It had been a couple of weeks since Arthur and his latest Pony Club girl had split up amicably; and while Carolyn had been reluctant at first to let Douglas stay overnight when her son was around, in the end she had somewhat relented, implicitly acknowledging that he was now part of the family.
After Kuala Lumpur Arthur had made her promise they wouldn't investigate the matter of his parentage any further, for fear that he might turn out not to be Douglas's child after all; he contented himself with acting as if he was – much to Martin's confusion and Douglas's secret delight – and she couldn't say she minded in the slightest. Gordon had never acted even remotely as a father figure, so it was quite a relief to know that Arthur could rely on Douglas from now on.
It was precisely an understated show of support on his part that made her actually reconsider her deep-rooted aversion to the idea of marriage. (Not under any circumstance she would ask him, and if he had any sense at all he would definitely not ask her; all she was saying was that it might be a possibility, albeit a remote and frankly ridiculous one.)
Truth be told, she'd got the wind up of her son's bisexuality far before the boy even knew it was a thing – and a thing his father strongly disapproved of, as Gordon had made sure to claim loud and clear on many an occasion. Still, the last thing she was expecting was for Arthur to finally act on it in spite of everything, let alone drop a casual remark about that over dinner.
"Is it unprofessional for a steward to kiss the captain?" the ridiculous boy asked out of the blue; and if Douglas paused momentarily at the potentially disturbing images such a statement would inevitably conjure up, it took him only a fraction to recover his usual composure.
"Only if the captain didn't like it," he replied, conversationally – thus earning her unconditional approval, no matter that she surely wasn't going to tell him as much.
"Oh, good," Arthur grinned, and she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the sheer absurdity of the situation.
(And if both idiots occasionally re-emerged from the hotel room they shared looking slightly more dishevelled than propriety would dictate, she simply rolled her eyes and pointedly ignored Douglas's knowing smirk.)