"Oi, Scotty, you can't just make a cuppa for yourself! What about the rest of us poor thirsty souls?"
"It's for Kelly." Alex said absent-mindedly. "Where'd you lot put the milk?"
"Oooooh!"
"How come you never make me tea, Scotty?"
"Right, unfair!"
"It's in the door of the fridge," Fara interrupted the cat-calling without looking up from her laptop.
Jill got up from the couch and settled her chin on Alex's shoulder to watch as she brewed Kelly's tea with the ease of long experience. "I just want you to know," Jill said, mock seriously, "that if you ever get sick of Kelly you can always come to Everton and be my wife for a change. I swear I will treat you like a queen."
"Jill," Fara snapped, slamming her laptop shut. "No taunting the married. You know the rules."
"I wasn't —!" Jill said indignantly.
"You were a bit," Casey said.
"Yeah," Unitt agreed, glancing up from her phone.
"I was serious," Jill argued.
"Serious about what?" Kelly asked as she came into the rec room. "Thought you'd got lost, Scotty," she said, accepting her cup of tea.
"About whisking your wife away from this tea-making servitude to a life of luxury with me in Liverpool," Jill declaimed.
"Life of luxury? In Liverpool?" Yanks, who'd stayed out of things so far, let out an audible snort. Casey and Eni both giggled.
"Hey! Liverpool is a perfectly nice city! Brownie, tell 'er — Fara! Unitt!"
"I'm not getting involved in this." Fara said. She'd opened her laptop back up and was once again glued to whatever game she was watching.
"Sorry, bit it really is a bit of a shithole," Unitt said apologetically.
"And America's all exotic, too, innit? Dunno the weather, I guess, but it can't really get any worse, can it? I wouldn't leave America to come live in Liverpool."
Jill looked betrayed. "Traitors," she hissed. "Traitors to your city. You too, Brownie. I'll remember this."
"Makes no difference anyway," Kelly said. "Wouldn't be much of a wife if I didn't trust her not to run off on me when a younger and prettier bird comes calling. You up for a game of table tennis, Scotty?"
"Only if you're up for a crushing defeat," Alex said, grinning.
"We'll see who crushes who." Kelly leaned into Alex's side for a moment and smiled down at her. "Wouldn't run off on you, either," she added quietly.
"You're only saying that because you like how I make your tea."
Kelly sipped theatrically from her cup and took her time about swallowing. "Well," she said at last. "Not only that."
