Fire and Freedom - Book One of the Café Latte Trilogy

Chapter Nineteen - Jasper

As Tom and I laughed, I heard the door open and someone exclaim, "Hello, darling! I swear my eyelashes are wonky, can you check them?"

"Jasper," Mum hissed at me.

I looked over, frowning. "Yeah?"

"Does Edward prefer to be called 'he' or 'she'?" she asked, looking panicked. "I didn't read enough forum posts."

"She, when she's dressed as Sapphire," Lucie replied kindly, and then smiled.

"Alright," Mum said, and then blushed. "I just thought I'd check."

"And it was very kind of you to do so," Lucie said warmly. "I did the same when I first met him."

Mum seemed slightly more at ease after this, and then I saw the two men enter the living room. Harper ushered Sapphire inside, who was looked very lovely in deep purple dress. I was surprised to see such a subdued wig; blonde shoulder-length hair with slight curls at the end. Usually Sapphire's hair was hilariously large, and her eyelashes practically brushed her nose. Tonight, her eyelashes were normal length, and her make-up was so toned down that I did practically mistake her for a woman.

"Hey," I greeted Sapphire, who looked at me cheerfully.

"Hey, Jazz," she said, kissing me on the forehead. "Ross not here yet?"

"He's not coming," Raven and I both said in unison.

Sapphire winced, but didn't speak. Instead, she looked around the circle and said to my parents, "Lovely to meet you both again. How are you tonight?"

"Fine, thank you," Mum said, and then cleared her throat. "You look very nice, I love that dress."

"Oh, you sweet thing," Sapphire replied, pleased by the reception. She then yawned and apologised quickly. "I am so sorry - I did a charity lunch today and I am absolutely shattered. Good thing I got the night off, hey?"

"Who's covering for you?" Harper asked, as Sapphire sat on the armchair and he sat beside her on one of the extra chairs I had dragged down from my room.

"Peaches," Sapphire said, and then sniffed. "Ooh, something smells good. Have you been cooking, Mrs Meyers?"

"Catherine," Mum said, looking pleased. "Yes, it's a roast chicken dinner. It's Jasper's favourite meal. We have it every Friday - when he was younger we sometimes had to have it twice a week because he went through a phase of being really fussy with food."

"I'd like to clarify that I was eight," I interjected, and then caught sight of Jenny's neck. "Jenny, I think you have blue paint on your neck."

Jenny's hand flew to her neck, where she felt the texture of the dry paint and sighed. "Typical. I thought I'd got it all. My group was painting a ceiling today and the owner of the house did the typical 'I know enough about decorating' thing, so he insisted it be a ton of super thin layers of paint. We tried to tell him it'd drip everywhere, but he insisted and then threw a fit about how he was paying us to do what he wanted. So we watered the paint down, and it dripped everywhere."

"Ah," I said, and then I heard the doorbell ring again. Frowning, I looked around the room, but then I saw Cyri's coat on the armchair in the corner. "Oh, I think Cyri left her coat."

"You'd better hurry it out to her, it's freezing," Mum said, so I grabbed her coat and dashed out of the living room, hearing my father suddenly enquire if Jenny was an interior designer. I rolled my eyes; they'd been looking for someone to transform the two spare rooms every since we'd moved here. Jenny had no idea what she was in for.

The knocking persisted, so I flung open the door and sighed at the person stood behind it. "I've got your coat - oh." I faltered as I saw Ross standing on my doorstep.