Page 59 of Maybe
“No.” A rare, precious warmth suffused me, despite the fact I was hellbent on being an obstinate prick and desperately annoyed with him.Boyfriend.
“Please,” myboyfriendpersisted. “For Jonty. Not for me and not for you. I have a clean, dry, warm flat. And a fridge full of food.”
“No.”
Carly once informed me, in one of our less convivial moments, that I was so stubborn my heart argued with my head every time it drummed a beat. I strongly disputed it, which entirely proved her point.
“Please, Ez. Just until he’s better and we can talk about something more permanent.”
“We?” I bristled. There was no ‘we’ where Jonty was concerned.
A little voice piped up from the kitchen. “You said Isaac’s flat was really cool, Daddy. And that his telly is much bigger than ours.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, turning my head in the direction of the kitchen. “This is a grown-up’s conversation, buddy.”
Isaac smirked. “So my flat’s really cool, is it? And my telly–”
“Is massive, Daddy says,” Jonty shouted breathlessly. “And you’ve got the Disney channel.”
Fucker. “Yes,” I yelled back, “but it’s nowhere near your school.”
“Good job it’s half term next week, then, isn’t it?” Isaac butted in.
I twisted to give him a long stare. “How the f—how the flip do you know that?”
“Jonty told me. At the hospital, whilst you were out getting somefresh air.” He did quotation marks with his fingers.
“Jonty needs reminding which side his bread’s buttered.” I scowled. “And FYI, I don’t needfresh airanymore. I’ve bought some nicotine patches.”
Isaac nodded. “Good. Well done. Jonty and I had another lovely chat in the car whilst you were collecting his meds at the hospital pharmacy.” He dropped his voice. “Now might be a good time to warn you that if Carly’s new baby is another girl, he’s going to be really, really cross.”
Footsteps pattered across the kitchen lino. A second later, a wriggly, wheezy body landed in my lap. “It will be like we’re on holiday, Daddy.”
“Huh. It’s only Chiswick, buddy, not Cancun.”
“And when I’m better, Isaac could take us to the nice park over the road that you told me about. With all the dogs but no dog poo.”
“The woman in the apartment next to mine has a Labrador puppy,” Isaac offered. The fucker. “He’s so small I don’t think she’s even picked a name for him yet.”
Naturally, Jonty chose that moment to start a coughing fit which left him wheezing like an accordion. And I swear one of the mildew patches on the wall above the skirting board grew an inch.
“Wow,” Jonty breathed, after he recovered. A pair of big brown eyes—so like my mother’s and with eyelashes you could ski jump off—pleaded with mine. Another set of sincere, loving blue ones joined in.
“All right,” I huffed. "Just for a few days until your chest settles down. I’ll phone Mummy and let her know.”
Once we’d arranged all of Jonty’s things into his temporary bedroom, the three of us snoozed the afternoon away on Isaac’s big beige sofa in front ofThe Lion King, which my son had watched so many times he could recite Simba’s lines word for word.
“When Jonty asked if he could bring his cuddly toys, I hadn’t quite appreciated that would include Pandora,” Isaac had puffed on his second trip up from the car.
Pandora was a three-metre-long, green-and-black stuffed snake, fatter than a man’s thigh. Jonty liked to curl her around himself in bed. Having taken up more than her fair share of the mid-range electric car, she currently occupied more than the lion’s share of the sofa. I’d suggested Jonty left her behind, seeing as he might want me to share his bed for a few nights, what with being ill and all. Can’t lie, that he chose Pandora’s synthetic fur and three of Isaac’s expensive plump pillows over cuddles from his bony Dad was a sucker punch to my gut.
After bath, teeth, and bed, I left him alone, weary from his illness but excited to have such an adventure. What with two guitars, clothes, schoolwork, favourite bedtime story books, all Jonty’s other stuffed bedfellows, the PlayStation, a fabulously crafted Viking helmet and Jonty’s favourite cushion, Isaac’s flat already looked a lot more like a home.
“He’s nearly asleep.” Back in the sitting room, I shuffled myself closer to Isaac. “I brought the baby monitor Carly used to use for Freya when they both came over to my place. It still works fine. I’ll check on him in an hour or so. He’ll call me if he needs me, anyway, but I’ll set my phone alarm for the middle of the night, too, and check on him again.”
“Cool,” said Isaac. “His chest sounded fine when he went to bed. My cleaning lady vacuumed and dusted that guest room this week. And it’s warm as toast.”
“Amazing what dodgy money gets you, isn’t it?” I patted his knee to show I was only teasing and left my hand there.
