Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
S teph turned into the large driveway that occupied the width of her brother’s double fronted house.
She looked across at the VW Golf she parked next to. “Bitch,” she muttered in an outraged tone.
“I am seriously hoping that you haven’t come up with that as some kind of pet name for me,” said Jon taking her hand.
“No.” She offered a short laugh at the notion of doing precisely that. “But this is my dream car, right down to the colour and specification and I am guessing that this is Zoe’s new toy because it’s not Eddie’s cup of tea at all.”
“I see, but it’s hardly cause to call her names,” pointed out Jon as they reached the door, leaning up to ring the bell.
Steph was still feeling slightly irritated as Eddie opened the door and greeted them both warmly. He ushered them into the hall and the lounge beyond where a boy of around seven and a girl of around four were arguing about who was the funniest character in SpongeBob Square Pants.
“You’re both wrong because it’s Patrick!” shouted Steph behind them.
“Auntie Steph!” they called together turning to face her as she hugged them both.
“Hello, double trouble. Let me introduce you to my friend, Jon.”
“Is he your boyfriend?” asked the little girl.
“Yes, Tilly,” said Eddie from next to Steph. “Now, stop being nosey,” he laughed.
“Auntie Steph’s got a boyfriend, Auntie Steph’s got a boyfriend,” sang the little boy, his grin revealing a missing tooth as he looked at Steph and his dad, but avoided eye contact with Jon.
“And if you want Auntie Steph to help with your maths homework, Finley, you may want to stop singing at her,” Eddie said seriously as he ruffled the little boy’s hair.
“Ooh, maths homework, my favourite.” The excitement of Steph’s tone and her accompanying grin suggested she meant every word.
“You really are very strange, sis, nobody really likes maths,” Eddie told her as a female voice called from behind them.
“Dinner is served and I am seriously hoping you’re not a vegetarian, Jon,” said Zoe as she approached them and extended a hand to him. “Pleased to meet you, Eddie’s told me all about you.”
Zoe’s words confused Steph slightly as she wondered why Eddie would speak about Jon at all.
“No, I am most definitely not a vegetarian.” Jon accepted Zoe’s hand before she turned to Steph and looked at her still bruised face.
“You should have called us.”
“Sorry.”
“Good. Now let’s eat and then maybe Auntie Steph can help with homework,” said Zoe leading them all through to the dining room.
It wasn’t until they were eating dessert that Steph said, “I noticed a very pretty Golf on your drive, I assume it’s yours, Zoe.”
Zoe shook her head and looked across at Eddie who also shook his head. “Not unless I am up for a premature mid-life crisis.”
“Not that premature.” Steph’s teasing made her chuckle as her brother frowned at her making her laugh more.
Jon smiled as he watched the three of them; Eddie who was probably only about thirty-six, the oldest brother, and looked well on it with a full head of dark hair topping off a broad frame of about six feet and likely considered an attractive man, thought Jon, as he turned his attention to Zoe. She was only about five feet four and had shoulder length red hair with a liberal splattering of freckles across her face. She looked no older than thirty-two or thirty-three with bright, sparkling, blue eyes. She wasn’t beautiful like Steph was, at least not in his eyes, but was an attractive woman and it was obvious from the way she and Eddie looked at each other that they were not only in love with each other, but also fancied each other like mad.
“So, who does the car belong to?” asked Steph obviously confused.
Eddie looked across at Jon, shaking his head and waiting for him to say something, which he did.
“You. It belongs to you, Steph,” said Jon.
“How? I don’t understand,” replied a confused looking Steph.”
“I asked Eddie to sort you a new car, something you’d like,” he told her expressionless, making her wonder whether he was masking some nervousness or if he was that confident that he had nothing to be nervous about. “You like it, don’t you?” he asked calmly.
“Yes, but that’s not the point. I still don’t understand. I already have a car, and I can’t afford that one even with mine in part exchange.”
“Yes, darling, a car Simon followed you in and although I had said you should change your car, I didn’t contact Eddie until after he had followed you, so now you have two cars because the Golf is bought and paid for, but as you can only drive one at a time I suggest you speak to Eddie about getting rid of your old one,” said Jon bluntly.
“Sis, I can take it off your hands, no problem, and it would give you some spare cash.” Eddie smiled at her encouragingly.
“And as you have just left your job, spare cash would be sensible, wouldn’t it, Stephanie?” Jon’s question that revealed her employment status to her brother infuriated Steph further.
“You’ve left your job?” Eddie looked at her disbelievingly.
“Yes, but it’s a very long and dull story, so I won’t bore you with the details.” Steph fought to keep a flat, even tone. “But I have agreed to do some temporary work for Jon.”
“That’s something I suppose, but you must be crazy to give up a good job like the one with Bakers, especially in a recession,” muttered Eddie.
