Page 68 of From Now On

‘Drive trains. Every boy’s dream.’

‘Was that your dream when you were young?’

‘No. I wanted to be an author. How about you?’

‘Ballerina.’ Gina stands and pirouettes, falling onto Charlie’s lap. ‘So, what did you end up being?’ She runs a fingertip down his cheek.

‘That’s too depressing. Let’s talk about something else.’

‘Or let’s not talk at all.’ She leans in, her eyes flicking between Charlie’s eyes and mouth. He licks his lips; he so badly wants to kiss her, and then he does.

And she kisses him back.

The taxi drops them off outside Charlie’s and in true movie style they fumble with each other’s clothing all the way to the front door. In the hallway he finishes unbuttoning her blouse, and she yanks the T-shirt from over his head. His hip catches the table by the foot of the stairs and the china bowl they keep their keys in crashes to the ground.

‘Whoops,’ Gina says and they begin to giggle like children but then they are kissing again and he doesn’t feel like a child anymore.

He takes her hand and leads her up the stairs but when they reach the landing it’s suddenly flooded with bright light.

‘Charlie.’ Nina’s furious voice instantly sobers him up. He sees the horrified expression on Gina’s face as she hurriedly tugs her blouse closed to cover her chest.

‘How could you?’ Nina places both hands against his chest and shoves him, hard. ‘Withherof all people.’

Chapter Thirty-Four

Nina

‘Miss Rudd. You’re fuckingMiss Rudd?’ Nina can’t believe her teacher – her teacher who makes her life a misery – is half naked in her hallway. Billie omits a low growl.

‘Gina? Gina is Miss Rudd? I don’t… I didn’t…’

From his floundering excuses, the shocked expression on Charlie’s face, Nina guesses they didn’t get as far as surnames.

‘You were bringing her back to Mum and Dad’s bed?’ She is screaming now, partly because she is furious and partly because if she’s angry she cannot cry. She refuses to shed a tear in front of Miss Rudd.

Gina.

Duke stumbles out of his bedroom, sleepy-eyed and hair tousled.

‘Go back to bed,’ Nina orders; she is the adult now.

‘But—’

‘Now!’ Nina yells and Duke retreats, Billie trotting after him. She hears the slam of his door followed closely by the slam of the front door. Gina, at least, has left.

‘Kitchen,’ she growls at Charlie, stamping after him as he weaves his way downstairs.

They stand on opposite sides of the room, him leaning against the fridge, her the worktop. She can see a light on in Pippa’s house; through the window she sees her filling a glass with water.

She focuses on Charlie, ‘Coming in drunk—’

‘I don’t drink,’ he says.

‘You’re pissed.’ Does he think she’s actually stupid?

‘Yes. Now, but… normally. I don’t drink. I don’t do… that either.’

‘That? Fuck my teachers?’

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