“Oh,” she said. “I feel bad.”
“Ava, you’re going to be staying at mine for a month or two. Callum and Max already know something’s going on. Why not just come clean?”
“Because they’ll expect it to be serious. And when it does end they’ll be upset for both of us.”
I paused, thinking of the words to use that wouldn’t scare her. “I understand that you’re trying to protect them. But don’t you think they’ll be more hurt if they aren’t kind of told? Not as in an announcement, but just not hiding it. My sisters know and they get it. Sort of.” They’d really liked Ava, to the extent where the conversation between the three of them had become so enthusiastic I’d taken myself off to have a beer alone in the bar area and checked the rugby scores. Afterwards, I’d been bombarded with messages telling me that she clearly wasn’t a rebound and why were we saying it was only casual. Because it was only casual. Or so I’d thought.
“You’re right,” she said. “They wouldn’t want me – us – to keep this a secret.”
“Ava,” I said as she nestled down onto my chest. “This has been going on for weeks. If we don’t see each other one evening, we text or we call. This isn’t a series of hook ups anymore.”
“I know,” she said. “But I don’t know if I’m ready to deal with more than what we have now.”
“We don’t need to give anything a label. Let’s just call it dating and leave it at that.” I cupped her breast gently, her nipple responding to my touch.
“Elijah,” she said. She was one of the few people to use my full name and I liked it, liked the way it sounded coming from her. “I don’t want to hold you back from meeting someone more permanent.”
“Sweetheart, I was with someone long distance for two years and I didn’t push for that being permanent. I’d like a house and a family with someone someday, but I’m thirty-six and I’m happy where I am right now. Don’t over think it.”
She nodded, her hand trailing over my chest and down to my cock and then her mouth followed and I forgot about anything else.
I’d lived in London long enough to not be bothered about the sheer bustle of it on a warm Saturday and I’d developed survival techniques so I didn’t want to kill the numerous fucking tourists who stopped in the middle of pavements to take a photo. I was meeting my sisters at a café near Oxford Street for lunch, their designated lunch break from shopping for birthdays and some family get together somewhere I’d forgotten.
“Eli!” Izzy said, standing up and throwing her arms around me. She was tall and willowy, sometimes looking a bit too thin. “You didn’t answer my call this morning.”
I’d been fucking Ava when she rang but she didn’t need that information.
“I was busy. I knew if it was something urgent you’d text.”
Izzy eyed me knowingly. “Were you with Ava?”
“Yes. How wrecked is Sam’s credit card?” I pointed to the bags next to her chair.
She smiled widely, too widely. “Really nice try at diverting from the question.” She elbowed Nina, our second youngest sister. “Tell him. Then he can dodge the topic of his love life for a while longer.”
“While you dismember mine,” Nina said, glaring at Izzy then looking at me. “Me and Josh have split up.”
“Thank god for that,” I said, taking the fourth seat. “What made you come to your senses?”
She shrugged and gave me a half smile.
“Do I need to hurt him?” Nina was twenty-seven, the same age as Ava. She worked as an accountant but unlike Ava she was keen to settle down and I’d spent a good portion of her twenties trying to stop her from making stupid decisions with men who were really not worth any of her time.
Nina shook her head. “No. I got rid of him. I realised he was, well, boring.” She rolled her eyes. “I know – stable and steady and everything are good qualities but he asked me to move in with him and I just wondered what life would be like if I did. The thought wasn’t appealing.”
“You know that’s the best decision you’ve made in a long while?” I said, glancing at the menu. “Nee, he couldn’t even hold a conversation about sport in general.”
“Sport isn’t everything, Eli,” Amber, my youngest sister, said. “There is more to life than men chasing after an odd shaped ball.”
I chose to ignore her. My little sister was a complete know-it-all. She was also a physiotherapist, one who specialised in complex sports injuries and she hated professional sports players, although they made up most of her patients.
“He couldn’t hold a conversation about most things. But he was safe and there was no chance of him running off with anyone else.” She looked at her nails and I could tell she was frustrated that she hadn’t done what Izzy had yet: a good husband and two children before she was thirty.
“Nina, most men aren’t looking to settle down till they’re older. Stop worrying about finding the man you’re going to spend forever with and just have a good time,” I said. “As long as whoever you have a good time with isn’t a total knobhead.”
Nina laughed. “That rules out most of the male population. Anyway. I’m single. Again.”
Izzy shook her head. “Some days I wish I was still single: no dirty socks on the floor, no wet towels on the bed; no stubble left in the sink… Honestly, I don’t have two kids, I have three.”
