SCOTT
Why does having a woman in the house change its entire vibe? The moment Heather enters his home, it’s filled with a floral, calming scent.
‘Nice place,’ she says when they enter the kitchen-diner, and he dumps her extremely heavy case on the sofa. What’s she brought? Bricks? It took all his willpower to avoid visibly straining under the weight of it at the station.
‘Thanks,’ he replies.
It’s a good job she wasn’t here two weeks ago. Over the past fortnight he has: painted over the mould in the bathroom wall; taken four carloads of rubbish to the recycling depot; and emptied, cleaned and replenished the fridge with the foodstuffs he believes an eligible bachelor ought to be eating. He’s even bought a new mattress and replaced the bed linen in his spare room, for crying out loud. He’s spent around sixty hours on top of his day job getting his house in order. And not because he intends to renege on their agreement to be friends from this point on – he just wants it to be nice for her. That’s what he’s telling himself, anyway. And, besides, one of her New Year’s wishes for him was to create a more pleasant living environment for himself. Clearly, he’s already discussed his tendency towards the scruffy with her.
‘Do you want a drink?’ he asks, opening the fridge. ‘I’ve got apple and elderflower, kombucha, or a Sauvignon Blanc.’
She puts her thick winter coat and heavy fleece on the back of his chair and smiles wickedly.
‘Well. It’s been a pretty stressful journey,’ she says.
He perches his sunglasses on top of his head and allows himself to study her. She wears a floaty dress in baby pink with tiny blue buttons. He wonders how easy it might be to undo them.
‘Best crack open the Sauvignon, then?’ he says, trying to shake the lewd thoughts from his head.She’s only just arrived, for crying out loud!He selects the wine bottle – Gold Label, wine maker recommended – grabs two of his best glasses and nods towards the sofa.
Heather slips off her trainers and lines them up at the cupboard door alongside his own, hers are tiny, then curls up on the cushions as though she belongs right there.
‘So, Todd?’
Ah, yes. He should have known he wouldn’t be able to get away with a vague response. How best to phrase it?
‘Not met him, but I gather from Brianna that he’s got a bit of a reputation on campus.’
Heather’s face falls. She pulls the hairband she had used earlier to manage her hair in the wind and allows her hair to fall onto her shoulders. An errant strand breaks loose from the mane and slips into her cleavage. His eyes follow it momentarily.
‘Oh man. That’s never good.’
He hands her a glass of wine and sits, careful to maintain his distance between them and focus on the topic at hand. He instinctively knows his role is to help minimise Heather’s anxiety about Todd.
‘They’re at that stage now, right? We need to leave them to make their own mistakes, don’t you think?’
Heather’s expression is tortured.
‘I know. And I get it’s something I need to work on. I just find it triggering to think of Georgia getting hurt when it’s so unnecessary.’
‘Is it, though?’
‘Is it what?’
‘Unnecessary. Maybe this is something Georgia just needs to go through so she can recognise the rogues for herself in the future. You can’t wrap her in cotton wool and protect her from the world, no matter how much you want to.’
Heather’s sigh seems so suck the air from the room.
‘Yeah. Yeah. I know you’re right.’
‘Maybe you need to have faith that you raised a girl who is sufficiently brave and confident to make her own mistakes and learn from them.’
‘You think?’
The desperation behind her look is heartrending.
‘I really do.’
Heather nods, takes a sip of wine and sinks into the cushions as though a pressure release valve has opened.
