The Dog Sitter: The new feel-good romantic comedy of 2021 from the bestselling author of The Wedding Date!

by Zara Stoneley

  ‘But you’re planning on getting back together again?’ Hashtag happy families.

  ‘Oh shit, yah.’ She smiles, wraps her hands round her glass and tips her head on one side. When she speaks again it’s back to the soft tone. ‘We never actually split really. I mean I know I dissed him, but he annoyed me so fucking much. But it was just a misunderstanding, you know, things getting to a head and poof, exploding.’ She throws her hands in the air as though she’s throwing confetti. ‘He didn’t mean any of it, so I had to give him time to cool down, you know? Oh God, babe, he’s not tried it on with you, has he?’ Quite unexpectedly she pats my arm. ‘He can be a real user, you know, to get his way, like with Bella. He’s been here, hasn’t he? Telling you what a baddie I am?’ She chuckles. ‘What a dick!’ It’s said with what sounds like affection. I guess some people do call each other names like that. ‘Just ignore him. I reckon he actually thought it would be funny to nick her and get me all wound up!’

  This is not the upset Georgina on Zoom. She’s not come to terms with things at all while she’s been away, she’s been preparing herself to win him back. Set the clock back. Try again. Oh God, he’s always been nice about her and I put it down to guilt, and the fact that he’s so sorry, but did I get it wrong? Are they really meant for each other?

  ‘He went to pick the puppy then, when you were in Cornwall, like he picked Bella?’ I can hear a slight wobble in my voice. I’m trying to be reasonable about this, but really I want to yell at her.

  ‘He told you he picked Bella?’ She hasn’t answered the question. I nod. ‘Sounds like you two were quite cosy, seeing as I asked you to keep him out of the house,’ she says, carelessly flicking something off her knee. ‘It’s getting a bit chilly out here actually, shall we go in?’

  I suppose now is the time I should point out that it’s his house, that he is (or at least I thought he was) a free agent and so am I. So what if he told me stuff? But I’m not going to let her draw me in, because even though I feel drunk, a bit light-headed, I’m sure she’s baiting me.

  First with her taunts about them getting back together. Now with her comments fishing about what’s happened while she’s been away. In Cornwall. Another lie. Another fabrication, part of her make-believe life. She even went to the airport so that she could take photographs and add them to her Insta account!

  I don’t know what is real, and what isn’t. I do know that it’s him I need to talk to, not her.

  She doesn’t wait for an answer. She stands up, leaving the empty bottles on the table and wanders up the side of the terrace casually, stopping by the patio doors that lead into the room I’ve used as a study.

  ‘So…’ She pauses, and it is almost like she’s rehearsed the moment. It’s all too casual. It is as though all the drink and chat, all the girlie camaraderie, has actually been leading up to this moment.

  She pushes the door wider open, takes a step inside, and it’s a bit like watching the picture break up on Zoom when the WiFi throws a wobbler. ‘I wonder what else he’s told you?’ She gradually freezes, the last couple of words dripping off her tongue in slow motion. ‘What. The. Actual. Fuck. Is. That?’ She’s got a pointy finger out, and it is shaking. I glance at her face again – big mistake. If you could bottle pure nastiness, this is how it would come out.

  This is staged. She’s been working up to it.

  She is looking at my boathouse picture which is still propped up at the side of the desk, where the evening light catches it perfectly.

  I don’t know why I’ve left it there. No, I do. It makes me happy; it gives me pleasure. And it reminds me of Ash. It lets me imagine him as a boy – unscarred, innocent, full of hope and mischief.

  There’s a certain purity, a certain magic about it that I am proud of.

  I don’t think Georgina shares my feelings.

  ‘It’s the boathouse.’ I try to keep the edge out of my voice and talk matter-of-factly, but I can hear the tremor. We’re both wound up, the air is practically fizzing. ‘The one that used to be here.’ No judgement, I must not judge. It is none of my business. ‘I saw a photo, and it just seemed to finish the picture off.’

  ‘Why have you painted that?’

  ‘Well, I’m an artist, it’s an amazing view.’

  ‘No. Why that?’ She fixes me with a cat-like stare. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Just how much time have you spent with him? He’s been here, in the fucking house with you! I knew it!’

