“Weekends, then?” he said, eventually. “You can come and stay in town?”
Percy shook his head. “Won’t work,” he said. “Housemaster, remember? I get one weekend each half a term.”
The silence stretched.
“I need a new job,” Percy said, eventually, thoughtfully. “I want more than now and then.”
Adrian drew away a little and propped himself up on his elbow, taking a final drag at his cigarette and leaning over Percy to stub it out in the ashtray on the bedside table.
“Lots of schools in London,” Adrian said. “And the flat’s big enough, for now. We could look for a house, maybe? If you like it.” He took the stub of Percy’s cigarette out of his suddenly nerveless fingers and ground that out in the ashtray, too.
“I like it here,” Percy said. “And it’s close to my parents. But…Mum’s much better now than she was ten years ago. She’ll never recover completely, but they don’t need me next door anymore. Perhaps it’s time for a change. Something a bit more challenging.”