Page 110 of In the Same Boat

‘What?’

‘Hank moved in with Nico when things were difficult for him,’ she explains. ‘He didn’t get into the details but he said it was a real lifeline when he needed one.’

Amazing how tweaking a few words in a statement gives it a whole new meaning.

‘Okay, but… work-wise… he’s not exactly climbing the ladder, is he?’ I say, showing her that the house thing doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

‘Well, no, because he’s already at the top,’ she says.

‘Wait, what?!’

I stare at her.

‘Sammie…’

‘His dad said he sells video games,’ I say. ‘And I’ve seen him playing them, he talks about them. That’s his job, right?’

‘I suppose, yes, that’s right,’ she replies. ‘But he does own the company.’

‘What?!’ I practically screech, bagging myself a few dirty looks from our fellow passengers. ‘What company?’

‘I don’t know the name exactly. Something to do with zombies,’ she explains.

‘War Zombies?’ I reply in disbelief.

Oh my gosh, I wore hisWar ZombiesT-shirt, the arse used me as a walking billboard.

‘That’s it. Hank said it like I should know what it was.’

‘Everyone knows whatWar Zombiesis.’

‘Do they?’

‘Yes, Mum. It’s huge,’ I inform her.

I don’t even play it and I knowWar Zombies. Everyone knowsWar Zombies. Some of the guys at work book annual leave when a new one drops. Tom once spent an entire lunch break explaining its multiplayer maps to me using pens. It’s a huge franchise – and all of that is Nico?!

‘And the yacht,’ Mum adds carefully.

I raise my eyes, waiting for her to finish.

‘It’s his.’

Oh, of course it fucking is. So that explains where Hank’s money came from. It was never his; it was Nico’s.

I lean back against the headrest and look straight ahead.

‘I had him all wrong,’ I confess. ‘But… he let me think that way, right?’

‘Hank says he’s embarrassed about it,’ she tells me. ‘And I suppose he wants to make sure people like him for him, not his money, and you did like him before you knew all of this…’

I have spent days mentally filing Nico under good-looking but unserious man-child with possible dependency issues, when it turns out he is a successful business owner who lets his widowed father live with him and use his yacht whenever he wants.

‘I thought he wanted rescuing from his dad,’ I blurt.

‘Maybe he did,’ Mum says softly. ‘Just not in the way you thought.’

‘Well, it doesn’t matter now, because I’ve blown it,’ I tell her.