Julian came up and gave his dad a small nudge out of the way. "I'll make the tea. You sit down and rest. You've spent so long recently helping take care of me, this is the least I can do when you're not feeling well, Dad. That, and I make it better than you," he couldn't help but add jokingly, giving his dad a trademark smirk. "Are you happy with Karla, Dad? Or is this just a bit of fun thing? Because you deserve happiness. No one's ever too old to try to find that. Just, the older you get, the less people want to hear about your sex life," he added with a laugh.

While they were waiting on the kettle, he studied his dad for a moment or two. He wasn't sure he had ever seen him this uncomfortable with something. Usually he just took everything on the chin and dealt with it, like an excellent CEO always should do. "You said he went to work instead of keeping the date you had. I don't know why he couldn't have just told them he had contagious diarrhoea or something. I don't know what he wants, Dad. He seems to be attempting to make all the right noises, but it's not translating into anything of substance. I don't even know what to say to him anymore. I'm sorry, Dad. I thought telling him you weren't feeling well might help him get his finger out. I don't know. I know everyone has family issues, but I don't understand why ours still are issues. I ran into his wife the other day at the store and it awkward. What was I supposed to say? 'Hey, thanks for you and your team catching the cunts who tried to murder me. Merry Christmas'? Yeah, we can look at dates. Hopefully us getting married just isn't forever jinxed."