‘What?’
‘I no longer work for the paper,’ he said in exactly the same tone.
‘Yes, I heard you but … they fired you?’
‘No,’ he said, insulted. ‘I left.’
‘Why?’
‘Why? I thought that would be obvious. Because a million reasons, but mainly because you were right about what you said a few weeks ago—’
‘No, no, no,’ she interrupted, not wanting to hear whatever it was that she’d said. ‘I was wrong. Completely wrong. Don’t ever let anything I say be of any value to you in your life at all.’
He smiled. ‘Mostly it isn’t.’
‘Good.’
‘But you were right about one thing. I was hardly setting the world alight by writing the stories I was writing, and even then the editor would change them so much I could hardly call them my own. And the thing is, Kitty, I never wanted to set the world alight with my writing. I just like sports. I like to watch sports, talk about sports, I like to read about sports and I wanted to be one of those people who wrote about it. It was never about anything else.’
‘So who are you writing for now?’
‘No one.’
‘I thought you left so you could write about sport?’
‘I left because I couldn’t write about sports. So what’s the point in staying there? Writing ridiculous articles that aren’t even true about people I have never met and have no interest in is not a job I want. It suits Kyle, who leaves meetings to watch breaking headlines on E! News. It’s for Charlotte who wants to be in every VIP room in every club in the world so she can stand at the wall and write about people she has odd obsessions with. The morning after our … chat, I went into work and the first thing I was asked to do was write one hundred and fifty words on how a certain footballer was allegedly having an affair with a glamour model.’
‘Oooh, who?’ Kitty leaned in.
‘It’s not the point,’ he said brusquely. ‘I didn’t want to write about it. It’s not what I’m about. Never mind not writing ground-breaking stories, stories that do nothing but numb the human mind is not my gameplan either.’
‘Yeah, but who was the footballer?’
‘Kitty.’
‘Okay, fine. Who was the glamour model?’
‘Not. The. Point.’
She sat back, disappointed.
‘How could I lecture you about your stories when that’s the work that I was doing? I have more self-respect than writing that crap. That kind of journalism … it was killing my soul.’
Kitty tried not to wince at the constant digging in her ribs. ‘I get it, it was an honest, self-sacrificing move, aimed to take a stance at the smut that the public are being forced to ingest, which is very honourable of you and I respect that, now cut the crap and tell me who the footballer and the slag were?’
‘I’m going to throw this prawn cocktail at you.’
‘You wouldn’t dare.’
He picked up a prawn, which was more of a mini shrimp, placed it on his fork, held it back like a catapult and let it go. The prawn flew through the air and landed on Kitty’s boob, the Marie Rose sauce splodging on the satin.
She gasped. ‘You little prick.’
‘Don’t talk about the size of my prick.’
‘My top is stained.’
‘So take it to the dry-cleaners. I know one that’s open all night.’
‘I’m going to stink of fish.’
‘Will go nicely with the shit.’
And they were right back at college lunch hour, having meaningless back-and-forth slagging matches.
She dipped her serviette in her water and ignored him for five minutes while she dabbed at her top, making it worse. ‘So what are you going to do now? It’s great timing to be an unemployed wannabe sports journalist.’
‘A-ha. That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not unemployed. I’m working on the allotments.’
‘No way.’
‘Yes way.’
‘Your dad’s allotments?’
‘Yes.’
‘But you hate the allotments.’
‘Hated.’
‘And you hate your dad.’
‘Hated. Again, there’s a distinct difference. Besides, now that he’s paying me a wage he’s not so bad. He’s needed help around the place since he put his back out, so I’m the go-to man. Looking for a rotavator? I’m your man. Looking for fertiliser? A tool shed? A polytunnel? Just give me a call. Instead of being cooped up all day in a sweat box, I get to be outdoors.’
‘You hate daylight. It does something to your vampire skin.’
‘Kitty,’ he warned, lifting another prawn.
‘Okay, okay, I’m just shocked. You’ve made some very big changes for a guy who I remember changed his underwear on a weekly basis, and this is a lot to take in.’
Another shrimp missile was fired but this time Kitty dodged it. ‘What made you want to suddenly work with your dad? Last time you mentioned him, you said that was it, you had cut all ties with him.’
‘It’s been going on for a while. We’ve been slowly getting in contact with each other.’ Steve distracted himself with more bread, avoiding her eyes; he was never comfortable talking about anything personal. He mumbled the next part quite well. ‘Then Katja and Dad met and they surprisingly get along, and …’
He rattled on about the change in his life, none of which Kitty heard as she was still stuck on the word ‘Katja’.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
She realised he’d stopped talking.
‘Oh. Well. I thought I heard you say the name “Katja” and I got confused.’
‘I did.’
‘Katja,’ she repeated loudly as though he were deaf.
‘Yes,’ he smiled, amused at her.
‘The girl you went out for dinner with a few months ago?’
‘Yes, and who I’m still going out with,’ he confirmed, his cheeks turning pink and giving it all away.
Their main course arrived – two beef fillets – but suddenly Kitty didn’t feel hungry. ‘Katja,’ she repeated. ‘You never mentioned you two were going out.’
‘Well, we are.’
‘Like boyfriend and girlfriend?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘You never mentioned you’d broken up with Glen.’
‘Because you found out before I did.’
‘I did?’
‘The coffee machine.’
Realisation passed over his face. ‘He just left?’
‘Something like that.’
‘He was a prick anyway.’
‘I thought you liked him.’
Steve shook his head, mouth full.
She