"As I say, much as you used to be my favourite nephew... There's only so much I'm prepared to invest in your birthday present. Even for your thirtieth. So the idea of killing off stars and interstellar nuclear explosions is right out of the picture. And also, consider further, my darling," she said, moving to slide an arm about Ben's waist. She grinned conspiratorially at Dolly, who was dreamily leaning on the half-door of the cupboard, and gazing adoringly at the suspicious creation that had sprung from my aunt's bulging brow. "It's not as if there are unlimited periods in the past – in your past – that you really have a pressing need to re-visit. In fact – if you count your last couple of years up at the University as only a single period, chronologically – then there's only one period that really counts. Isn't that so, Ben love?"
He had a feeling that Millie knew more than he wanted her to, and more than he'd ever disclosed to her. (In fact he'd had that feeling for a long time – a few years by then, from the odd hints she dropped, now and then, here and there. But that was all right, and he could live with it. Just as long as it was left in the background of their conversations. As long as they both went on pretending that Michael – who she only met as infrequently as he could arrange it, and whom he always downplayed in importance and significance in his life, to her – was a minor figure in his history. Someone he barely remembered, someone she could reasonably be expected to have forgotten.
But Ben thought that possibly, the maintenance of that polite pretence between them, was about to come to a very abrupt end. She proved him right, too, the evil old bird. Smiled sweetly, swinging her half-moon spectacles via one arm between finger and thumb. There was something in her gaze that, however fond, was also akin to a lab tech looking down a microscope lens at something terribly, terribly interesting. Much as if she was about to splosh a bit of reagent onto it, in order to see what colour it might turn.
YOU ARE READING
Erase You
RomanceMichael is a musician, Cambridge-educated but living in London. He's successful, attractive and has plenty to keep him busy and happy. So why can he still not get over his old college boyfriend, Ben? Fortunately his old Great-Aunt Millie, a notor...
