Mum sighs heavily.
“I’ll do better. I promise.”
“You don’t need to promise anything, honey,” she says, her tone softening. “Not to me, at least.”
She steps towards me and plants a kiss on my cheek, before disappearing into the kitchen and leaving me alone with my thoughts, and the weight of all the terrible choices I appear to keep making.
Niall
“So you just left?”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
“Maybe have breakfast together, talk a little, ask her out?”
Tyler puts down the hose and goes to turn off the water.
I’ve come to see him at the fire station where he works, a few miles from the town centre. I didn’t know what else to do just to get out of the house, and I didn’t have anyone else to call. Luckily, it’s a quiet day, and I found him outside, washing the fire engines.
“That’s not how it works.”
“Maybe not in big cities, or for you celebrities.”
“Stop that. I’m not famous – apparently I’m only famous here, and I have no idea why.”
“So you’re telling me that this is just what you do with women?”
“I don’t see a ring on your finger.”
“What have I got to do with it? We’re talking about you.”
“We’re always talking about me. This isn’t a one-way street, you know.”
“That’s because my life is simple, Niall. And you know why?”
I nod at him to continue.
“Because I don’t overcomplicate things.”
“Do you want a medal?”
“I’ll remind you that you were the one who came here and brought this up. I’m just trying to help you out.”
“Doesn’t look like it,” I huff, frustrated. “Anyway, she made herself perfectly clear.”
“She just wanted one night.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, that’s fine. Right?”
“Then why did you give me that whole speech?”
“I thought that you wanted something more – otherwise you wouldn’t have come here to find me and talk about it. Maybe it wasn’t what you were looking for.”
“I’m not looking for anything. You were the one who dragged me to that pub, and my mum was the one who invited you round. I never planned for any of this.”
“Not to mention the fact that you never expected to find her in front of you.”
