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sulking. But it would be way too much to hope that she’d cleaned up. No doubt that would be left to him – as usual.
    An hour, five smokes, and all four cans later, it started to rain. Drenched to the bone in minutes as the razor-sharp needles pelted down on him, he gave up and went home – only to be pissed off all over again when he came out of the lift and heard the music still pumping out from their flat.
    Inside, Leanne had been making a good show of pretending that she was having fun, but she was still fuming about Terry walking out like that. And the longer he stayed out, the angrier she got. So when she heard the front door opening and closing now, followed by the sound of the floorboards creaking as he walked past the living room, she told her friends that she’d be back in a minute and went after him.
    Terry had switched on the lamp and was getting undressed when she went into the bedroom. Scowling at him, she said, ‘Where the hell have you been? And don’t say nowhere, because you’ve been ages. And you didn’t take the car, so you must have been close by. So, where were you – and who were you with?’
    ‘I was out,’ he replied flatly, stepping out of his jeans and peeling his T-shirt off over his head. ‘And now I’m going to sleep, so go back to your party.’
    Pursing her lips, Leanne cast a disapproving eye over the wet heap of clothes he’d dropped. ‘I hope you’re not expecting me to pick them up and get myself covered in shit?’ she said tartly.
    Telling her that he’d do it in the morning, Terry pulled the quilt back and climbed into bed, reaching out to switch off the lamp before lying down.
    Immediately flipping the overhead light on, Leanne folded her arms. ‘You still haven’t told me where you’ve been.’
    Sighing heavily, Terry reached for the remote and turned the portable TV on. He felt like telling her that he’d been shagging another bird, because that’s what she obviously thought he’d been doing. But he didn’t have the energy to deal with the tantrum which would inevitably follow if he did.
    Leanne’s chest heaved with irritation as she watched him. Lying there, sulking like a baby just because he hadn’t got his own way. It was pathetic!
    ‘Why are you being like this?’ she demanded. ‘You made a right show of me back there. Don’t you care that they’re all laughing at me behind my back?’
    ‘So stop bringing them round when you’ve promised not to and it won’t get to that,’ Terry replied reasonably, his eyes fixed on the TV, even though he wasn’t really watching it.
    Stepping in front of the screen to block his view, Leanne said, ‘That’s not fair. You know I only get to chill with them at the weekend.’
    ‘You’ve got all day every day to chill with them,’ Terry reminded her, emphasising the word to let her know how stupid it sounded. ‘But the weekend’s supposed to be our time, seeing as I’m working all the rest of the week and hardly get to spend any time alone with you.’
    ‘No one told you to go and change your stupid shifts,’ she countered moodily. ‘And I don’t see why you bothered if you hate doing lates so much.’
    ‘You know exactly why.’
    ‘Oh, what, ’cos me dad threatened you?’ Leanne said sarcastically. ‘Big deal! And I wouldn’t mind, but he doesn’t even work there, so you didn’t have to change your hours at all. You were just being extra.’
    Giving her an incredulous look, Terry said, ‘No, ’cos he hasn’t got all the lads at work having a go at me on his behalf, or anything, has he?’
    ‘It’s not my fault if they like him better than they like you,’ Leanne snapped. ‘So stop having a go at me all the time and deal with it.’
    ‘Like it’s that easy,’ Terry snapped back, irritated that she was trivialising it when she wasn’t the one who’d had to take all the flak that had been aimed at him for the last year. ‘Anyway, it’s just as well I did go for lates,’ he added