“I am sure Steph has her reasons,” said Zoe supportively. “Aren’t you going to take a look at your new car then?”
Eddie retrieved the key from his pocket and handed it to Steph.
“What about my homework?” asked Finley as Steph got to her feet.
“I will be back in ten minutes, so you get your homework out and then we can take a look at it, okay?” Steph began to head towards the door.
“Okay,” agreed Finley begrudgingly.
Steph was about to close the front door behind her when she realised that Eddie had followed her.
“Sis, don’t be so arsy with Jon. He was worried about you after what happened with Simon, we both were and Zoe is right you should have called us.” He put an arm around her shoulders.
“Maybe. Have you told Dad, or the others?” she asked now.
“No, Dad would have been horrified and as much as I would like to go and sort Simon out, the others may have done it, especially Jay, so no, I haven’t told any of them.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“What is the story with you and Jon? New home, new car, new job, is he taking over your life completely?” Eddie asked, possibly with a hint of concern entering his voice as he realised just how many areas of his sister’s life Jon was involved in.
Steph became aware at that second that he actually was everywhere she looked, professionally and personally. “No story, although I can see why you might think he’s taking over, but it’s a bit more complicated than you might think,” she admitted, but didn’t expand further.
“I bet. But he didn’t look too happy at your little display of irritation in front of us all, so you might want to save that til you get home because I don’t think he is used to being told off or made a prat of in company,” he replied as Jon appeared behind them.
“Am I safe to join you for the grand unveiling of your new car?”
“I suppose,” was Steph’s slightly petulant reply as Eddie nudged her clumsily.
“Yes, please,” said Steph now after her brother’s rather obvious prompt.
Jon followed her out onto the drive and got into the passenger seat next to her. “Eddie chose well then?” He smiled.
“I suppose he did,” she replied curtly.
“Don’t be childish, Steph, you needed to change your car and this is the car you want. By your own admission this is your dream car, so what’s the problem?” He seemed genuinely confused by her still sulky mood.
“You. This is too much,” she cried.
“What’s too much?” he asked curiously.
“All of it; the flat, the job and now the car. It’s like you are taking control of my whole life and I’m not your responsibility, I’m not anything to you, not really,” she told him, obviously referring to the fact that he was married.
Jon sighed loudly and thought that they really needed to discuss their relationship and his wife, but yet again not here and not now.
“Look, now may not be the time or place to discuss this further, but a thank you might have been nice,” he said sounding cross with her now. “Leave your old car with Eddie to sell on and just accept that this is yours now.” He gestured towards the car they were still sitting in.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said begrudgingly.
“No. No thinking, just do it and drop the documents into him tomorrow or I will, but the Golf is going nowhere, darling. Unless you’d rather I got you a driver or better still I’ll take you everywhere instead,” he said seriously. Staring at her darkly, Jon forced Steph to break the gaze leaving her looking down at her hands which seemed to indicate his victory in this matter. “That’s settled then. Now I believe you have agreed to maths homework with your nephew.”
“We need to talk about this later,” she told him firmly.
“We will talk later and I look forward to hearing you say thank you,” he said with a strange undertone to his voice.
Steph laughed as Finley’s expression became even more confused as they worked through his homework.
“So, when you do times you can put the numbers in any order, like adding?” he asked with his head firmly in his hands.
“Yes, but with division or subtraction, take away, you have to start with the biggest number otherwise you will end up working with negative numbers,” explained Steph.
“What’s a negative number?” asked Finley.
“Any number before zero is a negative number,” Steph told the confused looking little boy.
“There are no numbers before zero,” said Finley firmly, confident in his own knowledge.
“Ah, now that is where you are wrong. Let me show you.” Steph got a pencil and a piece of paper and drew a number line placing zero in the middle of it and marked numbers up to fifteen after the zero and then began to scribe numbers before the zero.
“Numbers are infinite, Fin, they have no real start or end and although with regular calculations, like you do at school there would be no negative numbers, they do exist,” she said enthusiastically.
“You get far too excited by numbers, sis,” said Eddie sarcastically.
“Whatever,” she replied with a frown before turning back to her nephew. “Does that make any sense?” she asked him.
“Not really,” he admitted, “Because my teacher always says if you have seven sweets you can’t take anymore away than seven because that doesn’t go,” he told his auntie.
“Mmm, well she is kind of right, but if a friend had more than seven sweets and you were able to borrow some, you would be able to do it but would owe your friend some.” Using the number line she’d made showed him what she meant.
“I see now,” cried Finley excitedly. “Can I tell my teacher she is wrong when she says numbers start at zero?” the little boy asked excitedly.
“Yes, you can,” agreed Steph.
“No, you can’t,” disagreed Zoe. “Not whilst it’s me that has to see Mrs Arley every day. Now, go and put your pyjamas on and brush your teeth.”