“Are you still stressed because of that?” He put his hands behind his head, displaying biceps that were ridiculously attractive.
“Yep. He’s still out there and I need a new house because of him. But I feel safer here and I slept well last night.” All of which was true. “I also know that stopping performing or recording won’t stop him from wanting to do whatever it is, which is what Carissa is convinced I’m doing. I just want some time to decide what I want to do with myself for the next few years.” I put the plate on the bedside table next to me and lay back down, my arm lying alongside Caleb’s.
“I get that. Have you told your mum you’re not re-signing?”
Caleb had met my mother a handful of times over the years and was not her biggest fan. I was rarely in touch with her nowadays. Her being so engrossed in my sister when I turned eighteen was a blessing in disguise as I’d managed to side step away from her influence and control. I sent her very nice monetary gifts for her birthday and Christmas, and she had a lovely house in an area she loved in Cheshire and a new car every couple of years, but she was still bitter I was no longer a cow she could milk.
“No. I’m not intending to either. When she finds out she’ll have something to say about it, but my job isn’t any of her business. I’m not reliant on her.”
“You never have been. How’s your sister?”
“Divorcing. So mum’s busy with her, making sure she’s devastated enough.” My mother’s plan for catwalk domination had come to an abrupt end when my sister was seventeen and pregnant, the father a man twenty five years older than her with a proclivity for stay-at-home wives. He was also insanely rich and a semi-royal, some longstanding friend of one of the princes and with a minor title and a big house somewhere in the country.
“That’ll be a nice pay out for her.” Caleb had less time for my sister than my mother, which was saying something.
“I’ve stayed well out of it. That’s what gift cards are for. I can be a doting aunt from a distance.” I had very few regrets about the lack of closeness with my family. Sometimes I felt lonely, and it was those times I phoned Caleb, but my mother and sister were toxic. Being lonely would’ve happened even if I’d been close to them.
“Okay then, doting aunt, what time are you getting your lazy arse out of bed?” He elbowed me gently. “I think I need to go sofa shopping.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “I think you should. I could catch a sexual disease from that sofa. And it looks like something might be living in it.”
“That might actually be an issue. If you ate a chip you dropped on it, you could risk some bacterial infection, if you got the chip soon enough. Amelie’s said I’m okay to scrap it.” He pulled the duvet back and slipped under it. “It’s not so warm today.”
“Does Amelie even remember the sofa?”
“I don’t think she wants to. She probably has horrible images of what she saw happening on it one night.”
“Do I want to know?” I really didn’t. Caleb had always been popular with the ladies, but he’d never been serious about anyone, or not serious enough to tell me about them.
“I would advise against it. Seriously, you can stay in bed all day if you want. If finishing a thirty date tour is anything like coming home after six weeks on a research vessel, I wouldn’t have woken up yet.” He turned onto his side facing me. “I don’t have to go into the university. I managed to sort it out online.”
“So you have a free day?” I reached up to touch the stubble on his jaw. He obviously hadn’t shaved for a couple of days.
“I should be writing up some of the research. There is a deadline for this paper, but it isn’t for ages.”
“Another week upcoming where you don’t have time to sleep?” He’d always left everything to the last possible minute and still got it on time and earned top marks.
He grinned. “I’m not that bad anymore, but I’ll start it next week. I can work on it at the office. You’ll just distract me here.”
That made me feel warm inside. We’d spent long stretches together at least once a year since we first met and had built a friendship that was comfier than my oldest pyjamas. I liked being with him. He made me laugh, made me feel safe. He made me feel seen as someone who wasn’t just flesh with a good singing voice and the potential to earn people money.
“Happy to distract you. I do need to write some songs as well. And write some just for me.” That wasn’t stopping. I loved song writing, that was what’d catapulted my career beyond some teeny wonder girl, and the consistent part that I loved.
“We can have a schedule.” He showed no signs of starting that schedule. “Do you remember when we camped out in your garden and we were looted by a hedgehog?”
“What on earth’s made you remember that?” I could feel warmth radiating from his body.
Caleb laughed softly. “Because you practically pushed yourself under me because you thought it was a bear.”
“I didn’t think it was a bear and I’m not pushing under you right now and we’re not in sleeping bags and nothing’s trying to eat our bread.” I was smiling at the memory, one from the first summer we’d been friends and I’d wanted to try camping. Caleb had made it happen, acquiring a tent and a camping stove, two sleeping bags and some cold beers even though neither of us were old enough. “I don’t think there are any hedgehogs in your flat either, although I can’t really be sure.” He was not the tidiest of people.
“If there were, they wouldn’t have touched the bread I’ve just found. I think I might need to make a few lifestyle changes.” He snuggled up more under the covers, our knees touching.
I ignored the shivers that caused, just like I’d been doing for the last decade or so. I was rather proficient at it, not lingering on them at all, especially when I was in bed on my own.
“I’m not cleaning the flat for you.” The sound of the seagulls filtered through the window, squawking what was to me a lullaby. I loved the sounds here, the shushing of the sea and the call of the birds. There was a melody here that the city just didn’t possess, one that seemed to slow my pulse and give me time to breathe.
“Wouldn’t expect you to. I don’t think you have the skills or chemicals for it anyway. How long does it take for a sofa to be delivered?” He frowned again. “I should probably know that.”
