Page 29 of Could It Be Magic?
‘All right,’ Cora replied. ‘You?’
‘Not bad.’
Once the teas were in front of them, Thea knew she couldn’t delay things any longer.
‘So,’ she began. ‘You know you were on your phone during the film yesterday?’
Cora looked instantly defensive. ‘It’s not like we haven’t seen it, like, a million times, Mum.’
‘I know, I know,’ Thea said hurriedly. ‘And it’s not really about that.’ She fiddled with the handle of her tea mug, trying to find the right words to proceed. Cora had long gotten over that instantly defensive streak she’d developed at around aged eleven, but Thea also knew she had to tread carefully.
‘Was there, um, anything you wanted to talk to me about?’ Thea said gently. ‘I mean, we’ve not had much of a chance to just sit down and chat lately, what with one thing and another.’
Cora shook her head. ‘Nope. It’s all good.’ She paused, a glint in her eye. ‘Unless you want to write me a note to get me out of PE tomorrow. The 3G pitch is well bad to play hockey on in the cold.’
Thea smiled slightly. ‘It’s character building, or so they say.’ She tried again. ‘You know you can talk to me about anything, right?’
Cora’s pull the other one expression was neither a shock nor particularly upsetting. Thea well remembered her grandmother broaching this kind of conversation several times during her own adolescence, and her response being distinctly similar to Cora’s own.
‘Nothing to talk about,’ Cora replied. ‘Unless you want to talk to me about your massive crush on Nick Saint!’
Thea choked on her mouthful of tea. ‘What?’
The knowing look on her daughter’s face knocked Thea for six. ‘I don’t, I mean I haven’t, I mean, even if I had…’
‘Relax, Mum.’ Cora grinned. ‘It’s fine. He’s nice. Dylan and I really like him and it’s obvious Nick likes you. Go for it.’
Thea sat up straighter in her chair. Her daughter, much like Ed, had the gift of the gab, and an instinctive ability to divert attention away from the focus of a discussion onto an area she wanted to talk about. It would serve her well in the future, but right now it was an irritating tactic.
Assuming her best schoolteacher’s voice, Thea replied, ‘I’m not talking about Nick with you, young lady. That’s between him and me for now.’
‘Oh, so there’s is a “him and you”, is there?’
‘Enough.’ Thea’s patience, worn thin by the repetitive nature of the dress rehearsal for the nativity play, was almost at its limit. ‘I need to talk to you about the message you got from that boy last night.’
Cora’s face registered shock and then anger. ‘You’ve been sneaking on my phone?’
Thea shook her head. ‘No. But even if I had, that’s my right as your mother. That was the deal, remember? I saw the Snapchat message flashing up just before I went to bed last night.’
Cora seemed to shrink in on herself. She suddenly looked much more like the little girl she used to be than the self-confident teenager she’d become over the past year. She dropped her gaze to her mug and, in a voice barely louder than a whisper, replied, ‘I didn’t want to tell you. I thought you’d be upset, or tell me not to speak to him…’
‘How long have you been in contact with him?’ Thea asked.
‘Only since my birthday.’
Thea let out a long sigh. ‘He must be younger than your brother, isn’t he? That’s much too young to have a Snapchat account.’
Cora’s look of disbelief made Thea give a brief smile. ‘OK, so I know that’s not the main issue here, but even so, it’s a fair point. I told you that you couldn’t get one until you were thirteen. It would seem he’s not been given the same, er, boundaries.’
‘He’s called Ben and he’s a year younger than Dylan,’ Cora replied. ‘And before you say it, he’s definitely who he says he is.’
‘How can you be sure, darling? You’ve only been in touch with him for a week.’
‘He sent me some pictures of himself,’ Cora replied.
‘That doesn’t prove anything.’ Thea could feel her frustrations rising. ‘He could have generated them from anywhere.’
Cora shook her head. ‘No. He’s legit.’
