'I got a letter.' Howard informs her pushing a rumpled envelope under her nose, she stares at it blankly taking a long drag from her cigarette before casually pushing it away, he sighs he can't help it.
'She died, Aunty Sylvia. Mum,' He sees the flare in her eyes, he scratches the back of his neck.
'…the funeral is Saturday, THEY…Mum wants to see us.' She giggles her laughter is hollow, brittle and full of hurt.
'Us, really?' She bites at the long manicured nail of her thumb, rolling the edge of her cigarette against her coffee cup scattering ash across the half drunk cooling contents.
'You're going?'
'Yes.' He answers simply; it shouldn't feel like this like he's betraying her. She pushed the letter further away almost off the edge of the kitchen table, she stops just short of the corner giving the scrap of white paper a last minute reprieve.
'You're not?' She nods silently, slipping her cigarette back into the corner of her mouth.
'Things are different now, THEY'VE changed.' She looks up frowning her gaze is filled with a mixture of pity, and something else he can't put his finger on.
'You should take Vince,'
'What?' It's his turn to be startled.
'You should, you could make it up to him after that whole mini-break fiasco.' He's starting to think that Vince and his sister being so close is perhaps not the best position for him, they tend to talk to each other and then gang up on him.
'It's a funeral,' Howard barks back at her, she casually shrugs.
'I'm sure he understands the principal.'
'If you're not coming then I, I want to take Kit with me.' Her eyes widen, he expects a response but there's nothing just blankness.
'He should get to know our side of the family, we were all so close before we moved here I want that for him.' He forgets sometimes that Kitten isn't actually his son, that he can't just demand such things. It's an easy mistake to make, he's had so much input in the little boy's life it does make him feel a little bit like a Dad. She's thinking.
'Do you remember when we went to Spain,' She utters wistfully.
'Yes, yes and I want it to be like that again.' She stubs out her cigarette brushing down the front of her dress as she stands up.
'I'll have to talk to Saboo about it.' She muses, Howard can't help but smile. He watches her as she dangerously tilters down the stairs back into the shop below, turning back to the kitchen table he notices the letter has gone.