Eli went to the same new school that the triplets did and aged eighteen, he was in his final year. Hayley was having a very positive impact on him and he had been studying quite a lot for his exams which were coming in May. He and Hayley were so cute together and I could tell Eli really cared about her. Even though they’d been together for just over a year, he still hadn’t told Hayley he loved her and she sometimes fretted over it. I told her that it was obvious the way he felt, but she wanted him to say it out loud. I knew that he would confess his feelings in due time, however long it took.

“I’m going up for a shower,” Walter said into my ear, as the triplets went on and on about the process of getting tattooed, to an unresponsive Eli.

I wordlessly followed Walter out of the living room and up the stairs. We went into his room and I closed the door behind us. Our lips met in an instant and Walter slipped his tongue into my mouth. I let him in and pushed my hands up into his hair as he rubbed his tongue against mine. My hands tugged at his hoodie and we broke the kiss so he could lift it up and pull it off his taunt body. Even though it was winter, Walter wasn’t wearing a t-shirt underneath.

Walter had joined a local boxing club and he trained nearly every day of every week. It was a great way to let out his anger and his head coach was always giving him praise, saying he could make it as a champion. Walter genuinely enjoyed boxing and he was dedicated. With my help, he’d only just managed to pass his final exams last summer, but Walter didn’t want to seek higher education. He was good at boxing and he wanted to do that instead. Occasionally there was a competitive match, or a ‘bout’, and Walter often won them. In fact, he’d never lost so far. The only problem was that sometimes he allowed his temper to get the better of him and he’d forget it was just a game. So he’d been fouled and disqualified a few times, but he hadn’t actually been physically beaten.

His body had grown even more muscular over the many months he’d been up at it and I wasn’t complaining. I ran my hands down his well defined chest and felt the grooves of his abs under my fingertips. Walter inhaled and caught my hands, raising them up over my head so that he could take off my jumper. His gaze ran over my body and I saw the desire burning in his hazel coloured eyes as he looked at me in my bra. There was a fluttering in the base of my stomach but it wasn’t a bad kind, it was a good kind.

When it came to physical things, Walter and I were closer now, after I’d started having counselling sessions. We still hadn’t gone all the way, but he said he was fine with that. Communication was key, and not once had he pushed me further than I could manage. Not that we’d even gone very far.

“I’ll go after you,” I pulled away from Walter’s lips and tried to catch my breath.

Walter nodded, removing the rest of his clothing before grabbing a towel and heading for the bathroom. After we’d both had showers and had gotten dressed, Walter and I stayed in his room. Our hair was still damp and I straddled his lap as he sat on the edge of his bed. I cupped his face, smiling down at him, and then kissed him once on the lips. Walter brushed the scar on my cheek, the one from a ricocheting bullet that had grazed me on the night that felt so long ago. I touched the scar Ario had given Walter on his own cheek and he turned his face so that he could kiss my palm. My stomach then gave a loud rumble which had us both laughing quietly.

“I’m starving,” I grinned.

“Same here,” Walter said. “But I’m not getting my hopes up for anything the triplets are gonna cook.”

Downstairs we could hear the triplets already getting started...well more like drop pots and pans onto the floor and shout at each other.

“Please can we just order out?” Walter begged me with a pout.

I laughed and kissed him again, “Let’s give them a chance.”

From downstairs, Gomez and Severn began shouting in disgust at Giovanni to stop scratching his backside before proceeding to touch the food. Walter and I widened our eyes and I got off Walter’s lap to get my phone from the bedside table.

“Pizza or Chinese?”