Rummaging through the shopping bags Ivo had put in the kitchen I found a box of microwave cauliflower in cheese sauce.

"I don't like cauliflower," I complained to no one in particular. It also reminded me of my Aunt Clarissa's cooking.

'It just adds to the dish'.

'But it's white and tasteless,' I used to whine. It was rather like her in that respect.

I laughed to myself.

Ivo appeared in the doorway and I frowned at him.

"What?"

"I don't like cauliflower."

"Well how was I meant to know," he snapped.

"What's the matter," I asked, wounded.

"Nothing. Isabel is going to stay with us for a while, that's all."

I said nothing and started unpacking the bags. There seemed to be a lot of food. Enough for three for sure.

"Oh, why's that," I asked politely.

He looked through his phone and only answered me after a few minutes.

"Hmm? Oh, em. Her and Kit are having problems."

"When are they not?"

He gave me a look then to hint that I was in dangerous territory.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

I put the milk in the fridge and opened a yoghurt, licking the lid of it.

"When's she coming?"

"Tonight," he replied with a harried expression.

"She got her flight pretty quickly."

"She was already here," he replied distractedly and went off then to tidy the already tidy flat.

Ivo laughed at me as I shoved the blankets that had fallen on me back into the hot-press.

"What are you doing?"

"Finding sheets for the guest bedroom."

"They're already on the bed," he replied with a laugh at my sullen expression.

"You could have told me that before."

"I didn't know what you were doing."

"What did you think I was doing, finding Narnia?"

The sound of the doorbell stopped our bickering and Ivo gave me once last nervous glance before running to open the door.

I debated about making myself scarce and when he opened the door I wished I had.

Isabel looked nothing like how I remembered.

Her mascara had run down her cheeks leaving black smudges across a thick layer of makeup. She looked older. In fact, she looked old.

"Ivo," she sighed dramatically but stopped short when she saw me in the hallway.

"Oh, Tim."

She cast Ivo an angry glance then and Ivo smiled apologetically.

"Tim, could you make me a coffee," he asked, all sweetness.

"Sure, yeah."

I left them both as he ushered Isabel into the living room and I fussed around making Ivo his coffee. I hadn't realised that I hadn't flicked the switch on the kettle until I'd been standing waiting on it. Annoyed, I turned it on and waited for it to boil.

"Hey," Ivo said softly and hugged me from behind.

"Hi."

"Sorry about all of this. She didn't expect you to be here but I wasn't exactly going to throw you out."

"Do you want me to go out," I asked.

"No," he replied quickly. "I just don't know how long she'll want to have a heart to heart. I don't mean to make things difficult," he whispered.

I could hear Isabel sniffing in the living room.

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine, just, a little emotional about everything."

"Can't be worse than me," I joked.

His only response was to give me a strange look.

I ended up staying in the bedroom, reading.

I tried not to listen to their conversation and I could only make out a few parts of it anyway.

Isabel seemed to be shouting quite a lot. And my name came up quite often.

It was hours before Ivo finally knocked gently on the door and opened it.

"I thought you might be asleep," he said quietly from the doorway, the light from the hall much brighter than the bedside lamp I was using to read.

"Are you okay?"

"Me? Yeah," he answered. "I'm fine. Isabel's going to sleep now. Thankfully."

He muttered the last part quite darkly.

"Let me rub your shoulders," I suggested and he smiled.

I sat forward on the bed and when he sat on the edge of it I fell forward slightly because of the indent in the mattress. When I began to massage his shoulders he reached back to rest his hands on top of mine. I loved how masculine they felt on my slender fingers.

"It's hard to be someone's rock all of the time," he confessed after a while and let himself relax.

"Funny that, I thought you loved rocks."

I smiled when he let out a laugh.

"Very true. Usually I do. Looking at them though, studying them. Not necessarily being them."

"Well maybe if we all put you under enough pressure you'll turn into a beautiful fossil and someone else can look at you and study you. I know I try to," I whispered and licked at his ear.

"I'm really not that interesting," he sighed, fishing for a compliment.

"Ah, I see," I replied in my well practiced flirting tone.

"I beg to differ Professor. For example, I find this sound quite interesting."

I pushed my tongue into the space behind his ear then and he moaned.

"My sister is in the next room," he reminded me.

"I'll be quiet," I whispered.

"No, Tim," he laughed.

"You're right," I sighed. "I mean, I can't guarantee I won't make a sound. Especially one like this."

I groaned deeply next to his ear and I felt his shoulder muscles tense.

He was trying to keep his resolve.

"How long is she staying for," I asked.

"Indefinitely," he replied through gritted teeth.

"Damn."

"Mmm."

"Time for bed then?"

He nodded and leaned into me as a hint to keep rubbing his neck.

I smiled. Cheeky sod.