ROLE CHANGE CHAPTER NINE
Cal was also a lot happier lately, and was delighted that Ethan loved his weekly gym session. He felt sorry that this would mean they were unlikely to see Sue again, but she was just happy about Ethan's improvement. Mark and Sophia had encouraged Ethan to accompany Cal to work and complete his exercise programme in the gym and to celebrate Ethan's progress Cal decided there would be no harm in treating his younger brother to a meal out one evening.
He mentioned it as they were standing chatting to Sophia together after their workouts.
"I think we can relax your eating programme for a night, Menace. How do you fancy a meal at The Thai Palace on Wednesday?"
"You lucky man; I love that place" Sophia said, not meaning to hint at anything. Ethan's grin was so Cheshire cat-like that Cal felt like smacking him.
"You should come along" Ethan beamed.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to push in." Sophia was embarrassed.
"Cal, why not ask Sophia to come with us as a little thank-you for all her help?" Ethan asked. He wanted to snigger at the sudden shyness on Cal's face.
"Er… of course! I'll ask Mark too. He's helped you too, Ethan."
Mark was flattered to be asked, but decided that honesty was the best policy and said that Wednesday was one of the nights he saw his boyfriend. Denise, fortunately, was over at the other end of the gym so she didn't hear this. Not that she would have said anything mean to Mark; she would have gone into a loud, long diatribe about how much she hated 'them rotten homophobics', which would have made Mark feel worse.
"Can we go now?" Ethan wheedled, adding:
"You don't want to be late to pick Sophia up. It's rude."
"Since when has rude ever bothered you, ratbag? But I'm ready now…do you need the loo before we go?"
"I'm not five years old, Caleb."
"I know that, I was just-"
"-Looking out for me. I know."
"Tell you what I can't wait for" Ethan sighed, "When I'm finally mobile and self-sufficient again and there's a chance of me being the one who gets a hot date."
"Ah, little bro, it'll happen again for you. Wait and see."
Ethan felt self-pity engulfing him so he whined like a five-year-old:
"Can we go now?"
Sophia proved to be useful as well as delightful company; she happily advised Ethan what he could eat and still stay healthy.
"And don't forget, you can let yourself off the leash every so often."
"I'm holding back a bit for the pudding" Ethan grinned.
"You need to be careful with pudding, Ethan."
Ethan turned to Sophia.
"See how he nags me?"
Sophia grinned.
"You're right to hold back a bit if you want a dessert, though, Ethan, Thai desserts are out of this world but high in calories."
"Ah, calories, shmalories..." Ethan was in a relaxed mood as he usually was when he'd managed a night out."
Sophia was feeling just a little guilty. Had she sounded too enthusiastic about the dessert? She knew Cal wasn't earning so much and didn't want to use him as a meal ticket.
"Anything wrong?" Cal had caught her expression.
"I didn't mean to push for dessert" she replied a little shyly.
"My dear lady, when Caleb Knight's in the chair, dessert's included!" Cal teased in his best old-fashioned man voice. Sophia laughed and relaxed. How nice of her, thought Cal, some girls I've been on a date with would have been demanding the cheese board and fine liqueurs afterwards.
Ethan offset his promised dessert by having a vegetable green curry rather than one with meat. His reward came when he was served his sticky rice with custard, a popular Thai dessert. Cal and Sophia played it safe with ice cream.
Nobody ordered or even wanted fine liqueurs but the wine certainly made the conversation flow after the meal. Cal learned that Sophia was the youngest of four sisters and had always thought herself to be the plain one of the family.
"No way!" Cal had explained. He looked now at her large eyes and glossy dark hair, her way of sitting straight all the time, her mouth… he'd thought earlier that he'd never seen anybody who ate as politely as Sophia; no shoveling it in for her. Not that she was fussy or played with her food, but she ate with economical little bites.
"We should do this again" Cal said as he helped Sophia and Ethan on with their coats. An older woman stared at them, and then, understanding, said a little too loudly to her friend:
"The young one's disabled."
"Spot-on, Madam" shouted Ethan, "I'll show you the scars on my back for fifty p!"
Cal sighed, but thought this was much better than how Ethan would have behaved a couple of months ago; he would probably have told the woman to f*** off.
"I've a way of going part-way towards returning the favour" Sophia told him as he helped her to the door.
"Oh you really don't need to…" Cal began.
"I'm afraid it's not as exciting as a meal out, but would you and Ethan like free tickets to our show in December? Our gym has an amateur musical society and we're doing a panto at the Civic Hall. It's the old fashioned kind where girls play the principal boy; I'm Prince Charming."
"It sounds great."
"I'm sure the management would make sure your seat was comfortable, Ethan. What do you think?"
Cal suddenly realized how lovely she was, making sure Ethan wasn't left at home while he was out on a date. Unless… his heart suddenly dropped a little and he wondered if it was Ethan she liked most.
Ethan was grinning.
"You'd wear tights, glossy tights?" he asked.
Sophia laughed and nodded.
"And it's Cinderella?"
"Oh yes."
"Can you hook me up with Dandini then?"
"I would, but in this case he'll be played by Mark."
"Rats!" pouted Ethan.
To hide his anxiety about which one of them Sophia actually liked most, he said:
"It's a long time to December though."
"It's in a couple of months, you noggin!"
Ethan's gleeful comment reminded Cal of just how much time had gone by for them.
Ben had been dreaming of how good Christmas in Corvaine with Sara would be, but his hopes were brutally dashed by Karl who told him:
"You will be returning home to the United Kingdom for Christmas, Benjamin."
"So Sara can travel with me?" he began. Karl's sneer soon showed him what a gaffe he'd made.
"You will officially be fulfilling your duties as the Prince of Corvaine although in reality you will be spending time with your family and having your first course of singing lessons with Lascelles. Her Highness will be responsible for the festive celebrations here."
"You split up a recently-married couple at Christmas?" Ben gasped.
"You are still so ignorant of how royalty functions here, Benjamin. Now please accept this and let us take care of the travel arrangements for you. There are several Royal functions in the next few months that you must be back here for, so Christmas is the ideal time for you to be with your relatives and friends."
Ben knew no amount of arguing or pleading would change Karl or, for that matter, David's mind, and he kept his anger inside while submitting himself to the arrangements.
The night before he left for home, Sara wept on his naked chest half the night.
"I'll come back, darling. Now let me love you…"
He kissed away the tears from her face, and their lovemaking that night was the most intense yet.
The next day Ben travelled incognito to Paris by train and from Paris he caught a plane back to England.