Page 36 of Excess

“What is she, then?”

Dad coughed awkwardly, busying himself making toast.

“My… client. I’m doing some work on her house.”

“Can’t she be your friend, too?”

I took a long sip of my tea, delaying my answer. “I guess so.”

Freya nodded, satisfied. “That’s good. You don’t really have any friends, do you?”

“That’s a bit harsh, Frey,” Dad laughed.

“He doesn’t though,” she insisted. “Uncle Blake, you should try being nice to people so they’ll be your friend. I ask people to sit with me at lunch and then we play together. Have you tried that?”

I smiled in spite of myself. “I’ll give it a go.”

“Okay. Ask Inika if she’ll come over and then she can sit with you at lunch.”

Dad snorted. “You walked right into that one, son.”

Apparently so. My phone dinged, and I pulled it out of my pocket as an excuse to get out of the conversation, expecting to find a marketing email.

Inika: I don’t suppose you and Freya would like to join me for afternoon tea at The Alinac? I made a booking weeks ago that I’d forgotten all about it.

After a few seconds, another message came through.

Inika: To be clear, I know you this is not your thing and that you’ll probably hate it. I just thought Freya might enjoy herself.

It sounded fucking awful, but Freya would love it. And she never got the chance to do things like that—the concept of a fancy afternoon tea at an expensive hotel had never occurred to me.

Shit, the concept of a regular afternoon tea had never occurred to me.

Blake: Freya would love that. Are you sure? Wouldn’t you rather go with friends?

I assumed Inika had those, though she never mentioned them. Maybe it was just because the subject had never come up? I didn’t talk about my friends either.

As Freya had astutely pointed out, I didn’t have any.

Inika: I’m positive.

She sent me through the details and I exhaled heavily, looking up at Freya who was now decorating her unicorn picture with rainbow stickers.

“You’re in luck, Frey. Inika asked if we want to go and have afternoon tea with her today at a nice hotel. You got a pretty dress or something to wear?”

Freya shrieked, tossing the stickers aside and jumping down from the table. “Yes! I’m going to go find it right now. Thank you, Uncle Blake!”

She leaped at me and I caught her with ease, swinging her up so she could wrap her arms around my neck and give me a squeeze before grumbling about my scratchy beard and demanding to be put down again.

The moment she’d vanished into the hall, I was forced to make eye contact with my dad, who was watching me with interest.

“This Inika sounds like a generous client.”

I grunted in agreement, suddenly feeling like a guilty schoolboy all over again.

“Anything we need to talk about, son?”

“Not really.”

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