  I wonder when she spotted the picture. How long she’s been simmering inside. Since she got home? Since I went out with Bella? But I am pretty sure she’s been working up to this.

  Oh help, I hope she hasn’t poisoned the wine! She could weigh me down and drop me in the lake and my body would never be found.

  I have turned beetroot-red; I know I have. My guilt and embarrassment are overriding my fear of being murdered. I feel totally guilty and in the wrong. I agreed to look after her house, her dog. Stick to her rules. Okay it isn’t actually hers, any of it, but I didn’t know that at the time, did I? Does it count as a broken promise if it was all based on untruths?

  I dare to look at her, and I’m shaking. But what I see isn’t the Georgina who has been needling me since she got back. This isn’t the Georgina who is full of bravado, acting out the way she’d like her life to be. She looks like she might crumble any moment and I calm down, the panic fades away and all I feel is desperately sorry. For her. ‘Yes, he’s been here.’ She knows the truth; it is pointless pretending otherwise. I swallow hard and force the words out. ‘I didn’t know you two had got back…’ Nope, good try, but I can’t actually finish the sentence.

  ‘That doesn’t matter! I trusted you, and you sided with him!’ She looks more nervous and wound up than I feel. ‘You shouldn’t have talked to him!’ There’s a crackle in her voice.

  ‘He really wanted to see Bella, he needed to,’ I say softly. ‘You know he did.’

  ‘I needed her as well.’ There’s a stubborn edge to her voice.

  I get it now; she was disparaging about Bella as a way of coping. She needs her, because letting go of Bella means admitting the relationship is over. She’s failed.

  ‘Romeo’s cute, he’ll be great on Insta.’ He will. He can be part of her new start. ‘It’s so amazing, your account, it can be brilliant even if you haven’t got Bella.’ I pause, then say it because I can’t not. ‘Or Ash.’ I just cannot believe he wouldn’t have told me if they were trying again. I can’t believe he’d say goodbye and wave me off, and minutes later welcome her back home. He’s not some kind of confidence trickster who was just having a laugh with me. He told me about the boathouse. He told me about his grandparents.

  Unless she just asked him to go and get the puppy, and he did it to appease her. Because he still feels bad.

  ‘I need Ash.’

  I glance down at Bella, who is lying down patiently. She’s always ecstatic to see Ash, he’s always chuffed to bits to see her. But Georgina? I don’t think Georgina really loves the little dog at all. She’s already lining up a new, more marketable upgrade. Not that any dog could be an upgrade on Bella.

  ‘You don’t need Ash.’ We both turn to the door at the sound of the deep voice, and Bella leaps up and launches herself at him. He catches her in his arms and looks at Georgina over her head as she licks his chin.

  It is so obvious whose dog she is. It wouldn’t matter one jot who had their name on the paperwork. There’s one person in this room who loves her far more than the other. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here, Georgie.’ His tone is mild.

  ‘Why the fuck not? I live here! I…’ She pauses. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’ Georgina has gone pale.

  ‘I wanted to make sure Bella was okay.’ His voice is strangely detached. Not the tone of a guy who’s just made it up with his ex after not seeing her for weeks.

  ‘Oh, bloody Bella! You care more about that dog than you ever cared about me. Bella this, Bella that.’ This does not sound like a woman who has b
ought another puppy as part of a ‘getting back together’ pact. She knows. In her heart she knows.

  ‘That’s not fair, Georgina. I cared about you.’

  This is uncomfortable. ‘Maybe I should er, go… pack?’ Pack, haha. Even if I did have somewhere to go, I have been drinking. I’ve had far too much wine to even think about getting in the car. ‘Go to my, er, room.’ Now I sound like a child.

  Although I’m not sure they’d notice at all if I disappeared into thin air. Which would be a better idea – Georgina is blocking access to all my work (and I am NOT going without that) and Ash is blocking the doorway. I jiggle about on the spot, not sure who it is safest to push past first.

  ‘You didn’t care enough to find out where I’ve been!’

