The first time Nathaniel came over to our house, Macie tumbled off the sofa in surprise.

“Nathaniel, this is sister. Sister, this is Nathaniel,” I said as quickly as I could, gesturing in their vague vicinity.

“Hello,” said Nathaniel.

“Oh!” said Macie. "You must be the guy that my brother always talks abou-"

I threw several cushions at her.

As the weeks went on, Nathaniel visited nearly every weekend.

Macie soon became enamoured with him; Nathaniel was the only person in the house patient enough to listen to her natter on about goodness knows what.

“Oh really?” said Nathaniel, seemingly interested in what Emily, Francis and Grace told Isabella that day.

I looked up from my laptop.

“Macie, please go away now.”

“Why?”

“Nate and I have important business to do. Stuff you won’t understand. So… SHOO.”

Macie glanced between me and Nathaniel.

“Oh, I see, I see,” she said, suddenly looking very amused. “Have fun…”

I kicked the door shut behind her.

“Oh dear,” laughed Nathaniel. “Your sister seems to have some ideas…”

“Macie has ideas about everything, most of which are not true.”

“She’s not a bad person if you listened to her more, Alaric.”

“Holy sweet mother of Jesus, she’s brainwashed you like she's brainwashed our parents."

I patted the seat beside me.

“Sit. We have three hours of World Championship matches to analyse.”

Nathaniel grinned. He sat.

“You work us hard, Alaric.”

“Of course I do, how else are we gonna turn Pro?”