Page 85 of Short Stack 3

“Shower,” he calls from the bathroom.

I lie back as I hear the water start. One. Two. Three. Four…

“Fucking hell, this water isfreezing,” comes the shout, making me smile.

Within a few minutes, he’s back in the room, wearing his towelling dressing gown and rubbing a towel over his hair. “Only three more days until we have a new shower.”

“I’ve marked it on the calendar,” I say excitedly. “And I’ve bought a piñata to celebrate.”

He blinks. “Why?”

“I saw them in Tesco under a sign saying ‘celebrate’. Isn’t that what people do?”

His lip twitches. “It’s what we do.”

“Oh no. Have I gone wrong again?” I spent so much of my childhood and adolescence at uni that sometimes I worry I’ve missed crucial socialising aspects.

“On the contrary, it’s a bloodyepicidea. We’ll have a piñata for every milestone in our lives. You’re a genius, babe.”

I smile gratefully at him. No matter how many social missteps I make, I know he’ll always be there, taking the sting out of it and making everything fun. It’s his superpower. “Love you.”

“Love you too.” He bends to kiss me. “In fact, I adore you so much you don’t have to come to football this morning.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to come to the match. It’ll be cold and wet.” He tugs a strand of my hair. “And your green hair dye might run.”

“Like Carrie with the paint?”

“That was blood, babe.”

“Really?”

He nods, looking like he wants to laugh. “I knew you’d drifted off halfway through the movie.”

“Well, I have to say the whole film makes a lot more sense now. I thought there’d been a DIY disaster, and she got cross. I was really empathising with her, especially because of the incident with our wallpaper.” He gives in and starts to laugh, andI shove him while chuckling along with him. “Anyway, I’m still coming,” I announce when he’s calmed down.

“Babe, you don’t have to. Take Ivy and Sal out for brunch. I’ll meet you afterwards.”

“Nope. I want to see you play.”

“Really?”

I shake my head at his doubting tone. “Tom, you are and will always be my favourite person in the whole world. I love watching you do anything. You’re fascinating to me. So, I want to come.” His pleased expression is very endearing as he bends to kiss me. When he straightens, I wink at him. “And your legs in those shorts more than compensate for the weather.”

It turns out that Ivy and Sal’s opinions about standing on the side of a muddy pitch and watching Tom run around are notquitethe same as mine.

“So, why are we here again?” Sal says from under the huge golf umbrella she produced from her car boot. She nearly took a bloke’s eye out earlier, and he’s still glaring at her.

“Because this is Tom, and we love him, so we’re supporting him. Yay. Go, go,go,” I shout. “That’s an amazing goal.”

“That was the opposition scoring,” Ivy says. She’s huddled in her bright pink raincoat, and with that and her candy-red hair, she’s a bright spot in the gloomy day. The same cannot be said for the tiny Yorkshire terrier whose lead she’s clutching so tightly.

I blink. “Was it?”

“They change ends at half-time, babe,” Sal says.

“I always forget that.” I wink at her. “Tom and I like to change ends too. Football is obviously my game.”

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