  ‘Georgie.’ He sighs. ‘We split up; you know it stopped working a long time ago. Me and this “dive” bore you to tears.’ The way she flinches suggests that is one insult she has actually thrown at him. ‘You’re entitled to go away for a break while you decide what to do. Look.’ He puts Bella on the floor. ‘It was amazing while it lasted.’ Eurgh, amazing. I can taste the bile catch at the back of my throat. I need to get away, crawl through his legs if necessary. I think I may have squeaked. ‘But we’re two different people now. I can’t give you what you want. I need peace, quiet, I don’t want my life on show.’

  ‘But what about Romeo?’ I look from one to the another, and instantly realise that I shouldn’t have spoken. Ash is staring at me like I’ve lost my marbles.

  His brow is furrowed into a frown. ‘I don’t think it’s bad enough for suicide, unless you’re my Juliet?’ I swear there’s a grin teasing at his lovely lips, and something inside me soars. Or it could be the effect of the wine. But either way it’s very hard not to grin back.

  ‘Oh God, I knew it.’ Georgina is pale. I feel awful. ‘I knew it. You didn’t just invite him in here to talk about your… paintings.’ She spins on her heel to face him, and staggers slightly. We really shouldn’t have opened that third bottle. ‘It’s not enough to throw me out of my home—’

  ‘Georgie, I have never thrown—’

  ‘—take my dog, try your best to ruin my career, oh no. You want fucking everything, don’t you, Ashley James? You have to win at any cost.’ She laughs. ‘Everything.’

  ‘What the hell are you going on about?’

  She taps her long, polished acrylic nails on my painting, and I cringe. I want to snatch it off her, but I’m frightened of the reaction I’ll get.

  ‘You even have to have my house-sitter.’ The way she stresses the ‘have’ makes me want to heave.

  I really should have crawled between his legs and gone while I had the chance. This is horrible.

  ‘Well, you know what? You can have her. Though from what I’ve heard she sucks at relationships even more than she sucks at painting!’

  ‘Georgina!’ He thunders her name so loudly we all jump. Bella yelps and dives out of the door, looking for cover, Georgina blanches so pale she looks like she hasn’t seen the sun ever, and I shake but am still thinking about what she’s just said. Where did she get that from? ‘I googled you! Did you think I’d take you on without checking you out?’ I blink. ‘I knew he’d come sniffing around, and you don’t think I wanted some kind of sex goddess waiting for him, did you? I was going to come back.’ A sob lurks at the edge of her voice. Just as quickly as the bravado came, it dies away, leaving an awkward silence.

  ‘I thought you were perfect. A little bit feisty, very distrusting and not much of a catch, and you had lost your job. You upset your ex so much you know, he said on Facebook how you wouldn’t listen, however much he tried to help you, and how he’d found somebody who wasn’t so selfish, who wanted to support him and who wanted to settle down, who’d actually commit to him!’

  I think I am opening and closing my mouth goldfish-fashion. I finally find my voice; it comes out all small and strangled. ‘He didn’t want to settle down!’ That had never been on the cards, never mentioned.

  ‘Whatever, you betrayed him by stealing his ideas and…’

  This time Ash doesn’t bellow, he takes a step towards her. ‘Georgie…’

  ‘But I realise now that I don’t want you after all, Ashley, you really are the sad, stupid man I thought. I’ve had time to think while I’ve been away, and I wouldn’t take you back, not even if you begged. You can have her; you can have each other…’

  ‘Georgina, it’s not like that.’ I shake my head. ‘We’re not about to run off together or anything, it’s just… oh Georgina, I know what it’s like to be in a relationship that isn’t really working. I stuck with my ex Teddy for all the wrong reasons, and I couldn’t see it for ages. I mean, I know, I’m not saying you and Ash were the same, but…’ This is hard. Facing up to the truth always is. I know now that I need to break every tie with Teddy and even Ben, and I’m ready to. And Georgina needs to face up to the truth in her own life. ‘You don’t need Ash, splitting up doesn’t make you look bad, you’re brilliant, you’re doing ace at what you do.’ I shake my head. ‘You don’t need him, Georgina. Really. I’m sorry if we, well, you know, but I thought it was over between the two of you.’

  ‘It is,’ Ash says softly.

