Page 165 of Grand Love

Nina

“Hey.”I smile as I drop onto the sofa next to Megan at the Elm. I pluck out the menu and open it.

“Hey,” Lucy says sceptically. “You’ve got a spring in your step this morning. Everything okay? You didn’t call me back last night and then missed our chat.”

“I turned off my phone once Mason and Ellis came home. I had nearly four hundred WhatsApp messages this morning.” I eye them all with a look that tells them I think they’re idiots. Or at least that’s what I’m trying to portray.

Scarlet looks at me with a soft smile. “Are you okay, though? Mason was worried when he left last night.”

This morning in the shower I broke down in tears to Mason. I don’t know why he accepted my reasoning, but he did. I don’t feel good about cutting off Joey. Simple. I don’t want to care, but I do. His brother has just died and I feel like the worst friend in the world turning my back on him. “Something happened with Joey when I went to check on him yesterday.”

“Like what?” Megan asks.

I swallow, feeling stupid. Like Mason, the girls all warned me that Joey had feelings for me, which I wasn’t blind to. I just didn’t ever expect him to cross the line. “He tried to kiss me.”

“Wow,” Lucy mutters.

“What the fuck, Nina,” Megan snaps. “Were you going to tell us? Does Mason know?” she gasps.

“Mason knows. That’s why I went to his last night. I knew I had to tell him.”

“Are you okay?” Lucy asks.

I shrug, biting my cheek to stop my eyes from welling. “Yes and no. Mason was amazing, and I couldn’t ask for the situation to be better with him right now.”

“Oh, I love this.” Lucy grins. “I feel proud of you both already. Tell me more.”

“I’m not going to see Joey for a while.”

She rolls her lips, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I actually think that’s a good idea. He’s been at the centre of some of your arguments with Mason these last couple months.”

“I know. And it was my choice, but I worry so much about him, girls.”

“Because of his brother?” Lucy asks.

I nod. “He isn’t right. It scares me to think he’s in that apartment on his own at the best of times but now that this has happened it scares me. I found him in the bath on Sunday. He was asleep, and I had to wake him. He’s always been Joey, you know. I’ve never seen how his illness affects him when it’s bad, but he isn’t acting himself and I don’t know if that’s because of his brother or because he isn’t taking his medication.”

“He has bipolar, right?”

“Schizophrenia,” I correct her.

“He’ll be okay, babe,” Lucy tells me, placing a hand on mine.

“I hope so.”

“I know this is hurting you, Nina,” Megan says, sipping her coffee, “but I think this will be a good thing. You and Mason made big steps this past month. You have a chance to get your family back here.”

“I know.”

“And maybe it will mean Joey makes new friendships. He seems stuck on you.”

“I think Joey cares. Maybe too much at times but he isn’t a bad person.”

“So you and Mason are okay?”

“Yes, but he wants to take things slow.” I smile down at my lap. “We’re going to date.”

“Slow?” Megan laughs. “Mate, you can’t fuck him yesterday then be like... Oh, we’re taking it slow today.”

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