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looked up to the heavens in exasperation. “She’s not
even doing a decent degree. She’s doing an airy fairy, waste of
space arts course that will lead precisely nowhere. No doubt she’ll
end up working in a supermarket checkout, that’s if she’s lucky
enough to get a job at all.”
    “She’s doing
Graphic Design actually, which is commercially useful and should
lead to a good job. I’ve seen some of her work, and she’s very
talented,” Jamie stubbornly insisted.
    “Well, because
you’ve already let her move in, it’s a fait accompli, so on your
head be it. You can take full responsibility for any shit that
develops; it will be your problem to sort out, not mine. Maybe this
will help to open your eyes to the reality of things,” I told
him.
    Maybe this
would prove to be a valuable learning curve for Jamie. Maybe he
needed to learn the hard way about falling for sob stories, and
dealing with this girl would give him the wakeup call it seemed he
was in severe need of.
    “Well, as it
happens, I wanted to ask you about a couple of problems, because
the thing is, I’d forgotten the radiator in that attic room doesn’t
really work, the side window is broken, and the water for the
shower never really gets hot. So do you think you could get Andrew
to sort these things out, please?”
    Andrew is my
facilitator – my go-to man, who always sorts out any maintenance
issues I have with any of the properties I own. For a fee, he will
make all the arrangements for a reliable and trustworthy tradesman
to come and fix whatever the issue is, and then ensure the job is
completed satisfactorily.
    “I’ll
certainly give you Andrew’s number, and you can call him yourself.
You can also pay his fee, as well that of whoever actually comes
out to fix the problem.”
    “But that
could run into hundreds of pounds! I can't afford that on my
allowance, and you’re a fucking millionaire, for Christ's sake!”
Jamie protested.
    I just raised
my eyebrows, and gave my brother a cool smile.
    Jamie
sighed.
    “Okay, I get
it, Liam. You’re happy to spend a small fortune on buying yourself
a brand new Aston Martin Vanquish, but you’re too stingy to help
out a decent, hardworking young woman, who’s been dealt a pretty
shit hand in life. So she’ll have to put up with a freezing room
this winter, as well as cold showers in that crappy little shower
room.”
    “That’s about
the size of it, yes,” I agreed. “You made this arrangement, so as
far as I’m concerned, you are now her landlord. I’m handing over
all responsibility to you, because I certainly don’t have any kind
of a contract with her.”
    “When did you
get to be such a cold hearted bastard, Liam?”
    “When I had to
start living in the real world, Jamie.”

Chapter
5
Seraphina
    “ No Jamie this morning?” I
asked Toby. He’d come and sat with me at the kitchen table as I was
drinking my mid-morning cup of tea while taking a break from my
studies. Sundays were always a good day for me to get on with my
course work. That was why I liked working in the restaurant in the
evenings at the weekend, because it left me free during the day.
Jamie had asked how I could possibly fit in any kind of a social
life working those kind of hours when I kept side stepping his
offers for us to go out somewhere together.
    The truth was
I didn't really have any kind of a social life, but that was okay.
I didn't see the point of spending money I didn't really have to go
out and get totally inebriated, and then have to worry about
embarrassing pictures appearing on Facebook or being tweeted to the
world.
    “He’s gone to
have lunch with The Big Guy – his brother. He usually does on a
Sunday whenever Liam’s not away on business,” Toby explained.
    “Why do you
call him The Big Guy? Is he massively obese or something?” I asked
curiously.
    “Hardly,” Toby
laughed. “Liam’s the super fit athletic type who gets up at the
crack of dawn every day to go for a swim and a