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“Tea, Dad. What’s going on? Really.”

“He’s picking up his kids from the airport. They’re staying for a bit, and yeah. I’m driving.”

“So are you the…driver? Or are you the guy who just took on three kids as a stepdad?”

“No.” I shook my head. Vigorously. “I don’t know these kids. They’re Dylan’s children, and you’re my son, and it’s… We’re not there. Not yet.”

“But it’s going well?”

“Yes,” I said weakly.

Was it? It was such a roller coaster of emotions and feelings, and I was still not always a hundred per cent sure where I stood.

Apart from when I was in his bed. Conjoined in—

I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t even think the words without blushing.

“It’s going well. Very well. We just need…time. To figure things out.”

“Have you had sex? Like properly?”

“Reuben!” I roared.

“Oh, fuck off, Dad. You’re, like, blushing again. Things like that are difficult, and you need to—”

“Research. Done that, thank you very much. Now can we not talk about this again? Ever.”

“So old-fashioned.” He sighed, that mischievous grin back on his face. “But seriously. Can we have him over for dinner? Like normal people? I don’t want to kind of meet him out on the drive and have the awkward, ‘Hello,strange man who weirdly may be my stepfather. Nice to meet you, guy who’s fucking my dad.’ ”

I didn’t even have the strength to scold him for the language and the assumptions.

“He’s my…partner. Boyfriend. Let’s just leave it at that for now. But yes. Maybe. I’ll ask him, and then I can introduce him properly.”

“I’ve only met him once, and he was naked in your bed downstairs. I’d like to attempt to make a better impression. As your son.”

“When did you grow up and become this polite?” I smirked. He smirked back.

“When the two misfits from Peckham become these twatty wankers who can’t even…” He laughed. I smiled. Then he held his cup up. “I left the teabag in my cup. Disgusting.”

“You didn’t.” I grasped my invisible pearl necklace. Very Gray. What on earth had I become?

“We live in Marylebone now, Father. Can’t do with these uncivilised attempts at tea-making. Whatever will the neighbour think?”

“Theneighbour can’t even make a decent cup of tea, son. Has to ask his PA to bring coffee from outside,” I said with a wink.

“And you’re still shagging him?”

He grinned. I did too.

“I never noticed him before,” I admitted. “You know, I can’t remember paying any attention to any of our neighbours because we were all so busy with Jas and Jay, and my life was…different.”

Another realisation. Shocking, really.

“We were both working full time and raising the kids, and we had Agnes to keep things going at home. And Gray was here, and…I actually don’t remember them either. The kids. Perhaps I saw the wife? I don’t know. Didn’t pay attention either.”

“That’s what I keep thinking now. That back then, we never had the chance to stop and look around. Then we both lost our jobs and things…”

“Things stopped. And it was a really good thing. It might have been horrible at the time. I mean, I definitely felt the shock of it. It was frightening, depressing and all that, but Gray kept telling me to breathe. To just take this little quirk of fate as a break from everything. Start anew. Ithelped, thinking like that. I suddenly had all this time. Free time. Time with the kids, and time to hang out with you. We went to the park every day. Remember?”