I try to turn it on, but the battery is dead.
I storm out to the kitchen yank Millie’s phone out of the charger and switch it for his.
“Hey!” she says, snatching hers up and holding it to her chest. “Careful with that.”
I use the moment to fill the jug of water and offer it round the table when I realise I haven’t dug into this conversation even nearly enough.
“Which cadet did you suck off at the fundraiser?” I ask Millie. “And please tell me he was one of the adult ones.”
She sticks her tongue out. “Obviously! Dad only trains the adults now. He was like a year older than me.”
“He was hot to be fair,” Gemma defends.
“Doesn’t excuse the Portaloo situation.”
Millie nods. “Trust me, I know where you’re coming from but… It does. He had a very nice…”
“Hose?” I offer.
We all burst out laughing. Abby dribbles red wine down her chin and has to grab some kitchen roll to clean up.
“And you!” I say to Abby. “When did you become a hooker?”
“I’mnota hooker. It was because I wore Millie’s dress.”
“Hey! That’sneverhappened to me.”
Gemma sniffs. “That’s because they think you’ll do it for free.”
“So gross. I can feel the feminism leaking from our bodies.” I shake my limbs as if to prove it. Then I glance at Gemma. “Did you pay for your window cleaning or…”
“No. He’s taking me out on a date next week.” Not even an ounce of shame. In fact, she looks pretty pleased with herself. I wish I had that much confidence when it came to letting my hair down.
“You realise your old man thing is very strange,” I tell her.
She nods, gulping back more wine. “I’mveryaware. I don’t know what it is. There’s just something about them…”
“You’re such a bunch of skanks,” I joke, throwing an arm around Abby and kissing her hair. “I’m so embarrassed we’re related. But I love you.”
At that moment, the burner phone lights up, turning itself back on. I practically launch at it. It takes five minutes to fully wake up and load to the home screen. We’re all poised in anticipation. I feel a bit weird looking at somebody else’s phone until a message pops up that clearly reads:Hi Sara.
Ok… So, I’m pretty sure I can open it without feeling guilty or like I’m evading his privacy. And besides, he gave me the phone. I’m probably overthinking this. Definitely overthinking.
Even so, I turn my back on my sisters to read it without their prying eyes.
I open the message, but it takes a second to load because there are large attachments.
Thirty photos to be precise.
The message reads:
Hi Sara, I don’t know where you are now or what you’re doing but I hope you receive this message. Amongst all the sights we saw together, the history, the architecture, it was you I noticed. You became my muse.
I wanted to share these with you. I want you to know how incredibly beautiful you are. I want you to see you how I saw you. The two weeks we spent together mean more than you’ll ever know. I still think about you all the time.
Whatever happens. I’m so glad you came. I’m so glad to have met you.
Gus x
