‘Are you sure you want to do this?’
‘I’m sure.’
‘And you remember the safe word?’
‘Yellow bus.’
‘And the second you use it, we stop the whole thing. Ok?’
‘Ok.’
‘I really like you, and I don’t want you to do this if you’re not ready.’
‘We’ve talked about this.’
‘I know. But it’s really important we only do this when you’re totally and completely ready. We’ve only been together a year.’
‘I’m ready! I’m ready.’
She kissed Jack. ‘Ok. Thanks again for this.’
Zoe reached up and pressed the doorbell. Before the bell had even stopped ringing, the door was yanked open and Zoe’s three sisters stood in the doorway, screaming and hugging Jack and Zoe and pulling them both inside.
Magically their coats were off, their shoes taken, and they were propelled into the kitchen, where Zoe’s mum and dad were waiting with heroic patience and, frankly, saintly casualness, Dad stirring the gravy, Mum wiping some imaginary spill from the counter top, the radio off for the first time in Zoe’s entire recollection. Only when Zoe said ‘Hellooo’ did they turn, with exaggerated surprise and hug both Zoe and Jack.
‘My darlings! When did you get here?’ asked Zoe’s mum, although Zoe knew the silence of the kitchen was because her mum would have been worrying about missing the doorbell.
‘Just now, Mum – look, my face is still cold from outside.’
Her mum pressed her hands against Zoe’s cheeks. ‘Zoe! You will make yourself ill if you let yourself get so cold. You must wear a coat in this weather.’
Zoe was laughing. ‘Mum! I was wearing a coat but Ava just took it. And I’m not going to start wearing a balaclava, despite your best efforts to convince us they were cool when we were little.’
Her dad laughed too. ‘Well, it’s lovely to see you both. Lovely to meet you at long last, Jack.’
Her mum nodded her delighted agreement.
‘Mrs Lewis. Mr Lewis. It’s really kind of you to have me here.’
‘No, no!’ Zoe’s mum cried. ‘I am Chidinma, and this is Philip.’
Jack smiled, pleased, but too shy to say their names yet.
‘Let’s get you something to warm you up, at least.’ Zoe’s dad flicked on the kettle, which boiled almost immediately – it had probably been boiled repeatedly for the last hour.
Five minutes later, they all sat around the big kitchen table, warming their hands on mugs of tea. ‘So, Jack,’ began Zoe’s mum, ‘Zoe says you are going to make shoes?’
‘Yes, I—’ Jack’s voice came out slightly strangled, and he choked and coughed. Zoe’s mum and two of her sisters were up, banging him on the back, offering him a glass of water while he held up his hands in surrender. Eventually he was deemed to be likely to live, and everyone sat down again. Jack took a careful sip of his tea. ‘Yes, I’m hoping to go into shoe design. I’d like to design and make them, and maybe – eventually – even have my own shop one day.’
‘A shoe shop?’ Esther asked politely.
Zoe narrowed her eyes at her. ‘No, a fruit and veg shop.’
Esther tipped her head to one side, and opened her mouth, but Zoe’s dad jumped in.
‘And would that be in London? Are your family around here?’
‘They’re actually in Norfolk, but yes, I think I’d like to start in London.’
‘Start in London?’ Kat questioned.
‘Yeah, I think—’
‘What, you don’t think London can support another shop? Might be better to start out in the fashion frontline of Norwich?’ Zoe asked Kat, with narrowed eyes.
‘Actually—’ Jack started.
‘Zoe, I was just asking.’ Kat smiled sarcastically. ‘I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there are other cities in the UK.’
‘Girls,’ their mum added warningly.
Jack tried again: ‘Norwich is actually—’
‘No, Mum, I’m fascinated to see what insights into the design world my little sister can offer. Sorry, just remind me again, Kat, you’re doing your A Levels in … Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, is that right? Sorry, just checking before we continue this discussion about retail and fashion. Sorry. Carry on, little sis, do fill us in.’
‘Zo, she is allowed to ask questions,’ Esther insisted.
‘Not if it’s an interrogation, she isn’t.’
‘Maybe let’s all leave this topic,’ Kat said, rolling her eyes.
‘Guys, chill! I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve never met someone who opened a shop in town before,’ Ava said, smiling at Jack.
Zoe leant over the table and squeezed Ava’s hand. ‘You’ve always been my favourite sister.’
Esther and Kat yelled their disapproval of this, and by the time their mum had remembered the wire rack of cooling ginger biscuits that she’d made for the gathering, peace – or what stood for peace in a family of six – was restored.
