She tipped her head at me. ‘Are you warning me off him?’

I held up my hands. ‘No way. You go out with whoever you like but…’ Something struck me. Farah was way too good for Kemp. ‘Actually yeah. I am warning you off him. He’s a thug. You deserve way better than him.’ The words just fell out.

‘What, someone like you do you mean?’ She was frowning.

‘No. Not like me.’ But it didn’t matter what I said because the flush of colour to my cheeks was always going to give me away.

Farah didn’t reply. She looked furious. She snatched up her things and tore downstairs. I almost fell after her in my panic.

‘Farah. Look I’m sorry. I was out of order.’

She ignored me. ‘Maggie, please can I ring my dad? I’m ready to go home now.’

Well done, Tom, you’ve ballsed your life up again.

32

MAGGIE

A couple of weeks later the ankle was almost fully mended and Maggie was able to focus more attention on her yoga. She had in mind that her own style of physiotherapy would strengthen her leg and enable her to pick back up her martial arts. And slowly she was building strength, which proved it was working. Tom was keen to learn more martial arts but there was a limit to how much instruction she could give from her armchair.

Tom’s yoga had improved. They were meditating together daily and he was catching on with the different poses. His core strength was rubbish, which was odd because most men Maggie knew were adept at sucking their stomachs in, especially if a young female was in the vicinity. Maybe it was a skill that came later in life or with the advent of a paunch?

One evening she had spent hours trying to teach Tom how to do a headstand and after many failed attempts they had eventually achieved a wobbly version but they had laughed a lot on the way. It was lovely to hear him laugh. The first few days after the falling out with Farah he’d been quiet and she’d left the subject alone. Eventually he’d opened up about the quarrel.

It was hard for Maggie not to take sides but she did momentarily try to take an unbiased view. As a woman she could completely understand Farah’s stance. On the other hand this Joshua Kemp sounded like a right little toerag and if Farah hadn’t spotted this herself then a warning to the wise was to be praised. Sadly Farah had taken umbrage and was ignoring Tom at school and had not been to the library since. Both of these facts troubled Maggie. Tom was short of friends – something they’d had a long discussion about while in the plank pose.

‘You’ll meet people throughout your life, Tom, and some will become friends but most will not.’

‘You must have loads then.’