Page 11 of Blow Down (The Plumber's Mate)
“It’s good money up there. As certain other people could take note,” she added, with a pointed look at Jase.
He glared back at her. “Make enough to pay you rent, don’t I?”
“Living at home at your age. Some people’d be ashamed. You ought to get yourself a nice flat like Phil, here.”
Jase glared at Phil, who gazed back stonily.
“And Tom here’s got his own house, or so I hear,” she added.
Great. Now Jase was glaring at me. “It’s nothing much. Just a two-bed semi in Fleetville, but it’s home, innit?” It came out a bit more apologetic than it really deserved to.
“Yeah, but his folks always were loaded, weren’t they?” Jase muttered to his gravy.
“Hey, I pay for my house through the sweat of my brow,” I said breezily to hide the fact I was a bit narked.
Jase waved a roast potato at me. “Betcha had a bit of help with the deposit, though, dintcha?”
“Oi, you, stop getting on Tom’s case,” Leanne said snippily, surprising me. “At least he don’t go on about all his posh uni mates all the time.” She smiled at me. “And I bet you won’t screw around on Phil neither, not like the last one did.”
“Leanne!” Her mum snapped it almost loud enough to cover the ominous scrape of Phil’s chair—but Jesus, that’d been well out of order. I turned Phil’s way so quick I got a crick in my neck, and put a hand on his arm in the hope it’d stop him walking out. Not that I’d have blamed him. His jaw was so tense you could crack a walnut on it, and he was visibly making an effort not to explode, breathing deeply and staring straight at the wall.
“What?” Leanne was saying. “We all know he did.”
“Yeah, see,” I said awkwardly. “Me and Phil, we don’t tend to talk about our exes all that much.”
Leanne went bright red and looked down at her plate. “How was I s’posed to know he din’t know?” she muttered.
I coughed. “So, you lived in this place long, Tracy?” I asked brightly.
She didn’t fumble the catch, thank God. “Oh Christ, yes. Ever since I got married. Well, not quite, but I don’t count that flat we had until Nigel was on the way. Proper disgrace, that was. Cockroaches! Never seen so bleeding many, not even when I was in South London. Knocked ’em down after we got moved, they did. It’s mine now, this place. Me and Phil’s dad got it under the right to buy. Course, I could probably retire if I sold it and downsized somewhere smaller. These ex council places, they go for a fortune nowadays.”
Round here? I doubted it. Then again, fortunes are relative too.
“Yeah, uh, Phil said you work at Sainsbury’s, right?” They had a big store not far from here, next to a Homebase and a Matalan and a few other big shops that were subject to change without notice.
Tracy nodded. “Gets me out the house. Course, I never had a chance to learn a trade like you or Phil, here.”
“And me,” Leanne piped up. “I got my City and Guilds.”
“Yes, love.” It came over as well dismissive. Poor Leanne. “How are your parents, these days? Still going strong?”
“Yeah, they’re, uh, all fine.” Okay, there might have been a bit of a wince at the all.
Leanne looked up from her dry meat and boiled veg. “‘All’? Why, how many you got?”
Shit. Phil hadn’t told them? I sent him a panicked glance. Was now really the time to announce my mother’s infidelity to the world?
Phil coughed and put down his fork. “Since when have you been the family grammar Nazi, Lee?”
She flushed. Jase laughed. “It’s them courses she been doing, innit? Creative bloody writing and English fucking literature, like anyone gives a toss about all that bollocks.”
His mum glared at him. “You leave your sister alone. At least she’s trying to better herself, unlike some lazy arses I could mention.”
“Where are you studying?” I asked quickly. “Local college, or Open University?”
Leanne looked at her plate. “College. I mean, I’d like to do OU, but it’s expensive, innit?”
“What, you with a degree?” Jase was off again. “Be like—”
