“You drove?”
“No, I fucking flew.”
“You don’t have a car.”
“Max does.”
I stopped. “Does he know you’ve taken it?” Because there was every chance he didn’t.
“Yes. And he knows why.”
“How do you know why you needed to meet me here?”
Seph glared at me. “Because Liam phoned me this morning. Told me you were on a flight. Was worried about you.”
“Was he mad?”
“You think?”
We carried on walking and I started to feel nauseous. This was a mistake. I’d done my usual – to think was to speak or to act and in this case I’d acted wrongly.
“Seph I need to fly back.”
He shook his head.
“Stop it, Soph. Get in the car, come back to your apartment…”
“You’ve moved in already haven’t you?” This was Seph all over.
“Ava wants to redecorate my place before the tenant moves in. And you were away and I figured you had a spare room plus you’d be at Liam’s until your house purchase went through… but that’s not the point here.” His expression changed from little boy guilty to serious lawyer in two words.
“I need to speak to him.”
“Fine. Phone him. He’ll probably want to hear from you. Probably.”
I glared at him. Got in his car, or Max’s car. Took out my phone and rang Liam. There was a pause while it connected and it began to ring. I held my breath, the words I wanted to say bottlenecking on my tongue, but there was only one phrase I knew would make it through.
The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang.
He didn’t pick up.
* * *
I sat on my sofa, watching London. A couple or more years ago, Vanessa had been a permanent fixture on the same sofa, mooning over Jackson. I’d had no sympathy. I expected none from Seph now.
“He isn’t answering.”
“Maybe he’s in the pools. That’s where I would be.” Seph sat down and opened his laptop.
“Sorry, you can go back to work, you know.”
“And see Max in a bad mood again. No thank you. I’ll pass on that for today.”
I looked through the pictures on my phone, staring at the ones of me and Liam.
