‘Nice,’ he said.
‘So this person in the middle represents me,’ I told him, pointing to a tiny picture I’d found of a woman slumped at her laptop.
‘Is she supposed to look exhausted?’ asked Theo, peering at it.
‘Um, she’s just writing,’ I said. ‘Typing. Look.’
I made him look at it again.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘Not tired, then.’
‘No. Vibrant. Passionate. A zest for life.’
He smirked.
‘What?’ I demanded to know.
‘Nothing. Carry on,’ he said.
I gave him a look. He was on dangerous ground here. If he was just going to ridicule my hard work, then I was going to stop participating in the task.
‘And then around me is my family. And my friends here. Well, all over, really,’ I said. ‘These kids are my nephew and niece. I spend a lot of time with them when I can.’
Theo looks surprised. ‘Your brother had kids?’
I shook my head. ‘My sister. They’re eight and six. She’d tell you they were a handful, but they’re usually good as gold when they’re with me. We go to bookshops together and hang out there for hours and then I treat them to something new. Kate gets annoyed with me because she says she hasn’t got space for all these books.’
Theo laughed. ‘They have a way of lightening the mood, children, don’t they?’
I swallowed hard. Is this where he told me he had kids of his own? I braced myself. I could be cool about it, I totally could be.
Theo narrowed his eyes at me. ‘I can see your mind ticking over. You’re wondering if I have children, aren’t you?’
I laughed, a tinkling sound that felt like it came from somewhere outside of my body. ‘Not at all,’ I said. And then: ‘Do you?’
He shook his head. ‘No, Scarlett.’
Annoyingly, I felt a visceral rush of relief, which I desperately tried to cover up.
‘Oh right. Because it would be cool if you did. Obviously.’
A beat.
‘Would it?’ he said.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
‘I have a younger half-sister,’ he said, his voice low. ‘On my mum’s side. She’s . . . funny. Full of life. We get along pretty well, considering.’
‘Considering what?’ I asked.
‘Considering I don’t get along with our mum.’
‘Ah,’ I said. ‘How old is your sister?’
‘Sixteen. So weird to think she’ll be an adult soon. To me she’s still a little girl. Sometimes I think I need to adjust the way I treat her. Stop mollycoddling her.’
‘She probably loves it that way,’ I said.
