Maggie just laughed. ‘Oh my God, Tiger, you are a picture of domesticity. What on earth are you doing?’
‘I’m making chocolate profiteroles for Romey,’ he replied with an air of defiance. ‘They’re her favourite and she’s got another exam today, so I thought I’d make a batch for when she gets home. Are you coming in?’
‘Only if you’ve got time,’ Maggie replied, gesturing to his attire. ‘I wouldn’t want to interrupt.’ And then she added, ‘Chocolate profiteroles? My! I didn’t know you had it in you.’
‘I am a constant source of surprises!’ he said, tucking his thumbs into the straps of his apron and looking like he might burst into song. ‘Come on up and I’ll stick the kettle on.’
Maggie followed him up the stairs. She let her eyes stray to his bum as he climbed. She told herself it was by force of habit.
The place was, as was usual these days, spotless with not a throw or cushion out of place, and even though he was clearly in the middle of baking, the kitchen was tidy, with everything he had already used piled neatly ready for washing up.
‘So which paper was it today?’ she asked, settling herself into one of the chairs to watch him work.
‘Biology 1,’ he said as he tipped coffee grounds into the coffee-maker.
‘And how was she?’ Maggie asked, thinking of her own nerves that morning.
He turned back to face her. ‘She was okay. We seem to be through the panic stage and now she’s remarkably calm. She’s just getting on with it.’
‘Good for her,’ Maggie said. ‘She’s a wonder, that girl. Angie would be so proud of her.’
‘Wouldn’t she just,’ agreed Tiger.
‘And you should take some of the credit too,’ she added. ‘You’ve been brilliant.’
Tiger gave a modest little shrug, but Maggie thought she saw pride in his eyes. She had never seen him proud of something he’d done before. Was this actually a first?
‘And the Daniel thing?’ she asked. ‘Where are we with that?’
It was a month since Tiger had rung to tell her what had happened on the day of the fashion shoot, but since then Romany must have decided that her A levels were more important than her long-lost father and had banished the subject from the agenda.
‘Nothing,’ said Tiger. ‘It’s like it never happened.’
‘Have you heard from Hope?’ she asked.
Tiger shook his head. ‘I don’t know if Romey has. She’s being pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.’
‘Well, maybe when the exams are over . . .’
Tiger puffed his lips out. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘There’ll be a lot of changes after the exams are over.’
He made the coffee and passed her a cup, and then put on a pair of oven gloves and retrieved the golden choux puffs from the oven. Their smell filled the air and made Maggie’s mouth water.
‘So, I suppose you’ll be heading off into the great blue yonder as soon as you get the green light,’ Maggie said. ‘You’ve done amazingly. We all know what a massive sacrifice it’s been for you to stay here and look after Romany. I didn’t think you could do it, to be honest. I bet you’ve spent the whole year planning where you’re going to go when you can finally escape.’
He didn’t look at her, she noticed, and focused instead on checking that each profiterole was properly cooked.
‘Yeah, well,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet.’
She could sense his reluctance to talk about it. Perhaps he was actually going to miss Romany when he left. They had clearly become quite close over the year. But a deal was a deal, and he had very nearly fulfilled his side of the bargain.
‘And it’s Leon’s gig soon, right?’ he said, changing the subject deftly.
That was something else that wasn’t being discussed. When it had first gone in the diary it had seemed so far in the future that it was hard to imagine that they would ever get there, but now, as inevitably happened, the date was almost upon them.
‘How’s he feeling about it?’ Tiger asked. ‘I bet he’s in a right state!’
Her grinned at her, and whilst she couldn’t possibly have admitted that to anyone else, she nodded.
‘God, yes. He’s all over the place. If I had a pound for every time he’s said he’s going to ring and cancel I’d be a rich woman by now. But I’ve managed to talk him down. I think a part of him is actually looking forward to it.’