, and then the kitchen. There’s a patio door at the back of the kitchen, but it’s too dark to see anything of the garden.
“Do you want a beer?” Blake asks.
“Sounds great, princess,” Cal says. He sits on the sofa, making himself comfortable.
Blake goes to the fridge and pulls out three bottles of beer. He takes the tops off them all and brings them over.
“I brought you a gift, baby boy,” I say.
“Me too,” Cal chips in.
“Gifts? Why?”
“Aren’t we allowed to spoil you?” I swap the bag I’m carrying for a bottle of beer and take a swig.
Blake peeks inside the bag and laughs. “Monopoly?”
“You said you didn’t have it. Now you do.”
“Is this what we’re doing tonight?”
“I quite like the idea of snuggling on the sofa and watching a film,” Cal says. “Is snuggling allowed?”
“Yes,” Blake replies. “As long as we’re not doing anything that isn’t safe for a five-year-old to see.”
“Does she know you’re in a poly relationship?” I ask.
Blake stares at the floor. “I’m not sure how to have that conversation with her.”
“It’s early days,” Cal says. “Plenty of time to figure it out.”
I smile at Cal. This thing between the three of us is still new and slightly clumsy, but his response tells me he’s not thinking of this as a short-term thing. I guess we shifted from casual to relationship the moment we accepted Blake as our boy and promised it would just be him.
Cal pats his lap. “Come sit, princess.”
