“So we’ll take her to the park more,” Luis protests.
“Or there’s that new brasserie at the top of the Fenchurch Building,” Sebastian adds. “That’s thirty-four floors up. Way above the pollution. The air’s plenty fresh up there, I bet, and I hear the pastries are to die for. We’ll let Reine wobble around while we do brunch.”
Ari stares at him as the kettle boils. “That’s not fresh air.”
“It’s fresher than you’re going to get anywhere else north of the river,” Sebastian sniffs.
“Exactly,” Ari replies quietly, and both Sebastian and Luis freeze.
“No,” breathes out Sebastian, while Luis holds up a hand.
“Ari, honey, we love you. We cannot — I repeat, we cannot — let you move south of the river.”
“That’s all I can afford,” Ari argues, pouring tea into three mugs. “And you’ll like South London, there are museums and parks and shops and—”
“And knife crime, lower life expectancy and a subpar transport infrastructure,” Sebastian finishes for her, his voice aghast. “How are we supposed to visit?” He shudders. “On the bus?”
“Yes,” Ari says simply. “Or the DLR. Or you could get the train.”
“You mean National Rail?” Luis asks, horror-struck.
“I’ve seen this place in Greenwich,” Ari continues, ignoring them both. “You’ll love it. It’s small, but it has a little garden and it’s near the DLR. And oh, my goodness, it’s a ten-minute walk to this cute little ice cream place, you’re going to love it—”
“We can get ice cream here, Ari,” Luis says.
“Selfridges deliver now,” Sebastian adds helpfully.
“You can’t go, Ari,” Luis insists. “You haven’t thought this through.”
“I have, I really have—”
“Well, what about Tom?” he cuts in.
Ari freezes at Tom’s name, midway through holding out a scalding cup of tea to Sebastian, who plucks it gently from her hand.
“What do you mean?” she finally asks, her voice quiet.
“I mean what about Tom?” Luis repeats. “Part of the reason you rented from us here was because you didn’t want to put down too many roots. You know, just in case Tom Miller drifted back into your life to waltz you and Reine off into the sunset. I don’t know about you, but buying a house sounds an awful lot like putting down roots to me, Ari.”
Ari pauses, chewing on a nail thoughtfully. “Reine needs a home,” she answers carefully. She looks at her little girl, now fast asleep in Luis’s arms. “Tom said he would come back for me, and he will, he really will... but he’s taking his time, and I...” She trails off helplessly. “I don’t want Reine being like me.”
“Why not?” asks Sebastian, indignant. “You’re okay. Well, I mean, you’re mousy and perpetually bedraggled and you have the confidence levels of an endangered sloth, but still, you’re okay.”
Ari swallows. “I want her to have roots. I want her to have stability.”
“We give her that,” Luis protests, hugging the little girl in his arms tightly. “She has stability here.”
Too much stability,Ari thinks.I’m doing this for Tom.
“You need to let me do this,” she tells them both. “You’ve taken such good care of me for so long now... it’s time to let me take care of myself and my daughter. I need to do this. I really do.”
Ari watches as Luis and Sebastian exchange a look.
“It would give me back this place for my dolls,” Luis mulls. “Mattel just released a new line of inspiring women Barbies, and it would be a shame to take Emmeline Pankhurst out of her box and put her straight into storage.”
“But Greenwich,” Sebastian intones, shaking his head.
“We could get the boat from the Embankment,” Luis offers, and Ari shoots him a grateful glance. “Stop off at the Southbank. Buy cheese at Borough Market. You like cheese. I like cheese. Ari likes cheese.”
