Page 99 of C is for Comfort

“This is the bathroom,” she says, opening the door at the top of the stairs. “I like having bubble baths, but Daddy prefers showers.” She doesn’t give me much time to glance inside before closing the door and moving along. “Toilet.” She shuts the door quickly. “This is my room.” She goes inside and jumps onto the bed.

“It’s very pink,” I say, gazing around the room.

“And purple.”

I laugh. “Yes, very pink and purple.”

The two shorter walls are painted pale purple, the other two a bright shade of pink. There are pink curtains and an even pinker lampshade. Her bedding is purple. There are toys everywhere and a dressing up box overflowing with costumes.

“This is my new unicorn,” she says. “Granddad and Grandma Taylor got it for me.”

I guess they’re Caroline’s parents. “It’s lovely. Does it have a name?”

“Rainbow. Do you have any cuddly toys?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“Boring.” She sighs and, still holding the unicorn, heads out of her room. “This is Daddy’s room,” she says, opening the next door. “It’s the biggest bedroom in the whole house.”

Corey’s room is neat and organised. Other than the furniture you’d expect to find in a bedroom, there’s also a desk and chair, with a bookshelf beside them, stacked high with textbooks and fiction. Around the corner created by the stairs, next to the window, there’s an easel and several canvases, all turned to face the wall. There are boxes of paints, and the floor is covered in protective sheeting, splattered with paint. There isn’t anything on the easel right now.

“Daddy doesn’t paint much anymore,” Lexi says in a heavy tone.

“He painted your cast, didn’t he?”

“Eventually.” She leads the way upstairs.

There’s a small landing with two doors leading off it, at right angles to each other. She opens the door to the left without knocking.

“This is Uncle Archie’s room. He’s hardly ever here. He’s going to move in with his boyfriend.”

That’s news to me. Then again, Hamish isn’t the type to randomly text me with news. He’ll probably tell me, Gabe, and Cal next time we all go to the pub together. Like Corey’s room, Archie’s room is neat and organised.

Lexi closes the door and opens the other one, again without knocking.

“Knock?” a voice says from inside.

“This is Uncle Blake’s room,” Lexi informs me.

“I’m right here,” Blake says, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. He’s sitting on his bed, a phone in his hand. “Hi,” he says, smiling at me. “You must be Spence?”

“I am.”

Even though I know that Corey, Archie, and Blake are identical triplets, it still takes my breath away how similar they all look. Unlike Archie, who without his glasses would be indistinguishable from Corey, Blake has a tan and wears his hair differently from the other two, differentiating him from them. His room is much more chaotic than either of his brothers’.

“Congrats on de-stressing Corey,” Blake says.

“What are you doing?” Lexi asks him as she flops onto the bed beside him.

“Texting.”

“Who?”

He taps her on the nose. “None of your business.”

Lexi frowns. “You’re boring.”

“Apparently, I’m boring too,” I say.