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I’d come home early, thinking Felix and I could catch a few waves and some beers after, but he informed me he was heading out on a date. With Evie. I’d warmed up lasagna for us,but Felixhad a better idea.
“What’s wrong, Dad?” Irritation must have been all over my face.
“I bit into something,” I say quickly.
“You’re not mad that Felix is off with Evie?” she asked. So perceptive.
“Why would I?”
“You like her, don’t you?” she teases me.
“Of course, I do, she’s my PA,” I say.
“Not like that! I mean like, like,” says Summer. “And she likes you too.”
I sigh. “It’s not like that, Summer.”
“But it could be,” she says, looking expectantly at me.
“No,” I say gently, “It couldn’t.”
I’m surprised that she likes Evie this much. I can’t recall Summer ever having approved of any of the women in my life. Usually she only has harsh words for the women I have dated. I recall the only serious relationship I’d had after the divorce. It was with a designer called Olga. A lovely woman who was also divorced but without children. Our relationship was wonderful, she had her flat and I had my house. We usually spent weekends together, but didn’t see each other in the week. It worked well for both of us as we each had busy careers.
But Summer hated her, properly loathed her.
No matter what I did, she went out of her way to be mean and rude to Olga, hiding her clothes, spilling wine on her at dinner, refusing to come out of her room when Olga was there. I tried reasoning with Summer but she wouldn’t budge and in the end, it meant the end of the relationship.
“Don’t you want me to be happy?” I’d asked her, exasperated one night.
“What about my happiness?” she’d countered and had, of course, won that round.
But for some reason, she’d taken to Evie, even calling her a friend. I remembered the therapist who’d told me years ago that Summer had trust issues, and felt a deep sense of abandonment by her mother. I couldn’t let Evie go if she was that important to Summer. Keeping my daughter grounded and stable was a priority to me. She’d not known about LA, as far as I could tell, about what had happened between Evie and me. I was going to keep it that way.
“A relationship would only mess things up,” I said, as honest as I could be with her.
“Evie and I get on really well. Sometimes that is better than a relationship.”
Summer nodded and I wished that I could believe my own words.
Instead, I was constantly wondering what Evie and Felix were getting up to.
Were they drinking? Dancing? Had Felix tried to kiss her yet? I knew he would.
Earlier, when I had spoken to him, I’d asked him about his girlfriend Janina.
“Oh, we broke up,” he said casually.
They’d been together for years and years. Practically married. I knew she was bossy, a bit bitchy, on the occasions where I had met her she had been very cool towards me. When I asked him about it, he laughed it off, saying she was that way with everyone.
“What happened?” I asked.
We were standing outside on the veranda, looking at the sea. Felix did not seem particularly upset about the break-up, which he said, happened over a year ago.
“You never said anything?” I said.
He shrugged. “Things were bad for a long time. She had the dog remember?”
I did recall him telling me how she had kept the dog that gave him terrible allergies, insisting that it was not the dog’s fault that he was allergic to it. It meant they had to have separate apartments and the dog was always getting in the way of their social calendar. They couldn’t go away for the weekend, because who would look after Bruno? And he had a special diet and routine and needed his walks along a certain route or else he would become depressed or something.
