Page 50 of Fe
“Wow. Sounds interesting.” Fen turned to him. “Is your real name Banksy?”
“I wish. Except he’s nearly fifty.”
“Morgan and I met Daniel when we went on a graffiti tour in the Spitalfields area. You ought to do it, Fen. It was fascinating.”
“I don’t know anything about graffiti,” Fen said.
Which brought on an avalanche of information about the different terms used like tags, blowups and blockbusters, and how they varied city to city. Daniel showed him endless pictures on his phones. Fen quite liked him, and was interested in what he said, but there was no chemistry. Plus, Fen was a rule follower and Daniel sounded like a rule breaker.
Fen had been thinking of asking Seth and Morgan about Ripley’s proposition and now he couldn’t. Though he’d more or less decided it was bad idea to be completely truthful, because if by any fluke, and—oh look, there’s a flying saucer—he and Ripley ended up a pair like Seth and Morgan—there’s another flying saucer—then they’d think badly of Ripley. Though maybe Fen could get their opinion without looking obvious. Maybe it didn’t matter that Daniel was there too if he talked hypothetically.
Fen’s chance came when Seth was talking about money, and the difficulty he and Morgan would have in buying a flat.
“I used to think Morgan was allergic to the word commitment.” Seth cuddled up to his boyfriend. “He came out in hives.”
“I did not.” Morgan elbowed him.
“If you had…” Fen hesitated then went with the actual amount, becausewhy not?“…say, eighty thousand pounds handed to you, what would you do with it?”
“Have you won eighty thou?” Seth gaped at him. “Not sure we’ve told you recently how much we love you.” He fluttered his eyelashes.
“Not recently.” Fen grinned. “It got me thinking after someone won eighteen million on the Euromillions lottery. I wondered how much money is enough to really change your life. Wouldn’t it be better to give eighteen people a million each than the whole amount to one person?”
“But then not enough people would buy tickets so the prize money would never get that high,” Morgan said. “Everyone wants that huge sum even though they’d probably have a happier life with a million. Or eighty thousand.”
“Eighty thousand is enough to change my life,” Daniel said.
“Deposit for a flat,” Seth said.
“Set you up with your own design business.” Morgan pulled Seth in and ruffled his hair, which usually drove Seth mad and he mock-glared at Morgan.
“I’d get my own studio,” Daniel said. “I want to run courses on how to graffiti. I could even go into schools and do classes with kids.”
“You wouldn’t worry you’d be encouraging them to spray paint where they shouldn’t?” Fen asked.Oh damn, I sound like my mother.
Daniel shrugged. “I can explain where it’s legal to spray and where it’s not.”
“What if there were conditions attached to you having the money?” Fen asked.
“Such as?” Morgan asked.
“Er… your parents said they’d give it you but you had to…buy a place next door to them. Or Seth had to keep working his other job while he set up his business. Or Daniel had to show people how to remove graffiti as well?”
“I’m never living next to mine,” Seth said. “I’m fine next to Morgan’s, though we couldn’t afford to live on their street unless we won millions, and I know I’d have to keep working while I make a name for myself. That’s what I’m doing now, as well as measuring a lot of inside legs.”
“My mother would never leave us alone if we moved in next door. I’d live next to your mum,” Morgan said to Fen. “She’s lovely.”
“I’d be down for showing what not to graffiti and how to get rid of it,” Daniel said. “I could show you.” He shot a smile at Fen.
Fen let the conversation run for a while before he said, “What if you were asked to do something you didn’t really want to do in order to get the money?”
Morgan narrowed his eyes. “This is sounding like an actual situation now.”
Shit.Fen shrugged, trying to look as if he didn’t care if they answered or not. “It’s not.”Sorry for lying.“I’m wondering what I’d do for that sort of money. What lines I wouldn’t cross.”
“Would you kill someone?” Seth asked.
“What the hell?” Morgan gaped at him, and Daniel laughed.
