There was a long pause.
“And . . .?”
“And, well they were pretty cool I guess.”
“You guess? Is that it? Is that all I’m going to get?”
“Kim rang me and after I grew some balls I managed to return her calls. We’ve talked quite a bit this week. I hurt her when I ghosted her but she knows something was really wrong so–”
Henry’s phone started vibrating on the kitchen counter. We both dived for it but, with my ninja-like reflexes, I was quicker. And it was FaceTime – even better. I accepted the call and dashed around the island, away from Henry. A beautiful girl with dark cappuccino skin and wild black curls framing her face filled the screen.
“Hi!” I said, grinning madly at her. Her smile fell and she frowned.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Her mouth pinched and my grin grew even wider. This must be Kim, aka The One, and if I wasn’t mistaken she wasnothappy that another girl was answering Henry’s phone.
I told her not to worry – that I was boning the other brother. She brightened after that and we managed a little chat before Henry finally wrestled the phone off me. He shot me a furious look, muttering something about me being an “oversharing little shit” before softening his expression to apologize to Kim. He disappeared then down to his lair and away from me to talk to her. I couldn’t make out his words as he walked away, but I did hear his low laughter at something she said. When he returned ten minutes later his eyes were brighter than I’d ever seen them. He tried and failed to hide his goofy little smile from me as he made some tea.
“She’s beautiful, Henry,” I said softly. For some reason my words caused his smile to die a little as he poured the milk.
“Yeah,” he whispered. “She is.” He shook his head as if to clear it and then looked back up at me. “I’m meeting up her and Danny next week. We’re going to go to the pub for a quiet drink. I wanted to wait until we were face to face to tell them.”
“Just tell them what you’re ready to tell them Henny Penny, okay? Like I’ve said before you don’t have to tell them at all.”
He nodded but I could see the uncertainty in his expression. So I moved to him, took the milk out of his hand, put it on the counter and gave him a hug. He stiffened as I wrapped my arms around him and I gave him a squeeze.
“Relax, little bro,” I told him. “You’re going to have to put up with the odd cuddle now I’m moved in, you know. You were happy enough to have one when you thought it would wind your brother up.” He sighed, but did manage to hug me back briefly before I released him.
“Kim isher. Isn’t she?”
“Her?”
“Don’t act stupid with me, cockwomble. You know what I’m talking about. ‘Her’. The girl you were in love with. The One.’”
“I–I don’t know what you’re–”
“I have an excellent drunken memory. The more pissed I am, the better my recall – it’s a gift.”
Henry sighed.
“She . . . I . . .” he started to say as I finished making tea for both of us.
“She what?” I asked, avoiding eye contact as I didn’t want to spook him into not telling me – like luring a stubborn badger out of his set.
“It’s complicated, okay? Before I got my diagnosis, I was trying to clean up my act. I . . . I’d liked Kim for a while. We went to uni together. I decided to man up and try to be good enough for something more with her just before I got sick. We’d been friends for ages and, well, it was . . . she was . . . You’re right, okay? I was in love with her.”
“And then you didn’t speak to her for over a year.”
“Yeah.” Henry slumped onto one of the stools and put his head in his hands. “We never . . . you know . . . so I didn’t have to contact trace her. Thank Christ. If I’d put her at risk, I would never have forgiven myself. Never.” His voice shook at the end and he sounded suspiciously close to tears. I moved around the island and put the tea down in front of him. He blinked at it then took a long sip, wrapping both his hands around the warm mug, and the wetness in his eyes receded (tea, in my opinion, made everything better).
“Give yourself a chance to be happy, Henry,” I said as I sipped my own tea. “And give her and your friends a chance too. You don’t know what their reaction could be, but I doubt any of them will run screaming from the pub. If . . . if things were the other way around, would you prefer to just be cut out of their lives for good?”
“I know. You’re right.” He looked up at me again. “I’ve contacted Mum and Dad as well.”
I let out a relieved breath. Barclay had said that Henry had cut off their parents a couple of months after his diagnosis and had been refusing to see them. Apparently, they were almost driven mad with worry, despite Barclay’s regular updates.
“It was cruel to keep them away,” he said, shaking his head. “I see that now. I’ve been so selfish. But I couldn’t look at the pity and devastation in their faces any longer. I couldn’t deal with the guilt of having let them down so badly.”
I groaned. “Henry, you haven’t let anyone down. If I hear you talk like that again I’m going to give you another dose of Madonna.”
