Steph decided that a phone call wasn’t enough. I’d showered, eaten, thrown my clothes in the wash and was enjoying a well-earnt Sunday afternoon nap when she arrived.
We sat in the living room and chatted for a while about her continuing family problems. Simeon had arranged to meet up with his dad for lunch. The father he’d not seen in nearly ten years stumbled into the café an hour late, with a black eye and reeking of cheap whisky.
‘Instead of taking it as a sign that Eli was nothing but trouble, Simeon’s decided that he needs help.’ Steph had stopped calling Eli ‘Dad’ a long time ago, for obvious reasons. She gnawed furiously on a peanut butter cookie. ‘Of course he needs help. What Simeon has to realise is that until he wants help, it’s all a heartbreaking waste of time and tears.’
‘What are you going to do?’
She shook her head in frustration. ‘You know how happy I would be never to have anything to do with that man again. Not unless he turns up sober, with proof of a decent address and a job. Even the thought of hearing his whining voice, seeing that look on his face, makes me want to vomit.’
‘But you’re worried about Simeon.’ I topped up her glass of iced tea.
‘I can’t sleep at night knowing what he’ll be getting dragged into. It’s like I can already feel the sticky tendrils creeping closer. If I offer to get Eli an appointment with some organisations that can help, then Simeon will see that he doesn’t want a new start, or to change, as he keeps saying. He wants money and an occasional place to lie low.’
‘So you’ll help?’
She grimaced. ‘I’m thinking about it. Drew doesn’t want me to. He knows where this leads, and thinks Simeon is a grown man who has to learn the hard way if he insists on ignoring my warnings. But, you know… it’s Simeon.’
Her brother. Whose nappies she’d changed and school uniform she’d ironed and who she’d protected with her fierce embrace for countless long, scary nights. Steph had grown up sacrificing her happiness for the love of her baby brothers. That was a tough habit to break, no matter what your age.
‘At least Mum seems a bit better. I took Nicky round to see her yesterday, and she was able to chat to him and make us a sandwich. The flat wasn’t great, but it looked as though she’s the only person living there, which is something.’
‘And how’s Jordan?’
Steph’s faced transformed instantly. ‘He’s dating a pharmacist. Here.’ She pulled out her phone and leant across the sofa to show me a photograph of a smiling woman who looked like Halle Berry when she had short hair.
‘Wow.’
‘We’re going out for brunch next weekend.’ She gave a smug smirk. ‘She asked if she could meet Nicky, too.’
Jordan’s last-but-one girlfriend, a fellow medical student, had dodged meeting Nicky for several months. When she did, the brief flicker of fear and distaste on her face had ensured it was the last time she met any of them, Jordan included.
‘That’s fantastic! Let me know how it goes.’
‘I most certainly will. But that’s more than enough of my never-ending soap opera. How was your adventure?’
I briefly filled her in on the day’s walking, followed by my eviction from the initial camping spot. I had debated whether to mention that Sam caught me half naked, but I knew that it was precisely the kind of story she needed to hear.
‘What?’ She sat back, mouth dangling open with glee. ‘Mr May caught you in your fancy new underwear? Oh, now this is perfect! Did he manage not to drool?’
‘Once he saw I’d lit a campfire he was quite scary, actually. All health and safety and forestry regulations.’
‘Nice to hear he’s not a total softie.’
Under her onslaught of questions, I described how he’d shown me a safe place to pitch up, and left me to it.
‘So you kept to the mandate?’
‘Mmhmm,’ I replied, plucking at a loose thread on a cushion in the kind of noncommittal way that automatically got Steph’s antennae twitching.
‘No kiss goodnight?’
‘No!’
‘Hand-holding?’
‘Nope.’
‘What about flirting?’
‘I told you he was on call! He was literally being paid to come and move my tent.’
‘You’re right. Stupid question. You wouldn’t have noticed even if he was.’
I summed up the following morning as quickly as possible, skimming over Sam’s breakfast invitation and enquiry about hanging out. But the whole time, I was back in the moonlit forest, the firepit now glowing embers, silver streaks shimmering off Sam’s hair and the angles of his face. I’d made a silly joke about nothing much but Sam had flung his head back, teeth glinting as he guffawed, sending a flush of pleasure through me.