“You’re not being truthful with her.”
“I hardly think telling a four-year-old that I’m banging her best reading buddy on my desk at work on the regular is appropriate, am I?”
There was another eye roll. “That’s not what I meant. You can tell her you have a boyfriend. She knows what that is.”
She did. Mainly because a boy in her class had wanted to be her boyfriend. I’d nearly died when she told me, and might’ve had several glasses of wine that evening while thinking about what lay in store for me when she was a teenager.
“But what if she gets attached and it doesn’t work out?” This was my worry.
Liv shook her head. “Newsflash: she’s attached already. Second newsflash: so’s he. Third…”
“For fuck’s sake, spare me another newsflash.”
She scowled. “If it doesn’t work out, and a couple of months is early days, then you’ll have to part on good terms because you work together, and you explain to her that sometimes that happens. It’s a life lesson for her. Maybe it’s best that happens so she doesn’t marry the first boy she makes her boyfriend.”
“I’m banning boyfriends till she’s thirty.”
“Good luck with that. Do you remember being fourteen?”
I groaned. “Michael Mountford who kissed like a dishwasher. That boy must’ve had overactive salivary glands.”
“Better than Mark Alder’s wandering hands.”
“I didn’t know you went out with him!”
Liv looked at me curiously. “Only for about three weeks, then I dumped him for Gray Maddocks. You went out with him too!”
I shrugged, felt a little sheepish. “I didn’t really go out with him. It was more like a snog and a grope behind the garages after school a couple of times. His hands definitely wandered.”
“And he had no idea what he was doing. I’d no idea he got up to anything with you. He was three years older.” Liv shook her head and pinched a piece of bread from the basket that was meant for the soup we’d ordered.
“I thought he’d be a bit more sophisticated.”
She laughed. Hard. “You thought Mark Alder would be sophisticated? Your expectations were definitely too high.”
The waiter returned, two large bowls of French onion soup in his hands. “Your starters, ladies.”
I watched Liv as she stared at the waiter’s ass as he walked away.
“You need to get laid.”
She nodded. “I do. Tell me more about Shay.”
A few nights later,my little girl looked up at me from tucked under her unicorn printed duvet and gave me her thoughtful look.
“Mummy, is Seph your boyfriend.”
Hello. Where did that come from?
“He’s my friend.”
“But is he yourboyfriend?” She dragged out the first syllable of boyfriend.
“He might be one day.” That seemed like the best answer.
Rose squished her nose. “If he becomes your boyfriend, do I have to share you? Does that mean he gets some of your heart?”
I sat down on her bed. Truth be told, once she was settled, I was meeting Seph, Eli and Ava for drinks and a meal while Liv babysat, and I wasn’t staying at home. Liv was off to Singapore in another few days and I’d been told that she wanted her niece to herself and that I needed to make the most of it.
