"Nah, just took a couple of paracetamol and went to bed in the spare room."
"Matt! That's incredibly dangerous. You could have had a concussion. Promise me you'll never do anything like that again."
"It's all right-I know what a concussion feels like."
He probably did, but still … "Matt, just humour me, okay? Go see a doctor next time." I let out a long, shuddering breath. "Let me see it."
"There's nothing there, honest. It didn't even bleed," Matt protested, but he still turned around and parted his hair away from the back of his head.
There wasn't, in fact, a lot to see-just a bit of bruising. I prodded it gently with a finger.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry. Just checking." It had seemed fine-no ominous squashy bits. I reluctantly conceded Matt's self-diagnosis had probably been correct-after all, it'd been forty-eight hours since the injury; anything bad that was likely to happen would probably have done so already.
"Anyway," he said, turning back around, "if you need me to, I'll go down the police station and tell them he knocked me around, okay? So they know what he's like."
"Thanks," I said. As the last of the adrenaline drained away, I leaned back against the banisters and closed my eyes, weary to my very bones. "I don't understand why you didn't go to the police before. When he hit you. Why would you just let him get away with it?"
There was a long silence. I opened my eyes, worried I'd crossed a line.
Matt was slumped against the opposite wall, his hands in his pockets. "I know. I-I just felt … I don't know. He was always so sorry once he'd calmed down. Always swore it'd never happen again. And I just-well, it's not a very manly thing to own up to, is it? That your boyfriend's been beating you up."
"Matt … " I sighed. "You're not the one who should be ashamed about it."
"Yeah. Maybe. But it still didn't seem right, doing anything that'd out him. He was so paranoid about anyone finding out about us."
"So why was he even going out with you?" I caught myself. "Um, that probably sounded a bit uncomplimentary-"
Matt managed a half laugh. "'S all right. See, that was the other thing. I mean, it was my fault-I mean, I was only supposed to be the lodger. It wasn't like he went looking for a boyfriend or anything."
"But it got to be a bit much for him, seeing you wandering around the house in your boxer shorts?" For the first time, I felt a sneaking sympathy with Pritchard. For, oh, about a nanosecond or so. "Okay, so he was confused about his sexuality. That still doesn't give him the right to take it out on you."
"No, but … " Matt shrugged. "And it wasn't like I was even his first or anything … But it still didn't seem right, giving him away when he didn't want anyone to know about us."
"He was an idiot," I said without thinking. "If I was your boyfriend, I'd want everyone to know about it." I pushed myself upright and took a deep breath. "Look, don't worry about work, tomorrow. The shop's doing fine-the business isn't going to fail if we don't open up for a day. I think we could both do with catching up on our rest. I'm going for a long, hot bath. You get some sleep."
Matt nodded, his face hidden by his hair.
I trudged upstairs, ran the bath water as hot as I could stand and lay in it until it went cold. My mind was blessedly blank, too numbed by tonight's events to muster a single thought. When I finally climbed out, I craved a coffee and went downstairs in my dressing gown to see if I could dredge up some of Jay's decaf.
"Matt?" I asked, blinking at the figure leaning on the kitchen counter, his hands wrapped around one of Adam's cans of lager. "You should be asleep."
He shrugged. "Wasn't feeling like it. Not just yet." He looked up at me with a twisted smile. "And anyway, Adam's hogging the sofa."
"Adam's still here?" I realised guiltily I'd completely forgotten about Adam.
"Yeah-he said he'd stay till you got back, but he was asleep by then, so I didn't want to wake him." Matt put down his lager, the thud of the can on the counter suggesting most of the contents were still inside.
"Why didn't you say? Look, you'll have to share the bed with me." I could feel my face heating up. "There's plenty of room." And I'd probably end up lying awake all night, just to make certain I wouldn't molest him in my sleep.
Matt looked up, his face pale in the harsh fluorescent light. "Are you sure? I mean, if you're injured … "
"I told you-there's nothing serious. Just a bit of bruising."
"Bad?"
"Not sure-but that kidney punch left its mark." I opened my dressing gown to try to have a look, but the twisting involved was a bit too uncomfortable right now. "Can you see anything?"