Better Left Unsent by Lia Louis

Author:Lia Louis [Louis, Lia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781804182741
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Text message from Dad: Hi darling, are you around this morning? I was hoping I could come over and we could go for a walk? Dad x

*

I have never been more grateful for Cate and Ralph than in this moment. The party with Jack last night has left me feeling more giddy, more alive than I have been in a long time, and so far, Cate and Ralph have spent the entire Sunday morning eating French toast I made, while extracting meticulous details from me about the whole night, (and mostly via Cate, who is interviewing me with such excitement, it’s like I’m a sailor who has just completed a Guinness World Record Breaking solo trip).

And I’m grateful really, for the distraction. Dad is coming over, and I really don’t know what to expect. It could be totally fine. It could be totally not. Look at Alexis’s parents. Her mum left her dad – left them all – when her dad, Salv, was in his sixties. She started again; went back to chapter one despite almost being at the denoument of her life. She even re-married.

‘OK, so, do it on me,’ Cate says, jumping up from next to Ralph, who watches, smilingly, from behind his black coffee at the breakfast bar. I’m making a flask of tea for Dad and I, like Mum used to, when I was young. There are plenty of places to get tea around here, but a flask, the beach – I want the nostalgia of it. To remind Dad, when he might need it the most, to remind me too, of the nice times we had as a family, that, of course, we can get back there, because it was just a stupid lie. A little blip.

Cate positions herself flat against the fridge. ‘‘Let’s pretend the fridge is all the coats. So, you were here, like this?’ Cate is practically juddering with excitement, like a pipe about to burst.

I laugh, pour hot water into Ralph’s four-cup flask. I place the kettle down. ‘Yep,’ I say, walking over and standing in front of her.

Cate grins at me with gooey, school-girl eyes.

‘OK, you’re too tall for this, you need to crouch so you’re looking at least at my neck,’ I instruct.

Ralph chuckles to himself as Cate slides lower. ‘This?’

‘Perfect. OK, and then, he . . . sort of moved closer, and closer, until I could feel his leg against mine . . .’ I inch closer to Cate, both of us grinning like deranged Halloween masks.

‘I’m aroused,’ says Cate, and I burst out laughing.

‘This is ridiculous, isn’t it?’ I say, glancing over my shoulder to Ralph. ‘I do apologise for bringing this into your home.’

‘Oh, I’m sure he’s coping just fine,’ says Cate, ‘isn’t that right, Ralphie?’, and oh my God, he’s blushing. I don’t think I have ever seen Ralph blush. I’m the red cabbage blusher. Ralph is far too measured and ever-level to blush.

‘Yes, well,’ says Ralph. ‘Far worse things have happened.’

‘Come on, Millie,’ grumbles Cate, grabbing my waist.

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