Page 107 of Commitment Issues
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Dinner’s taking place in the garden and my family is, as ever, loud and raucous. The weather may have started the day with the hint of autumn, but that’s long gone and now it’s turned close and muggy. I wonder if there might be a storm heading in, but there’s no sign of threatening clouds on the horizon.
Elliot started the evening sitting next to me, but everybody’s moved around and swapped places and now he’s talking to my brother Jake. I don’t know what they’re talking about but it looks very serious and grown-up.
Jake’s ambitious, with a very good job in a bank, but he’s always harboured ambitions to go into business for himself, and I suspect he’s mining Elliot for information. I should rescue Elliot from the grilling I know he’s getting, but I don’t get more than a step or two before I’m snagged by my two young nieces who demand I play horsey with them. And that’s it, I’m stuck with two giggling little girls who think I’m their pony, but they’re so cute I don’t really mind.
As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, the moonbeams come out. The battery operated cubes pulse out multicoloured lights, and they appear at every family gathering. Dad’s fiddling with the iPad but he has no idea what he’s doing, and Mum rolls her eyes as she relieves him of it and with quick, deft fingers, brings up her favourite playlist, a mix of classic disco and New Romantic.
“Okay everybody, it’s time to party,” Mum calls out.
My sisters, Anna and Lucy, cheer, their husbands look pained, and my nieces, hyperactive on too much sugar, forget all about horsey and rush across and grab Mum’s hands and wobble along to The Village People. Egged on by too much Pinot Grigio, Anna and Lucy try to do YMCA dance moves, and fail miserably, which is my cue to drop my head into my hands and groan loudly. If Elliot has any doubts, they must surely be surfacing now.
“Freddie, grab your man and get yourself up here,” Mum yells out, accompanied by laughter and hoots from the rest of my family.
I glance across at Elliot, half expecting him to be mortified but instead he’s grinning. A moment later he’s standing in front of me, hand extended in invite.
“Would you care to dance, Mr Jacobs? I think you’re on my dance card. Well, you’re the only name on my dance card.” His lips twitch a smile.
“When did you get all Jane Austen?”
He answers with a laugh and grabs my hand, dragging me over to the worn-down patch of grass that’s always our impromptu garden dance floor. Elliot dances with me, but also with my mum, and sisters, and even my two nieces. But I want a private dance, just him and me, and as I catch his eye I see the simmering heat, and know he’s thinking the same.
A rumble, low and growly, rolls in off the sea, and the sky’s inky dark as the storm clouds gather overhead. Another rumble, this time closer, is the signal for everybody to decamp inside, but it’s also the signal for my sisters and their families to depart. I look at my watch, surprised to see that it’s almost ten-thirty.
“I’m pooped. A cuppa with a couple of episodes of Love Island, and then I’m off to bed. Elliot, you’re in with Freddie,” Mum says, as matter-of-factly as if she’s asking if he takes sugar in his tea and does he want milk.
I adore Mum. There have been times in my life when I’ve needed her to be a mum, but also times when I’ve needed her to be a friend, and in this moment she’s the perfect mix of each and I think I love her more than I ever have before. She catches my eye and smiles.
“Where are you going?” Dad says.
We follow his gaze. Just outside the kitchen door, Jake’s pulling on his raincoat.
“Just had a text from Gaz. Him and the lads are in The Goat and he reckons there’s gonna be a lock-in.”
After-hours drinking in the local pub, for the select few. If there’s a lock-in to be found, Jake’ll find it. He grins and waves at Elliot in a kind of salute before the door bangs behind him.
“You must wonder what you’ve walked into,” I murmur to Elliot. “Come on, let’s go upstairs before Mum insists we watch Love Island with her.”
