THE LOVER

Previously

…But Sam… Sam could do this thing where he puffed out his cheeks so much his eyes disappeared, or he’d make his nose look like it was going to fall off. Leo would roar with laughter, and I’d feel a familiar pang of jealousy mixed with a grudging respect for Sam’s sheer audacity. It was during one of these particularly heated block tower skirmishes that something shifted. Leo’s tower, a magnificent structure of red and blue bricks, teetered precariously. Sam, in his eagerness to add another block, accidentally nudged it. The whole thing came crashing down, a colourful avalanche of plastic. Leo’s face fell. He looked genuinely crestfallen, his lower lip trembling just