Over lunch – a huge chicken pie that Zoe’s mum deemed ‘the kind of thing that a young man would want to eat’ – the family talked over Jack as they asked him about his course, his parents and his interests. By pudding, he didn’t need further questioning, and the conversation reverted to the usual familiar tracks: relatives, plans for the house, what the girls ought to be doing with their lives.
‘My darlings, you know I love you all so much, but it’s only Zoe who has a path she can follow to a good job, you know?’
‘Mum!’ However old this conversation was, none of the sisters would let her get away with it.
‘Mum, I’ve not even finished my degree yet. I’m just lucky it’s the kind of thing that leads naturally to a job. If I’m lucky. If I manage to last the whole course. If jobs still even exist by the time I graduate.’
‘What? Are you going to leave?!’ Zoe’s mum almost wailed.
‘No! I hope not. I’m not planning to.’
‘Mum, I’m doing four of the hardest possible A Levels right now,’ Kat called. Esther threw a napkin at her head in disgust.
‘And my job isn’t exactly playgroup, Mum. I’m deputy manager of my whole sales region,’ Esther reminded everyone.
‘Yes yes, but is it a real job?’
‘Love, come on now, they’re all doing very well. Ava’s doing very well with her social work – we’re proud of them all,’ Zoe’s dad interjected, putting an arm around his wife.
She looked pleased as she thought about this. ‘Yes, you are right. We have four most excellent girls.’
‘Women,’ muttered Zoe, as Kat shrugged and followed Esther’s example, throwing her own napkin at Zoe’s head this time.
Zoe and Jack had cinema tickets for a late afternoon showing, so they headed off shortly after, with many thanks from Jack and many Tupperware containers from Zoe’s mum. In the kitchen, she gave Zoe a long hug too, saying, ‘Jack is a good boy.’
‘I’m amazed you could tell, from the amount he was allowed to speak.’
‘You can always tell a good boy, Zoe. I knew with your father the moment I saw him.’
‘I know, I know. The second you saw each other, you knew you’d be together forever.’
Her mum hummed a little, as if she was going to say something, but was interrupted as Kat burst in, saying, ‘You and your boyfriend are going to miss your film.’ Zoe didn’t rise to her sister’s bait because, overall, the whole meal had been so much more painless than she had been expecting.
At the door, Zoe’s dad was giving Jack a hug goodbye, as were all her sisters. Her mum came from behind her and gave Jack a long hug, so long that Jack’s hands kept falling away then coming back up when he realised the hug wasn’t over yet. Eventually, he looked at Zoe in something approaching alarm.
‘Mum,’ Zoe said.
‘Alright, alright,’ she said, releasing Jack and stepping back to Zoe’s dad, who put an arm over her shoulders. ‘Thank you for coming, you two – now you go and enjoy your evening, yes?’
Zoe gave her a hug that was almost as long, thanked her and Dad again, hugged her sisters, before finally heading out with Jack.
She looked at him as they headed down the garden path away from the house, arms linked. ‘How are you feeling?’
His voice actually cracked as he replied. ‘Yellow bus?’
She laughed. ‘That bad?’
He cleared his throat. ‘It really wasn’t. And I’m hoping your mum’s hug meant I made a good impression.’
‘Either that or she was just saying goodbye forever,’ Zoe said, raising her eyebrows in horror at Jack, who looked suitably alarmed. ‘Just kidding. I guess now you know where I get my – actually, where I get everything from. My conversational skills—’
‘Direct.’
‘Very diplomatic, Jack. My eating habits—’
‘Tactical.’
‘And now you see why I’ve had to be. You don’t grow up with three sisters and not learn the early bird catches the biggest portion.’
Jack laughed.
‘But I think you made a good impression on everyone. After a year of my careful training.’ She nudged him as they walked. ‘Pretty impressive.’
Jack stopped walking and turned to face her.
‘What?’
He sounded slightly surprised. ‘I love you.’
She blinked. ‘Ok.’ She turned away from him and started walking.
Jack stopped again and stared at her.
Zoe laughed. ‘Oh my god, I love you too! Is that what you want?’
‘Do you?’ He sounded even more surprised.
‘Yes. I do.’ She shrugged, and Jack suddenly realised where Kat had picked up her shrug from. ‘And … seeing you with my family, not freaking out, and what my mum said—’
‘Ooh, what did she say, what did she say?’
‘I might tell you, one day. In the meantime, you’ll just have to survive on knowing that yes, I love you too.’
He kissed her. ‘Good.’ He let out a wild laugh, half whoop, half cheer, and picked her up, twirling her around.
‘Good,’ she returned. And kissed him back.