Three's a Crowd by Sophie McKenzie

than him. He was clearly massively well off – even I could see his clothes were expensive – and his wallet was stuffed with euros. He paid for everything. He insisted. And yet he did it in this easy-going way that never made you feel uncomfortable about it.
    “It is my treat for pushing into your drink,” he said, flashing a smile round at all of us. And that was another thing. He didn’t get all sexed-up over the girls. He was just nice. As nice to me and Ryan as he was to Eve and Chloe.
    “I only play in the band to please my father,” he explained to me in his lightly accented, rather formal English. “It is our deal. I will work for him over the summer and he will let me follow my dream after.” He rolled his eyes. “It would be better to follow my dream now, but still. . .” He smiled at Eve. “. . .you know fathers.”
    Then he turned to me. “Is yours the same?”
    I stared at him. “Mine’s dead,” I said.
    Alejandro looked stricken. “I am so sorry.” He glanced over at Chloe. “How stupid I feel . . . I. . .”
    “It’s okay. It’s okay,” we kept saying.
    Chloe went on, trying to reassure him. In the end I sat back, embarrassed at how red-faced Alejandro had become.
    I hadn’t let myself think about Dad properly for ages. I mean, he came into my head several times a day – memories and stuff like that. But I hadn’t really let myself imagine him or what it might be like to actually speak to him – not for a long time. Right now I did, though. It occurred to me I could have asked him what he thought I should feel about Mum having a baby with Matt.
    And about Eve, about how to deal with other guys liking her.
    As the light began to fade, I noticed Alejandro look at Eve several times, but the only sign that he might have anything more than friendship on his mind came right at the end of our drink, when Chloe asked him how come his English was so good.
    “I was taught by a private tutor.” Alejandro grimaced. “My father thinks everyone must speak English to succeed in business. He still thinks I might want to be in business, for some reason.” He smiled. “I remember my tutor makes me . . . I mean made me, play this game with words to help with English pronunciation. A rhyming game. So he gave me a word and I told him a word it rhymes with. Then he made me do it with names. It is very hard.”
    “Do it with my name,” Chloe demanded. “Go on.”
    Alejandro’s eyes twinkled. “Chloe . . . Chloe . . . glowy. Like the candles and fire. Glowy.”
    Chloe grinned. “What about ‘Ryan’?”
    Ryan laughed. “That’s too hard. Do ‘Ry’.”
    Alejandro smiled. “Easy: try, why, fry, high, sigh. . .”
    “I know a rhyme for ‘Ryan’,” Eve said softly. “Cyan.”
    “What’s that?” Alejandro said.
    “It’s a colour. Blue.” Eve blushed, like she always did when she thought she might be seen as showing off about something.
    Alejandro didn’t take his eyes off her. “‘Eve’ is easy,” he said. “Eve. Believe. Never leave.” He caught my eye and sat up straighter. “Then ‘Luke’.”
    “Don’t bother with me,” I said hastily. “I’ve been hearing it since I was seven. Luke. Puke.”
    Alejandro raised his eyes. “What is ‘puke’? I was going to say fluke. Which is how you got a beautiful girl like Eve. No?”
    Eve breathed in sharply. I stared at him, my heart thudding. He knew about me and Eve? But we’d been careful. All evening all we’d done was hold hands once – and that only under the table.
    I glanced at Eve. Her face was white, her eyes scared.
    “Alejandro,” she said. “My dad. . .”
    “I know. It is okay. I will no say anything.”
    “How did you know?” Eve said.
    Alejandro gazed at her, a slow smile curling round his mouth. “The way you sang to him. The way he has looked at you all evening.”
    I stared at him. Alejandro was still smiling at Eve.
    “We should go back,” he said. “We are supposed to be back at the nightclub for