I scoff and jump down from the low stone wall I’ve been sitting on.
“You just have to forget about this and move on, mate. Unless…”
I glance sharply at him. “What?”
“Unless you’ll have trouble forgetting it.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe she got under your skin.”
“Don’t be stupid. It was a one-night-stand.”
“Then why are we still talking about it?”
“Because there’s fuck all else to do around here.”
“Don’t you have a teenager to take care of?”
“Exactly. A teenager. Which means she hates me, and wants nothing to do with me.”
“So you just left her with your parents?”
“Just for a few hours. I needed to get out of the house.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“Maybe not for you. You’ve always lived with your parents.”
“I don’t live with my parents. I have an apartment.”
“Since when?”
“For a while now – but that’s not the point. Besides, it’s not so bad, here, living in this town with my family and all my mates.”
“Of course not: you never left. You have no idea what’s beyond the county border.”
“The difference between me and you, Kerry, is that I never felt the need to leave, while you legged it as far away as possible as soon as you got the chance.”
“They offered me a job. What was I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know what you weresupposedto do, but I know what youdiddo. You left; and you never looked back.”
“I was busy.”
“Too busy to spend time with your daughter?”
“What the fuck has that got to do with anything?”
“The truth is that you’re a commitment-phobe.”
“That’s not true. What the hell would you know?”
Tyler crosses his arms. “That girl grew up without a father.”
“Her mother and I stopped loving each other.”
“Doesn’t she use her mother’s surname?”
