CHAPTER 54
Lee was the first to spot the bruising.

“What the hell, mate? Who did that, and don’t give me any shite about walking into a cupboard door!”

The bruise was clearly fading, yellowish around the edges, but still very evident. Tref was looking down at the top of our dining table, the wood grain clearly fascinating.

“Went to the wrong pub, didn’t I?”

Lee grunted.

“Where? I thought you knew Cardiff!”

“It was on Broad Street”

“Where the fuck’s Broad Street?”

“Birmingham”

Alys tugged at my arm, pointing to the kitchen.

“We need a quick word”

She shut the door behind us, then stood, arms folded and her head cocked a little to one side.

“I did suspect, you know”

“Suspect what?”

“Sometimes… I even dropped a hint, you know? About Tref not being a concern, sharing a house? For God’s sake, Enfys! Him and Jordan? You not notice?”

I felt myself slump back against the fridge.

“Shit! Really?”

“Really! Sometimes, love, your focus, yes? Mental vision, mind’s eye thing; I think you wear blinkers, sometimes. The two boys, ah? Off down the pub last term, no, lads’ night out, Lee was always saying?”

“Not Lee as well?”

“Hardly! He’s been sniffing around the girls on my course ever since two of yours told him no. Lee’s been watching Jordan’s back, and so was Tref, and two of them sort of cut out the middle man”

She humphed, then grinned.

“It’s actually quite sweet, love. You miss so much, or at least everything that isn’t made of rock. Just glad you didn’t miss any of my hints; where would we have been then?”

Her face fell, and she shook her head.

“Lost, that’s where I would have been. Didn’t happen. Not happening. Come on; get back to them, find out the situation, see what’s needed. Like one of your rescue things”

She towed me back into the living room after we had made a pot of tea as cover for my extreme blindness, and after a few sips, Tref filled us in on the important bits.

“Second black eye of the holidays, people, to be honest. We were in a place along from the Symphony Hall, been to a gig there. Grabbing a pint there before he had to go home. I’d got a room in the Travelodge for, you know…”

I gave Alys a quick glance, and she nodded, almost imperceptibly. Tref shook his head, ruefully.

“Couple of men in the pub, must have guessed. We were on the corner by my hotel, and they jumped us”

Lee was almost growling.

“How badly did Jordan get hurt?”

Trefor laughed out loud.

“Really? Who was the dickhead who stepped in front of him to do the protection bit? I got the smack in the face, and of course he’s the one who’s done karate or Kung Fu or whatever!”

He sobered up suddenly.

“So they run off, and then we go back to my room, and we clean my face up, and, well, traditional stuff. Paid for an extra breakfast the next day, and he thinks one of the kitchen staff knows his Mam”

Alys slipped across to hug him.

“That explains how her Mam was at the festival. Like laser beams from her eyes, every time she saw us anywhere near him. Where is he, Tref?”

“Should be on his way over. Mind if he stays the night?”

Lee said something about bloody stupid questions, and went to dig out the menu for our local Chinese-that-delivers, as Alys settled into a cuddle. I rewound his words.

“Second black eye?”

“Oh. Yeah. Came out of that one a bit better. That was near home—hang on, that’s the door”

He squirmed out from his cuddle with my lover, and quickly returned, hand in hand with Jordan.

“Just telling this lot what happened, love. About the arseholes outside the Figure of Eight”

“Okay… Enfys?”

“Yes, Jordan?”

“Sorry about my Mum. At the festival”

I hugged him quickly.

“I did wonder, what with the looks she was giving us”

“Yes. Well. That cat, that bag. Right out it is, now. She’s just looking for someone to blame. That fresh tea?”

Alys stood up, heading for the kitchen.

“I’ll sort. Tref was about to tell us about the other black eye”

That started Jordan laughing, and then crying, just as Lee returned with the menu, and by the time Jordan was on surer ground again, Alys was back with a fresh cup for him. I tugged her from the sofa, curling up with her in one of the armchairs to leave the wider seat for the two lads, and Lee pulled out a notebook and pen.

“Who wants what, then? Oh, and I will be away to the offy for a few once this is ordered, so…”

He collated the order, rang it in with his credit card details, and then settled back into his chair once more.

“Tref: black eye?”

That brought a smile, finally.

“Oh, it’s quite funny, really. Same thing, from me, that is, trying to be the hero without a clue, but… Better ending, by far”

He settled himself back into the sofa, a hand on what was now clearly his lover’s knee.

“Got some shops near us, my home, that is. There’s this bakery, and they’ve got this chef there, does pastries. Really clever stuff, Danish pastries, eclairs, sponge cakes, all the clever stuff. Really, really popular. So Mam says, what we having for tea tonight, fancy a cold one tonight, salad and that? So I say ‘aye’, and she says well, we can have cakes as well, be naughty. She used to say ‘we’ll go gay’, but, well, with me…

“Anyway, girl who makes the cakes, she’s not exactly, didn’t start out that way, if you see what I mean. Trans, she is. Big girl, for a girl, and I think she’s had some shit in the past”

Alys was hanging on his words.

“She got anyone to look after her?”

“Oh god aye! Man who runs the place, he’s straight in if she gets any shit from customers, but he wasn’t there that evening, don’t know why. Girl’s got a boyfriend, I think, but he wasn’t there either. Just the girl and the woman who works the counter side of things. So there I am, three back from the counter, and some arsehole starts going on about trannies. So, me being me, I step in”

Jordan snorted.

“I told you to leave those tossers on Broad Street to me, but did you listen?”

“Yeah, well. Same there, wasn’t it? I tell him not to be a twat, and he just punches me right in the face, and there I am, sat on my arse on the floor, and feeling like a complete fool, because it turned out that half the queue were coppers in civvies!”

He shook his head, then grinned a lot more naturally.

“Well, two of them, anyway, a big man with a scar on his face and a really pretty blonde, and next thing I see, my tosser is face down and cuffed, and the blonde is off comforting the chef girl. Quick phone call, van arrives with some uniformed boys, a quick statement from me, paramedic to check my injury, and then Mam is saying it’s a good job we were already having a cold tea. Just got the bruise down before this one was delivered!”

Alys was staring hard at him.

“It not a problem, the chef girl not being a real girl?”

Tref snorted.

“Oh, trust me, Alys: see her with her lad, no doubt there. She’s definitely not my type!

“And why not? Doesn’t pass well as a woman?”

“Not at all! She is a bloody woman, and me, well”

He waved his free hand at Jordan.

“So… not my type! Get me? Like you two---neither of you are into lads, bloody obviously”

A memory surfaced, of Alys talking of spending her time at Bangor as just another woman student, and so I squeezed her knee as I smiled at Tref.

“Mate, spot on. As you can see, neither of us is into lads of any sort! Lee? What about you?”

He looked round the room, grinning as he pulled on a fleece jacket.

“Me? As what is clearly the token here, the only straight in the village, I am off to leave you in peace”

Jordan looked a little embarrassed.

“Lee, sorry if this is awkward for you, still new to me, and, well, I can sod off again if you want”

“Don’t be daft, lad. But do us a favour, and dip into one or both of your wallets. I’ve bought the meal; gie’s some cash for the alcohol!”

He pulled on his rucksack as we bundled some banknotes for him, and then he was out of the door, the Chinese meal arriving ten minutes after his return, just as Alys and I were starting on a bottle of Frascati and the boys on some cans of Felinfoel.

Jordan didn’t go back to his own digs for six days.