Yet another chapter!

Christian came through the door with Kelly right behind. Syed was amazed they'd managed to squeeze down the corridor with the amount of stuff they were carrying.

'Good shopping?' he sighed. He'd long since become fed-up of being abandoned on his and Christian's mutual days off in favour of father-daughter shopping trips, or father-daughter gym days, or father-daughter bonding days. Whenever he asked Christian about it, the older man always came out with the same thing: 'I'm making up for lost time.' Syed had tried to be accepting and he was, in general. It was just that long days in front of the TV with nothing to watch except re-runs of Jeremy Kyle and programmes aimed at OAPs made him grumpy.

'Grand,' Kelly beamed, dumping her set of bags on the dining table.

'Yeah, great,' Christian agreed, putting his bags with the rest of them. 'How was your day off?'

'Perfect,' Syed scowled, turning back to Bargain Hunt. He didn't mean to be so angry and bitter. He couldn't help it. This had been going on for just over a month now and there was no sign of it letting up.

'I think I'm going to jump in the shower,' Kelly announced. Though her accent made it sound like "shar" and Syed wondered briefly what she was talking about. He worked it out once she'd locked the bathroom door and then than he decided he probably could have done with a pee. His bad mood increased and he flicked angrily through the channels.

'What's up?' Christian asked, as he looked up just in time to see Syed throw the remote at the other end of the sofa and declare loudly that there was nothing on.

'Nothing,' Syed snapped. 'That's the problem. Nothing is up.'

'I could change that,' Christian smirked, raising an eyebrow and swinging his hips in a way that Syed thought would usually be sexy. Not right now.

'Leave me alone.'

'Right,' Christian sighed and turned back to the bags.

It was five minutes before Syed spoke again:

'Anything for me in there?'

'Sorry babe,' Christian shook his head apologetically. 'Was there something you wanted?'

'No. I was just wondering. Is there anything for you?'

'A new shirt.' He continued to rifle through the bags. 'Somewhere,' he smirked.

'So it's all just stuff you bought Kelly.'

'Well, I'm….'

'… making up for lost time,' Syed finished with him. 'Yeah, I know.'

Christian stared at his boyfriend. He was acting weird. Christian had a fair idea why. He knew they were about to plunge into their current favourite thing to fight about but he really didn't want to. He'd had a really nice day with his daughter, he really didn't want it ruined now but he should have expected it. Syed had managed to pick a row with him every single time he went off with Kelly for the day.

'Look, Sy, what's wrong?' he sighed. And in his brain he said 'and so it begins.'

'Did she contribute to any of it?'

'What? No. They're gifts.'

'We can't afford for you to keep giving her "gifts", Christian,' he groaned. 'There are bills to pay. Food to put in the fridge, most of which, by the way, she eats. I wouldn't mind but she's staying here rent free. Has she even offered to help contribute?'

'I wouldn't let her if she had.'

'But she couldn't offer,' Syed pointed out. 'Because she hasn't got a job. And she's not even attempting to find one. She just sits on the sofa all day using out electricity and eating our food.'

'She's my daughter,' Christian shouted. 'She's entitled to live here.'

'Not for free!' Syed yelled. And quietly: 'And not for ever.'

'I am looking for a job.' The argument was cut short by that and the two men looked up to see Kelly, wrapped in a towel standing nervously in the doorway. 'I swear it. But there's a recession and no where's hiring.'

'Don't worry about it,' Christian said firmly, getting to his feet. 'You'll always have a room here…' he glared at Syed '…rent free.'

Kelly smiled sweetly and then blushed a little and rushed off to put some clothes on.

'She's playing you,' Syed hissed in Christian's ear. 'And you're too stupid to see it.'

Syed sat in The Vic sipping his orange juice miserably. This was the worst day off ever, coming in just above all his other days off since Kelly had arrived on the scene.

'You look happy.' Roxy plonked herself in front of him like an angler fishing for gossip.

'With all due respect, Rox,' he frowned. 'Get lost.'

She looked shocked for maybe half a second before her surprise turned into delight.

'Well, well,' she smirked. 'Troubled family life?'

'It's her,' Syed hissed. 'Kelly, she….' He trailed off. He wasn't sure what Kelly was, many things he was sure but probably none of the angry bitter, hate-filled words that had sprung to mind. Christian would never forgive him if he said them aloud to Roxy.

'She's what?' Roxy pressed.

'Nothing,' he sighed. 'I just feel a bit in the way all the time. Those two are bonding and that's great but I'm just getting pushed into the background.'

'I know how that feels,' Roxy sighed. Syed knew she was referring to the way Christian had turned the flame down on their friendship so that he could go in pursuit of Syed. Maybe it was just Christian's style. He liked to play with new toys for a while, but he always went back to his old ones eventually.

'Look,' she started again. 'If you ask me, she's got him wrapped around her little finger.'

'Yes,' Syed exclaimed. He couldn't help himself, it was a relief to hear someone that agreed with him.

'If you don't do something, set some boundaries, she'll be running that house.'

'You think?'

'Yes,' she answered firmly. 'You know what Christian can be like. He's too caring sometimes. He'll get his heartbroken by her.'

Syed nodded. He was sure she was right. Christian could be a bit of a push-over when it came to the people he cared about. Syed knew, on some unconscious level, he'd probably exploited that on more than one occasion but he wouldn't see Christian's kind heart get exploited by some spoilt Irish girl, he didn't even know until about six weeks ago.

'Looking for work?' Syed asked casually as he strolled through the sitting room door at lunchtime the next day. He'd known he would catch Kelly and he'd known it wouldn't even seem suspicious. He'd left his cupboard keys on the kitchen counter. He wouldn't need them until the afternoon, which meant he'd have the perfect reason to go home and get them. The fact that meant he could stroll in on Kelly, sat in front of daytime television, surfing the web on Christian's laptop with the radio on full blast was perfect.

'I'm searching the internet,' she said.

'Oh yeah,' he picked up an apple and sat down next to her. 'What sites are you on?'

Facebook. He'd managed to spot the blue logo before she'd minimized the page and they both knew it. It didn't stop her lying.

'Oh, you know … the usual.'

'Uh huh.' Syed took a bite of the apple. 'What sort of jobs were you looking for?'

'Er … anything I can get really.'

'Hmm,' Syed stood back up and turned to leave. As he reached the door, he turned back and hissed, 'you might have Christian at your beck and call but not me. You either start contributing to this household or you'll be out, got it? There's no room for 'hangers on' in this family.'

He slammed the door behind him and she just stared angrily after him. 'Couldn't agree more,' she muttered.