Page 41 of It Was Always You

He looked up at her again as he bit his lip, trying to stifle a grin.

He clearly wanted to stay angry. ‘Piss off.’ He chuckled.

A smile spread across her face. ‘You piss off.’

He stood up once more. ‘No, you. Now give me a hug and then sod off to America.’ He grabbed her arm and pulled her in.

She wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him hard. ‘I’ll be back before you know it.’

She felt him shrug. ‘Don’t care.’

‘Liar,’ she mumbled into his chest.

‘Cheesy head.’

She sniggered again. ‘Pee Pants.’

He stepped back and gave her a playful shove. ‘Right, you can really sod off now.’

She burst out laughing and made her way to the front door. ‘You’ll be fine, you know.’

The flight was a long one. Lily landed at JFK Airport and climbed into a yellow cab. She gave the driver the address of her hotel and slumped into the seat, exhausted.

‘Business or pleasure?’ the rotund driver asked over his shoulder.

She snapped out of her semi-conscious state. ‘Sorry?’

‘Are you here on business or pleasure, ma’am?’

‘Oh right, sorry. It’s been a long day. Business.’

‘Huh. What line are you in?’

She didn’t feel like talking but didn’t want to appear rude. ‘I’m a journalist. I report for a pretty major news station in the UK.’

The man chuckled. ‘Well, lar-dee-dar. Ain’t I the lucky guy today, huh? What brings you to New York?’

‘I’m doing a piece on the education system in the States.’

He made a dismissive noise. ‘Ha… well, alls I can tell you is my boy, Deano, he’s a bright kid, but they don’t do squat to encourage him at school.’

She rubbed her eyes. All she wanted to do was get to the hotel, relax and doze. The cab journey was going to take an hour, and she would rather have silence than make small talk with some guy she’d never met before and who she was never likely to meet again.

‘Is that so?’

He nodded fervently. ‘Yeah, yeah. He could be a doctor or a, what do you call it, news reporter like you. He could even sell real estate if he put his mind to it.’

She stifled a giggle at his career prioritising. ‘Well, he sounds very bright, indeed.’

‘Yeah, the brightest. Anyways, you tell ’em over in the UK that my boy needs more help.’

She cringed. ‘It’s not really my place⁠—’

‘Yeah, I mean so he took a knife to school one time. One damn time! It’s like they hold it against the kid. I mean, whaddya gonna do?’

‘I really don’t⁠—’

‘Yeah, well, me and the missus, we told ’em, you gotta give the kid a chance here. He ain’t gonna use the damn thing. It’s just, you know, protection.’ He shrugged as if his son carrying a knife was the most normal act in the world.