Page 142 of When We Were Young

Just then, the front door opens. ‘I’m back!’ Liv calls from the hall. ‘Shall we go?’

I pocket my phone, scoop up my father’s gift, and follow her out to the car. She scrolls through her phone as I pull away and I simmer with anger the whole way to the bakery. I dash inside, pick up the cake and they turn the closed sign over as they see me out. Liv barely looks up from her phone as I open the passenger door and put the cake box on her lap. ‘Don’t drop it.’

Back in the driver’s seat, I swivel in my seat and come right out with it. ‘I rangAmplifytoday.’

She lifts her eyes from her phone. ‘What?’

I glare directly at her. ‘I rangAmplifytoday.’

‘Why?’

‘I needed to get hold of you. You weren’t answering your phone.’

‘I messaged you.’ She looks away. ‘I told you I’d leave early so we could pick up Grandad’s cake.’

‘You messagedeventually,but before that I tried theAmplifyoffice. So, where do you go?’

Her eyes dart in every direction except mine.

‘What do you mean “where do I go”?’

‘Where do you go on Saturdays?’

‘You know where I go on Saturdays.’ Her voice is calm.

‘Come on, Olivia, I told you I rangAmplify.’

She won’t meet my eyes. ‘So?’

‘You’re making me say it?’

‘Say what?’

‘TheAmplifyoffice is closed on Saturdays.’

The spark of an idea lights up her face. ‘It’s social media, Mum. It’s twenty-four-seven.’

‘So, they’re open on Saturdays, but no one’s there to answer the phones and they let sixteen-year-oldinternsinto the office by themselves?’

‘Obviously you don’t believe me…’

Idon’tbelieve her.

‘You don’t need to be in the office to post on social media,’ she adds.

‘Which brings me back to my original question. Where do you go on Saturdays?’

She sighs. ‘Look, I didn’t tell you because you wouldn’t approve.’

Now I’m worried. ‘Wouldn’t approve of what?’

She mutters something incoherent, but I catch the words ‘Will Bailey’.

‘What?’

‘I said I’ve been creating an archive for Will Bailey.’

I shake my head in confusion. ‘What does that evenmean?’