I needed to slow down. After this bloody launch was over I could relax. The Old Codgers’ cricket match was coming up. Bliss. I hadn’t seen Mum and Dad for ages. A weekend at home was something to look forward to.
That’s not all you’re looking forward to, whispered a treacherous little voice in my head.
Rubbish. I wouldn’t see much of Daniel. As captain of the opposition, he’d be out on the pitch and I’d be in the kitchen making sandwiches. It was highly unlikely I’d see him for more than a few minutes.
* * *
‘So, how’s it going with Miss Babelicious?’
Daniel threw his brother a dry, resigned look, used to Sebastian’s humour.
‘Don’t call her that. Her name’s Emily.’ He checked his watch. They’d be on time if they left now. With the trains into London up the spout and knowing that Emily was relying on Sebastian turning up tonight, he’d volunteered to be chauffeur. Now he wondered if he was going to regret it.
He hadn’t seen Emily, or Olivia for that matter, since the night of the glass injury. Work had been full on, true, but the whole episode had left him feeling discontent, so he’d deliberately immersed himself in work to give himself some thinking time.
‘Why not?’ Sebastian grinned, sliding his jacket on and giving himself a satisfied once over in the mirror. ‘She’s a babe... although why she’s going out with an ugly mutt like you I’ll never know.’ He shot an amused look Daniel’s way. ‘Not your usual type.’
He stiffened. ‘I don’t have a type. Are you ready?’ He jangled the car keys in exasperation to try and speed his brother up.
Sebastian finally took the hint, and headed towards the front door, smoothing down the lapels on his James Bond DJ. ‘’Course you do. And blonde and fluffy is not your usual type.’
‘Rich coming from you,’ Daniel observed sarcastically, following him out of the door, feeling uncomfortable with Sebastian’s comments but not really sure why.
‘Aw, but bro, I’m as shallow as a puddle — remember?’
They crossed to the car and Daniel gave his brother a reproving look. Apparently double firsts in Maths just didn’t cut it with ‘the chicks’. He sometimes wondered if maybe his brother wasn’t hanging around with the wrong chicks. But Sebastian was honest and, despite his hefty IQ, hewasshallow as a puddle in drought and lived life short and sharp, fast and loose. He took after their mother — with the attention span of a toddler in a supermarket.
Except Sebastian never lied to any of the girls he saw or two-timed them. It was something both of them hated. Their mother lived in Kent now, with her new husband, Martin, and two new children.
He and Sebastian had seen at first hand the destructive force betrayal wrought when Martin’s wife, a haggard blonde, had turned up on the doorstep of their family home, insisting Dad make his wife behave and leave her husband alone.
Daniel could still remember the shock etched into his father’s face reminiscent of Munch’s painting, the moment of horror penetrating as he realised that his wife had been having an affair.
The rip in the fabric of the family had been sudden and violent, like a tablecloth wrested from a fully laden table sending crockery and food crashing to the floor without warning or preparation, the resulting devastation too widely spread for anyone to know where to start picking up the shattered pieces.
Olivia really had no idea what she was getting into.
They’d only been driving for five minutes following the signs for the M4 London, before Sebastian spoke again, as if he’d been considering the subject for a while.
‘I always thought Olivia was more your type. How is she and that demon sister of hers?’
Daniel swallowed the groan. Instead his fingers gripped the steering wheel wishing his brother would drop the whole subject. Shallow and a gossip. ‘Kate’s living in Australia now, though she’s home at the moment.’
Sebastian eyed him with amusement. ‘Nice curve ball. I always thought you and Olivia—’
‘Oh, for God’s sake, we’re friends! Always have been. Always will be!’ he snapped.
Sebastian grinned unconcerned. ‘So spill.’
‘What?’
‘Something’s eating you.’
Daniel decided he might as well give it up. He had the whole drive into London with this. ‘I’m just a bit pissed off with her at the moment, if you have to know.’
‘Ooooh, do tell.’
‘Turn down the camp, you idiot — keep it for your luvvies, not me.’
