"I don't mind!" Addy said brightly. "He's dad too."
Addy leaned back against the chair, sipping her diet coke. This is what they had come here for, so Addy dug into it. Will Scarlet's stories, at least the formative ones, were all in the public domain. Addy's weren't. So as their food arrived and they ate, Addy told Will everything. She talked about protecting her brother from bullies, about going from being in the popular group at school to not so quickly because she'd gone on a date with a guy who claimed she gave him a BJ behind a dumpster, and how apparently that was social suicide. How that had sent her spiralling. How for a good few months she had danced around an eating disorder. How she found herself in relationship after relationship with men who hurt her or treated her like shit. How Iestyn had once had to get right between her and one of her exes to stop him from hitting her again.
She talked about good things too. About realising she had a real green thumb and going into biology and eventually botany. How finding something she loved helped her find her people. How it healed a lot of her, though she still had terrible taste in men. But she had gotten to a place of equilibrium and happiness...and then her mother had gotten her cancer diagnosis.
Around about dessert time, Addy smiled at Will. "I have been talking for an hour," she laughed. "God, aren't you bored?"