Page 126 of When We Were Young

‘Don’t worry about that. We have a production company to work that out.’

‘You could have three in each hotel, a big central one representing the hotel and two smaller ones hanging either side representing the sister hotels.’

‘Can you sketch it for me properly? Show me how you imagine it would look.’

‘What,now?’

‘Do you mind? Have you got to be anywhere?’

‘No.’ I say. ‘Listen, I’ll do you a sketch, but you’ll have to get your team to do it properly for the client.’

‘Okay. I’ll get some paper.’

He comes back with a pile of paper, coloured pencils, and fine liner pens. He spreads them out on the table in front of me.

‘I’ll make us some dinner. Is pasta all right?’

‘Great, thanks.’

He tops up my wine and I realise he didn’t get me around here to talk about Liv after all.

He cooks, I scribble, and by the time the food is ready, I’ve finished two of the three sketches.

‘So, what shall we do about Liv?’ he says, sitting opposite me with two bowls of pasta.

‘Well, there ought to be consequences for what she did. She can’t go off without telling us where she is.’

‘Hasn’t she’s suffered enough – what with getting mugged and us catching her boyfriend with his pants down?’

‘It’s not about making her suffer, it’s about making her think twice before doing anything stupid like that again.’ I shovel in a forkful of pasta; it doesn’t taste too bad.

‘I thought maybe we should ground her or take her phone away but she and Chloe still aren’t talking and I don’t want toget in the way of them making up. Their friendship is on the line. It’s more important than punishing her.’

‘I hadn’t thought of that…’ Jesus, when did he become so good at this parenting lark? ‘What should we do then?’

‘We should have a conversation about trust and remind her she can talk to us. She doesn’t need to keep secrets from us. I’d rather know what she’s doing than go traipsing round the countryside looking for her again.’

‘So, no punishment?’

‘No punishment.’

We eat in silence for a bit.

‘Youshould have the trust conversation with her though,’ I say. ‘It’ll sound better coming from you.’

‘Fine.’

I hear the front door close and the sound of keys clanking on a table.

‘What are you doing here?’ Liv says when she sees me.

‘Dad needed my help with work stuff.’ I go to her and put my arms around her, but she stands rigid, so I let go. ‘How was it atAmplifytoday?’

‘Good.’ She goes to Scott, threads her arms around his middle, and gives him a squeeze. I drop my gaze.

‘There’s pasta in the saucepan. Help yourself,’ he says.

‘I’ve already eaten, thanks.’ She grabs a caramel wafer from the cupboard. ‘I’ll leave you two to it.’ And off she goes.