  ‘You know what? You’re right. I don’t need either of you, I’m better off on my own. I’m happy!’ It’s obvious she isn’t; her mouth is trembling and her eyes are glistening. But I don’t know her, she’s not a friend, I can’t wrap my arms around her and tell her it will all work out. For a start she might hit me.

  ‘I’m moving somewhere civilised where you don’t get bloody ramblers and all this frigging water.’ She takes a step back. ‘With Romeo!’ She glares at Ash. ‘You said I could have this place for two more weeks. To myself! Don’t you dare shag her while I’m here!’

  ‘Georgie.’ He sighs.

  ‘Oh, I am so over you, so over this place.’ Georgina pushes past. ‘I’m going to bed!’

  ‘Night,’ I say weakly. I feel awful.

  We listen to her stomping her way up the stairs. Her door slams shut. The silence seems bigger than ever after all the noise, the shouting, the bad feeling. I finally dare look Ash’s way, and we share a guilty look.

  ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry you had to hear all that, I was really trying to avoid a scene like this. I had no idea she’d turn up.’ He runs his fingers through his hair looking agitated. ‘If I’d have got here at lunchtime like I was supposed to, before she’d hit the wine…’ Our gazes meet. ‘I never apologised, somebody lost their dog up on the fells and we wanted to find it before it got dark. Then I never thought to phone ahead, I just wanted to get here. See you.’

  ‘Did you find the dog?’ I ask softly. It’s easier to ask about that, than to ask if he really means he rushed back because he missed me.

  Ash nods. ‘Don’t feel you have to go.’ He rests his hand on my arm.

  How can I not feel that I have to go?

  ‘Did you really not know about Romeo?’

  He stares at me blankly. ‘Romeo?’

  ‘You know.’ I reach for my phone. ‘On Instagram.’

  We both stare at the picture. She’s not uploaded the one of him cuddling it yet.

  ‘Don’t see many of them on the Cumbrian fells,’ he says.

  ‘True.’ We swap a smile, but I feel sad. ‘I’ll go tomorrow.’

  ‘One last walk with me and Bella in the morning?’

  ‘I’d like that. Ash?’

  ‘Mm?’

  I frown. ‘She’s got a photo of you, holding Romeo. I saw it. I don’t get it.’

  ‘Ever heard of Photoshop?’ He takes my hand, leads me back onto the terrace and pulls me onto his lap, then takes his own mobile phone out.

  We sit in silence as he scrolls through. The light upstairs clicks off, and there’s only the moon left to streak across the lake, a searchlight in the dark.

  ‘Was the photo like this?’ He’s got a quirky grin on his face.

  ‘Like that.’ It looks just the
same, but there’s a baby Bella cupped in his hands. He looks so happy that it brings a lump to my chest.

  This was why she hadn’t uploaded the photo. It wasn’t for the wider world, for her Insta audience – it was for me. She’d been warning me off.

  ‘She said you were angry when you came back home for good, demanding, asked me if I’d seen you in a temper.’

  ‘I was lots of things when I came back. Mainly frustrated and unhappy, angry at myself, but I’ve never really had much of a temper. Did she actually say I did?’

  I close my eyes, rest my head against his chest and think. ‘She said she bet I hadn’t seen you in one.’

  ‘She’s clever.’ I can feel his smile against my hair. ‘She always did have a way of saying things that makes you jump to the wrong conclusion. She was nice once, is nice, really, you know. Lovely. We worked for a while. Don’t think she’s all bad. She’s just angry at the world, at me, she’s used to things going her own way.’ He sighs. ‘We just weren’t good for each other anymore and somebody had to say it.’

  ‘It’s hard sometimes to actually do it.’

  ‘It is. It’s hard sometimes to see it. But we all just do our best, don’t we?’

  ‘She’ll probably thank you one day.’

  He laughs, a short laugh, but it isn’t harsh, just slightly disbelieving. ‘I don’t think we’ll hold our breaths on that one, eh? I suppose I better go, it’s not fair on her, knowing I’m here.’

  ‘I guess so.’ I struggle to my feet. ‘Where’s Bella? Are you going to take her?’

  ‘I might as well, before Georgina changes her mind! Bella!’ he calls softly.