“No, I just want to spend my birthday with her, as well as with you all.”
Dad’s laughter is back. “I'll do my best, but seriously, you better warn Jenna what she's in for.”
“Jenna will be grand,” I say, sounding more confident than I am. “Thanks, Dad. And really, I am sorry that I didn't make it to dinner last night.”
“I believe you are. Now, race you to the bottom, birthday boy!” Dad says and sets off before my feet are even clipped in.
*****
It's just after nine when we get back and the villa is empty.
“Looks like your mum did drag Maeve to yoga.” Dad heads straight for the fridge for a beer. I like how he doesn't even give it a thought in front of me. I also like how I don't crave the cold fresh smack of a beer on a sunny day. I haven’t all week, not since meeting Jenna. I look around at the sound of a vibration and see Maeve’s phone on the side jiggling with new notifications.
“Nah, no way Maeve would be able to sit through another yoga class, not without her phone. I bet they just went for a quick walk or something,” I say and head to the coffee machine. Dad slides a cool bottle of water my way.
“Drink up,” he says as he walks to go sit outside with a book of sudokus he must have got somewhere yesterday. “That was a hot one.”
I smile and take a swig as the coffee machine kicks into life. I then take my drinks and go shower, standing under the hot water much longer than I usually do.
The bathroom has a different layout to Jenna's, albeit much smaller, but the décor is the same and it's impossible to look at the tiles and not think about what we've done in her shower together. It's also impossible to think about that without my dick getting hard and needy. But I do my best to ignore it, knowing I'll be back in Jenna’s villa and hopefully in her arms and between her legs within the hour. This thought stamps a smile on my face that is impossible to shift as I dry, get dressed, and brush my teeth. I run the smallest dollop of product through my hair, using my hands to work it in, and then give up when I'm bored, returning to the bedroom to look for my sunglasses, wallet and some condoms as I had noticed yesterday Jenna was running low. That's when I hear the voices.
“She's practically my age, James!” my mother shouts.
“She's not,” Dad says in a hiss. At least he is trying to keep his voice down. “She's thirty-seven.”
“That's not even fifteen years younger than me!”
“So what, Cynthia? Relationships like his happen all the time. Look at us,” Dad tries.
“That's different!” My mum is too quick to bite back, which tells me she's not thinking, only arguing.
“Is it really that different?” My father sighs.
“I just don't understand it. Why can't he just focus on himself and get better? Why can't we just have a family holiday and spend time with each other? After the year we've had, don't we deserve that?” I hear the tears in my mother's voice, the scraping of a chair and the swishing of my dad's Lycra as he no doubt moves to comfort her. I'm almost ready to push off and walk into the room, but then my dad speaks again.
“Maybe this is part of him getting better?” he says. “Maybe he alreadyisgetting better? Maybe this is just Aiden living his life and we have to let that happen?”
Thank you, Da.
“Then why do I feel like he's still somewhere else? Why do I feel like I haven't got him back?” My mother says.
Jesus, Ma.
I can't walk in on that. I can't deal with my mother in this kind of mood, so I turn to go and hide in my room for a little longer but stop in my tracks when I see my sister in the doorway to our shared bathroom, looking up at me.
“You'll have to face her eventually,” she says in a whisper, her arms crossed, “if you’re going to ask Jenna to dinner tonight.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Dad just warned Mum about it, which is why she's having a mini meltdown.” Maeve turns her fingers on one hand up, inspecting her nails.
“I'll come back later and talk about it. It's my birthday after all,” I say.
“And you're not going to spend most of it with your parents, which is fine. I wouldn't want to either,” Maeve says. “But you shouldn't actively try to ignore them on your birthday.”
The need to not be here, to be in Jenna's villa, is so strong as it rises in my body, I feel like I could choke on it. I turn my head back to the living area.
“Want to run away?” Maeve asks, her eyes on me when I turn to look at her.
