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Ben is Kerry’s new boyfriend. Well, I say new. They’ve been together for about eight months now. After the last fiasco, where her boyfriend ran off with her best friend, I was surprised she put herself out there again, but Kerry has always been a little more adventurous than me.
“He’s doing great. He got a new job with better hours, which means we get to spend more time together. We’re actually really good.”
“I’m glad for you,” I reply.
“You can at least sound like you mean it, chick,” Kerry says knowingly.
“I just worry. That’s all.”
“Yes, well. We can blame Mother’s brainwashing for that. I am not convinced that woman really knows how much damage she has done to us. Honestly, I worried that you were never going to get on that flight, and I didn’t stop worrying until you finally texted me when you landed. Now you’re there, I’m glad you’ve got some separation.”
“Oh, come on, Kerry. She’s not that bad.”
“You’re only saying that because you were living with her for so long. Honestly, talk to me again in six months. I’ve realized, now I’m not living at home, how truly intrusive her extremism on men is. I know Dad hurt her, and I know he’s been no kind of dad to us. But believe me when I tell you, Emma, every guy walking the earth is not Dad.”
This is not the first time Kerry has told me these things, and to be honest, it’s a bit of a sore subject between us. While I don’t think Mum is exactly right, I don’t believe, like Kerry, that she is exactly wrong either. Tactfully, I change the subject.
“When I get settled, do you think you’ll be able to get the time off to come and visit?”
“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away,” Kerry replies.
“It’s not the wild horses that are the problem, it’s your patients,” I quip back. She giggles down the phone, which makes me laugh, and soon enough, she has to go.
When Sylvie gets home, I’m sitting in the garden with a cup of tea. The rain did not return, thank goodness, and the sun is now shining onto the beautiful blooms that sit around the edge of the lawn.
Sylvie steps out onto the porch with a beaming grin on her face. “So, you and Nick, huh?” she declares dramatically.
