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Alfie pointed again, and Paige bent down a little hoping she could guess what he was pointing at.
‘That on your lip. It looks like you’ve eaten a marble or something. I’m not allowed to play with marbles any more after the last time.’
Paige wiggled the piercing under her lip with her tongue. ‘This is a piercing.’
‘What’s a purse-in?’
‘This is.’
‘What’s it for?’
‘It’s not for anything.’
‘Does it give you super powers?’
‘No.’
‘Can I have a purse-in?’
‘I don’t know, listen, why don’t you come over here where your . . . mum is?’ She guessed.
‘Oh yay, I hope I get to play with Auntie Mel today, she’s the best. She’s not the best like my mum is the best, but she’s still best. Billy at school told me his dad’s the best, but I don’t think that’s right.’ It took Paige longer than she cared to admit to figure out everything he was saying, but still Paige considered it a success that she managed to get him back to their table in one piece and with some reasonable communication. Paige caught the tail end of the conversation the adults were having and was immediately worried.
‘. . . so he can’t be here. Why don’t you come back to mine, ours, both of you? Alfie, I bet you like Disney films, don’t you?’
‘I don’t like some of the bad guys,’ Alfie quickly whispered.
‘Paige has a cat. Do you like cats?’ Connie asked.
‘I want to see the cat. Mum, can I see the cat?’
‘Well, that’s settled. Emily, you can go off to work, Melanie and Alfie can hang out at Paige’s apartment, and if the new manager here has any issues, then they can call you and Melanie can be here in five minutes.’ With that Connie got up off her seat, grabbed her handbag, and pushed her chair back in. ‘Come on then, Alfie, let’s go and find Mr Higgins.’
Paige was stood still as chaos erupted around her. But she didn’t miss the smile Emily deployed before saying, ‘Oh, this is Paige’, in much the same tone her friends used when introduced to Melanie. But before she could respond, a small hand grabbed hers. A small warm, soft and weirdly sticky hand.
‘Come on, let’s go,’ Connie said leading the way.
So, all back to hers then, yeah? Great.
Chapter Nine
Melanie
‘So, I guess make yourself at home,’ Paige said.
Melanie blinked in shock but took a step forward. Paige’s flat was huge and open plan, and so homey. Maybe it was the furniture, maybe it was Paige or simply what a home looked like when it wasn’t just boxes, but homey it was. The modular sofa in the middle, the artwork, the rug on the floor, the cat tower. The kitchen table with benches, the gorgeous kitchen, the wooden worktops. She realised that if she could have, she would have designed her own home in a similar way. Melanie couldn’t take it all in, but neither could she believe she was actually in Paige’s flat, full stop. This was surreal and she hadn’t had time to stop and think about it before she was here. Alfie’s little hand was already tugging at her to be let go. She’d gripped his hand so tight as they made their way up the metal fire escape steps outside.
‘Where’s the cat?’ Alfie asked, his hand demanding to be let go. Dropping her laptop bag and coat down by her side, she knelt down and began unbuttoning his coat.
‘Right, listen there are some rules, OK? This is Paige’s home, so shoes off, no climbing on anything, we use gentle hands with everything and especially the cat, yes?’
Alfie nodded seriously, and she couldn’t not press a kiss to his squishy cheek.
‘Oh don’t worry, just make yourselves comfy,’ Connie added from the sofa.
‘The cat is around here somewhere. If you pick a spot and stay very still he will probably try and find you, but maybe check his tower first,’ Paige said as Alfie ran off in the direction that Paige was pointing.
‘Is your cat good with kids?’ Melanie asked.
