‘Maybe we should have told Bess your situation before you moved in.’
‘I considered it, but I knew there was a chance I’d be refused the room and I’m sober now. I need to build my life again and part of that was moving out of here. I want to be close enough to you to prove myself but not so close we fall out.’
He smiled. ‘I think we love each other better from a distance.’
‘Maybe, but a short distance.’ When she laughed, it wasn’t the haunting sound it had once been, the sound he associated with her drunken state so many times. Now, it was a welcome sound, one that told him they were approaching a new type of normality.
‘I’m good with that, Mum.’ And as he reached out to give her a hug, this one felt genuine, like both of them meant it, like it was a line under the past and they were looking to the future.
22
Bess opened the door to Gio. ‘Your mum is at work.’
‘Good, because it’s you I came to see.’
She had a suspicion that was the case but wishful thinking and all that.
She stood back, let him inside and closed the door.Here goes, she thought, waiting for him to lose it with her, to yell at her for getting his alcoholic mother to go to a pub of all places and, worse, have to deal with a drunk person who was trying to push drinks on her until she knocked her off her feet. The night could’ve easily been so much worse.
They looked at one another for what felt like ages until eventually, Bess said, ‘Go on, hit me with it. I can take it.’
‘Hit you with it?’
‘Given your reaction last night, I’m waiting for you to hit me with your worst… insults, yelling, whatever it may be.’
‘I’m not going to do any of that.’
She looked up at him. ‘You’re not? But what I did…’
‘What you did was call your lodger to come and join you atthe pub. Sounds a pretty normal thing to do. And you weren’t to know about Mum.’
‘I offered her alcohol here, in the house where she lives.’ She cringed again at the memory.
‘She’ll have to deal with people offering her drinks or drinking in front of her for the rest of her life.’
‘So, you’re not worried?’
‘Didn’t say that.’
They stood in the hallway looking at each other. She hated that he was concerned, likely still a bit annoyed, even if he claimed not to be. Because if he didn’t feel any strong emotion about the situation, he wouldn’t be here right now, would he?
‘You’re not leaning on your stick much.’ She noted he didn’t have the crutches this time.
‘I’m getting stronger, trying to remember my current limits. I can put some weight on the leg obviously, but not for too long.’
‘Come in, sit down.’ Hovering in someone’s hallway was probably classed as pushing it a bit when he had been weight-bearing to get around. She tilted her head in the direction of the lounge. ‘Can I get you a coffee?’
‘Go for it, warm me up a bit.’ He followed her through the lounge and into the kitchen.
She took mugs down from the cupboard. ‘You’re doing well to have walked here. Assuming you did?’
‘I could pretend, be all macho, but no, I got a lift from a mate and got out at the end of the road.’
‘In case I saw you and didn’t answer the door?’
He laughed at that. ‘Didn’t even cross my mind.’
She heaped coffee granules into the awaiting mugs.
