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“What’s wrong with your tea?”
“Did your mum make it?”
My jaw hits the floor. “Are you trying to say it’s bad?”
“It’s bad, there’s no trying-to-say about it.”
“But… I made it. You love my coffee.”
“Not since I discovered Lavazza. No coffee tastes the same.” Her eyes grow distant and dreamy. She’s so dramatic.
“We have that at work. It is great coffee.”
“The best,” she corrects and pushes her cup away. “I’ll never look at Kenco the same again.”
“Nescafe is my life.”
“Nescafe… blegh.” With her fingers in her mouth, she makes a vomiting noise. I throw a tea towel at her and it covers her head, saving me from her vomiting demonstration. When she sobers and drops the towel onto the table, she snaps, “I can’t believe you thought I was pregnant.”
“Well you had all of the signs.”
She punches me on the arm and we share a laugh at my stupidity.
“What time do you start work?”
“Not until four.”
“Is it proper fancy like?”
I nod. “It’s literally the best. I’ve never known a place to be so clean and yummy.”
“Yummy?”
“Yummy.”
“You’re so weird.”
“It really is though. You need to come sometime. I’ll ask Kerim to cook for you! If you think I’m good, you should try his food. It’s the best.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Kerim, the guy who made you cry?”
“He did not make me cry.”
“Almost.”
I wave her off. “Whatever. The kitchen is a stressful place.”
“Whatever,” she repeats my word and waves me off with a mocking look.
“Cow bag.”
Her mocking becomes a satisfied smirk and then her eyes light up with an idea. “Do they host weddings there?”
Sigh.
“They do actually.”
“I need pictures.”
“Google has them.”
“You can do a video walkthrough of the place!”
“No… no I can’t.” I stand and place our cups into the sink. Sasha follows close behind and then leans around me to help herself to a home baked biscuit from the biscuit barrel.
“You’re such a let-down,” she jests, her voice muffled and her cheek full of biscuit.
“You’re so nice to me.” I deadpan.
Her response is to throw a biscuit at me.
It bounces off my temple and lands in the sink.
“Why did you come, again?” I ask sardonically and her answering cackle is all I receive as she helps herself to another biscuit.
Dillan, with his super hearing, rushes into the kitchen with his hand outstretched. “Bicket.”
Sasha hands him one and then Emily, who follows her brother purely to be nosy.
“Yay, sugar rush,” Nathan sighs and rubs his temples.
“You can thank me never.” Sasha grins and picks Emily up, despite the fact the kid now has soggy biscuit around her lips and fingers. “Is that nice?”
“Bicket,” Dillan yells and runs around our legs.
“EY!” Emily shouts, purely because she likes shouting.
“And so it begins.” I laugh and nudge Dillan towards his dad.
“It’s always a joy to see you, Sasha.” Nathan ushers Dillan back out of the room, leaving us with my pretty little girl.
“I just want to kidnap this kid,” Sasha growls and bites at Emily’s neck, who giggles and presses her chin to her chest. I smile at the sight of her joy and the sight of her cheek chub squishing outwards.
“I’m not sure I’d stop you, though Nathan might.”
“Yeah, I could take him.”
Sasha checks her phone and a cute crease forms between her brows. “Let’s take them to the park or something and get a coffee.”
“That actually sounds pretty good.” I point to Emily’s pram which sits behind the kitchen door. “Stick the kid in there; I’ll go get Dillan and Nathan.”
“And matching socks.”
I look down at my black and grey feet and flip her off. I don’t have time to pair socks these days.
When I step into the room after following Nathan’s hushed voice, I catch him scrambling to hang up his phone and stuff it into his pocket. That’s odd. That’s not like Nathan.
“Everything okay?” I ask, frowning with confusion.
“Yeah, just a company,” he states but I notice his hand trembling as he runs it through his hair. “They don’t stop.”
His eyes avoid mine so I know that he’s lying and my heart begins fluttering painfully in my chest.
“Yeah, well, companies are arseholes,” I mutter, wanting to push him on what the fuck he’s hiding from me but not wanting to cause a scene in front of Sasha.
“Is everything okay?” He asks, still avoiding my eyes.
“Sasha and I are going to take the kids to the park and go for coffee. Do you want to come?”
He smiles softly, his nerves seeming to slowly vanish. Or maybe I imagined them? “You go and have fun. I’ve got a few things to do today and being kid free will make it a bit easier.”
“Of course.” I try to smile but it comes out as more of a grimace. My heart is still fluttering. When he steps into me, I try my best to become soft and pliant in his arms but my hug is almost as stiff as his.
