𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒔 ⎯ Jonny Goodman

chapter two

Sephy huffed as she looked at her reflection. Fixing a dainty silver necklace around her neck, she stepped back to evaluate her look for the night. It was common knowledge to most who had met Sephy that she was a beautiful young woman with a slim figure and thick hair chopped off at the shoulders. She shrugged. It was good enough.

"Honestly love, don't worry about how you look. It's only Friday Night Dinner, no need to get too dressed up. Besides, you always look gorgeous." Jackie assured her new lodger, a hand on Sephy's shoulder reassuringly and a warm smile on her face.

Sephy laughed and rocked on her heels. "Well, I've just really been looking forward to tonight all week. My first Goodmans' Friday Night Dinner in eight years."

Admittedly, Sephy enjoyed getting dolled up as being unemployed and having no friends in the city gave her little chance to dress up.

"The boys will be so pleased to see you." Jackie clapped her hands in excitement as she ferried clean cutlery from the kitchen to the dining room.

Martin trundled through the hallway, shirtless as always. Miliseconds later,  the doorbell chimed alarmingly loud, causing Sephy to stumble back from the mirror into Martin and topple back into the floor.

"Oh, shitting hell! Jesus christ, Persephone..." Martin looked disorientated, as he leant down to help Sephy up again.

"Oh, Martin!" Jackie huffed as she pushed past both of us in the hallway to get to the front door "That'll be the boys..."

Jackie opened the door and greeted her two sons with cheek kisses. Sephy stayed a few paces back from the front door, swinging her arms a little awkwardly.

"Boys, this is her. This is Sephy. I'm sure you both remember..." Jackie guided the boys towards the young female guest of the house.

"We remember..." Adam looked tauntingly at his brother, earning an elbowing in the ribs from Jonny as a suitable punishment.

"Sephy, you remember my eldest, Adam..." Jackie gestured to Adam, who exchanged a quick handshake, friendly smile and kiss on the cheek with Sephy. Jonny was then pushed forward by his eager mother.

"And my younger son, Jonny..." Jackie was almost grinning as she re-introduced them.

"Of course I do." Sephy smiled as she stepped forward to greet Jonny "I remember, we were lab partners all through school. And we sat together in tutor sessions."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember." Jonny nodded and gave a toothy smile to Sephy in return. He stepped forward gingerly and gave Sephy a kiss on the cheek.

Adam was already thinking about ways to tease Jonny about this later.

—

"So how's your father, love?" Jackie asked as she served everybody some chicken, giving generously to Sephy.

"Well, he's still writing. He's actually been doing quite well recently." Sephy smiled, though she struggled to know what to say when people asked her about her father. Having a famous journalist for a father wasn't always easy, despite the fact Sephy had grown up in luxury because of it.

"I'm actually looking for a job myself. I've never had one before though..." Sephy admitted, speaking to the table
"I'd love to be an illustrator but I guess there just aren't many proper jobs for creative skills. Like, most 'creative people' end up with tacky jobs like personal shopping or writing cheesy jingles."  

The whole table fell silent. 
"I actually write jingles..." Adam spoke up.

Luckily, the Goodmans knew Sephy well enough from a young age so they were perfectly aware of her tendancy to really stick her foot in her mouth and say the exact wrong thing at the wrong time.

"Oh, god. Adam, I... You know what I mean." Sephy , offering an awkward smile in apology. 

"Amazing." Jonny looked smugly at his brother. The table fell silent once more. Jackie cleared her throat looked at her eldest son "Adam, could you go check on the crumble for me?"

"Me? Can't Pissface go." Adam groaned, leaning back in his chair, oblivious to the fact Jonny was loading his water with salt.

"Alright, alright..." Jonny groaned, before reluctantly standing up. Sephy looked up, seeing her childhood friend so put out by such a simple task, she smiled.

"I'll help." Sephy offered with a shrug. And although the table seemed happy to have her assistance, they were also terrified as they knew Sephy could be just a tad clumsy.

"I never had to do chores as a kid." Sephy laughed as she strolled into the kitchen with Jonny. She leaned over the oven to get a good luck at the crumble, though as she had little to no experience with cooking it would hardly help.

"I know. Your dad had a cleaner that did it all." Jonny smiled a tad at his friend, opening the oven a crack to let the smoke out, before reaching in and taking out the crumble.

"I can't cook or clean or anything. Not exactly good wife material." Sephy laughed, taking the crumble tray in her own hands and starting to walk.

She suddenly tripped on the way into the hallway and lost control of the crumble. It momentarily left her hands before Jonny scampered forward to catch both the crumble and Sephy.

"Shit! You are so clumsy..." Jonny mumbled, still holding Sephy around the waist as he readjusted his other hand's grip on the tray of crumble. Only a few crumbs off the top layer had been spilt.

"You have really good reflexes." Sephy laughed, still a little breathless from nearly falling straight on the floor as she had already done once today.

The two laughed, but stepped away from one another as they came back round. Sephy cleared her throat, straightened herself up and pointed to the dining room.

"Should we... err...Dining room?"

Jonny nodded. "Yeah, dining room."