Once the kettle had boiled and her tea had been concocted, Helena took a sip from it and went in search for her mobile phone. The little device had been left on the counter top in the kitchen and Helena was unsurprised to find no alerts to either a message or a missed call. Opening a new message, she tapped her thumbs lightly over the keys, not yet typing any letters in while she figured out what to possibly say. Whilst waiting, she added Dylan’s number to the message and took a deep breath as she willed her brain to come up with something acceptable. 

Having already disregarded and deleted her first two attempts, Helena settled for a simple, ‘Hey, I think we should talk about what happened the other day. When are you next free?’ There was a part of her that wished to do nothing about their situation, perhaps just not acknowledge that it had ever happened, but the rest of her forced her into hitting ‘send’ and lifting her tea back up to her lips for a steadying mouthful. 

Having not expected such a quick reply, Helena almost choked on her tea when her phone began to buzz, signalling a new text message had been received. Willing her insides to refrain from vibrating, Helena quickly reached for her phone and gauged the reply. ‘I’m free tonight…?’ Swallowing, Helena set her pot of tea down while she typed back a response. ‘9:30 okay for you? Andy and Peter should be out most of the night.’ Again, Dylan was quick to respond, informing Helena that she could adhere to their plans and would be seeing her later on that night. Suddenly feeling a little nauseous with nerves, the Brit took her tea and sat back with her children, thankful that they were paying attention to the film and not to her seemingly distracted state of being. 

* * * *

“I don’t want to go to bed yet, I’m not even tired,” Nicky told his mother, sitting on the edge of Leah’s bed after having just brushed his teeth. 

Helena shook her head a little and told her son, “Darling, it’s bed time.”

Sulking, Nicky repeated quietly, “I don’t want to go to bed.”