CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
JULIUS
When I first moved into this house, I never imagined my most comfortable moments would be this, the head of the woman whose room is above mine, resting peacefully on my chest.
“Your mum texted me today,” she blurts out, which is a fitting way to introduce the topic of my mum.
“I told her not to do that,” I say.
“When did you tell her that?” She shifts slightly so she’s facing me more.
“The day I gave you her number.”
“You do know I had to text her first in order for her to get my number, right?”
“Yeah, I told her not to bother you.”
“It hasn’t been a bother at all.”
“She didn’t know you well at the time, I just didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable,” I say.
“Oh, but we’ve been texting everyday.”
I jolt back. “You’ve been doing what now?”
She shakes with laughter, and I smile just because I love to see it. “We don’t text everyday, I’m joking.”
I wouldn’t even mind if they did. I just know that things are complicated with her mum, and I wouldn’t want her to feel any type of pressure to keep up a relationship with my mum if she doesn’t want to.
But I know she does what feels right for her, so I put the worry out of my mind, as another one reappears from the back of my mind. “Does that anonymous person still text you?”
“Not for a while, no. You?”
“Nah, but I keep thinking about it. Don’t you think it’s weird they knew that information about us?”
She nods. “I think it’s very weird. How would they know that about me from last year and you from four years ago when we didn’t know each other at all then? And let’s not forget Sierra as well.”
There’s been so much going on, we haven’t managed to talk about it for a while, but it’s something that’s been evoking a weird feeling in my from the first text I got.
“That’s what I’m saying,” I speak my thoughts aloud.
“I’m not gonna be fully relaxed until I know who was sending the texts and how they knew all of that stuff. ”
“Yeah, same.” She swirls her fingers on my chest. “We should look into it.”
“We. Nothing sounds better than that.” I’m turning corny as fuck but I’m not stopping now. A phone goes off a little further down the bed, and I instinctively add, “Especially not that sound.”
I grab the phone with my feet, amused by the impressed face Kaylah always shows whenever I do that and hand it over to her.
“Well, we were speaking about your mum and here she is,” she says in a light tone. “She’s checking in. Not every day though like I said, but just from time to time, which is nice of her.”
I softly run my fingers through her hair. “She cares about you.”
She nods. “She was nice to me even when we weren’t nice to each other.”
“She’s a good person.”
“I’m glad you have a mum like that.”
I’ve come to recognise the wistful tone she delivers when the lack of relationship she has with her mum comes into the conversation. “She’s not leaving your life anytime soon so you better get used to it,” I say.
There’s a smile on her face as she nods. “I could get used to it.”
“I could get used to this.” I punctuate my words with a sweet kiss that she returns in earnest. As we reluctantly pull apart, I say, “But later, because right now we have to get ready.”
“Oh, gosh, is it time already?”
“It’s time.”
“I’m excited.”
That makes one of us, but it’s my mission to learn to love Musical Theatre. I not only have a girlfriend who enjoys it but I have a brother who does it for a living, which is the exact reason we’re running up to him now after his performance tonight, a show that I know means a lot to him.
“Wow, Dee, you were so good,” Kaylah says, pulling him into a hug.
“Yeah? Thank you so much for coming!”
“It was actually so fun.”
“I always knew I liked you, Kaylah. Even when Julius was pretending he didn’t.”
“Here we go.”
“What? It’s true!”
“Just tell us when the next play is, bro, now that this appears to be where my life is going, I say. “Oh, and well done.” I give him a brotherly handshake.
“Thanks, man. I feel honoured that you guys dedicated your first date to me.”
“I dedicated our first date to Kaylah,” I correct. “She just happens to like Musical Theatre.”
“But seriously, when is the next one?”
I follow Demetrius’s gaze to a curly haired girl across the room who was on stage with him performing. A sheepish smile crosses his face as their eyes meet, and without even looking at us, he says, “I’ll hit you guys up and let you know. For now, I’ve got my own date to get to.”
He rushes off before he even finishes his sentence.
I would do the same for the girl beside me, so I can’t even be mad at it.
“Yeah, he’s already gone, but just for future reference “break a leg” isn’t really appropriate for a date is it?”
“Unless the date is taking place on a stage where they’re acting, no, beautiful, it’s not.”
“Thought as much,” she says, then leans in to kiss me with full force. I return it with full force. “Thank you again, seriously,” she says. “Best date ever.”
“You know that’s not it, right?”
“What do you mean? What else is there?”
“There’s a whole strip of activities down here. None of them have anything to do with Hockey, and we’re gonna do as many of them as we can.”
“Wait, seriously?”
“Seriously. I know how much you hate not feeling present in the world,” I explain. “So let’s start making memories and doing all the things you’ve always dreamed of.”
“Why would someone cut onions in this place?” She says with glossy eyes.
“Who the fuck would bring a kitchen in here?”
“I know, right?”
It’s not just her who needed to start feeling like an active participant in her life. I did too, and tonight, after spending hours doing everything and anything on the streets of London, something healed in us.