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She shook her head. “I will, but tell me about Maddy’s boyfriend. What’s he like? Do you like him?”
I shrugged. “He seems like a nice kid. Has ambitions to be a vet, comes from a nice family, and is polite.”
“And he treats Maddy okay?”
I felt myself tense and my skin start to itch. “As far as I know. They’re pretty new. Just talking, or so I’m told.” I thought back to them sitting close to each other in my kitchen. Then how they’d pulled apart when I walked in. “I think there might be more than talking going on, though.” I shuddered, and Maya laughed.
“She’s seventeen, Will. There’s a good chance she’s kissed more than one boy.”
“No, she hasn’t.” I knew that probably wasn’t true, but in my head it was.
“Okay, what about your bar? Tell me about that.” She put her bottle down on the coffee table and scooted a little closer to me. “I know it’s in the centre of the town and that it was run-down but what’s it like inside?” She waved her hands around and shook her shoulders. “What’s its vibe?”
I groaned. “Don’t ever ask that question again or do that action.” I circled my finger around. “That was weird.”
Maya grinned. “Was it unattractive? Have you gone off me?”
“Too bloody right.”
Laughing, our eyes latched on each other’s, and when a tiny tear appeared at the corner of Maya’s, I reached up to wipe it away with my thumb.
“You’re beautiful,” I whispered, stretching my fingers to lace into her hair at her temple. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes as gorgeous as yours before.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.” She curled her lips inwards and looked down at my hand resting on her thigh over the blanket.
She looked a little shy, but shewasthe most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I wasn’t lying.
“How about your friend, Morgan?” I asked, grinning at her shyness. “How’s she feeling after her divorce?”
“Loving life.” She rolled her eyes. “Too much. Every time I speak to her, she’s either hung over or getting ready to go out to a party.”
“Enjoying herself then?”
“Seems so. Who knew divorce could be so much fun.” She moved a little closer. “And you’ve really never fancied it? Getting married?”
“Nah. Besides, I had Maddy. She took up all my time and to be honest, I never met anyone who I wanted to settle down with.” Until now…maybe.
“You didn’t want to find a mum for her?” Maya asked, resting her chin on her hand, listening intently to me. “It must have been hard, though, just you taking care of her and running the bar.”
“Yeah, at times, but my friends Sam and Louise have been brilliant. More like an aunt and uncle to her. They had her overnight, after school, they even took her on holiday a couple of times when I couldn’t get away from the bar.”
“Were they the ones who took her to Spain?”
I smiled that she remembered I’d told her about that. “No, when she was younger. Her and Liam are like cousins, so they had a great time.” I grinned, recalling how she’d come back from a week in Cornwall full of tales of catching crabs in rock pools, swimming in the sea. and eating huge pasties covered in sand.
“They sound like good friends to have.”
“They are.”
I knew I was lucky, not many twenty-year-olds who found themselves with a baby had the opportunities that I’d had. Not everyone had a Miriam or a Sam and Louise. The blessings I’d been given were nothing short of miraculous. Maddy and I could quite easily have been living in poverty, struggling from day to day, wondering how I was going to pay the bills, or even put foodon the table. My life had been charmed somewhere along the line, and the gratitude I felt was endless.
Just the flip of a coin. If I hadn’t trusted Miriam, if I hadn’t been desperate to move on from the bar I was working in, I might have still been working in other people’s bars. I could still be bringing home a shit wage each week, relying on my smile to get some decent tips so that I could afford more than Pot Noodles to eat. Maddy might be living with a nice family, but she could have equally been shipped from one foster family to another and be a troubled teenager. No, I was definitely blessed.
“I don’t think I always realise how lucky I am to have my family,” Maya sighed. “How easy my life has been. No family drama, my parents are still together, I actually get on with my siblings, and when I wanted a Barbie bike when I was seven, I got one. No questions asked.”
“I had a Barbie once,” I informed her, recalling the worst Christmas I’d ever had.
“You did?”
