She tapped on Liam’s door and, after receiving no reply, pushed against the doorstop her son used to deter unwelcome visitors. The door opened only a fraction, revealing a darkened room thick with stale air. A flicker of blue light suggested Liam was using some form of electronic device to communicate with his virtual world.
‘Liam?’
When she received a grunt in response, she asked, ‘How was your first day back?’
‘Fine.’
‘Dinner won’t be long. Bryn’s trying out a new recipe.’
Nina hadn’t posed a question so received no answer or acknowledgement.
‘Have you made plans for the weekend?’ she continued, and although it was a question this time, an answer wasn’t necessary. If Liam had friends outside school, they rarely met, not in the real world at least. ‘Sarah’s suggested we all go out for Sunday lunch. I’d like us all to go.’
There was a hiss of annoyance, but not an outright refusal.
‘OK?’ she asked.
‘OK, Mum. Is that all?’
‘Great, lovely. I’m so looking forward to having quality time with my family,’ she muttered under her breath as she closed the door and turned her attention towards Scarlett’s room.
Of the two adolescents Nina had to contend with, she held out most hope for Scarlett. At fifteen, she was still young enough to want to please her mum, or at least Nina hoped that was the case. She tapped lightly on the door and walked in.
Scarlett was sitting at her dressing table absorbed in the task of applying dramatic sweeps of eyeliner to accentuate violet eyes that were already guaranteed to draw attention. She had always been a pretty child and undoubtedly she would become a beautiful woman one day, but at that precise moment she was somewhere in between and it didn’t rest easy with Nina. Her daughter had plenty of friends who were boys and one day, perhaps soon, she would break someone’s heart and most likely have hers broken in return. The best Nina could hope for was that Scarlett wouldn’t follow her example and leave it until middle age to find the one.
‘Scarlett!’ Nina shouted loud enough to be heard above the music being channelled through headphones and assaulting her daughter’s eardrums.
Scarlett jumped and the delicate flick of black she had been applying zigzagged towards her temple.
‘For f—’ Scarlett began, only to check herself. ‘Flipping heck, Mum. What did you do that for? You scared the sh—, the life out of me!’
Try as she might, Nina couldn’t keep a straight face. ‘I think you need to redo your makeup.’
Scarlett turned back to the mirror and examined the damage. ‘Oh great, now I’ll have to start again. I’m going to be late.’
‘Late out, but not late back,’ Nina told her. ‘Where are you going anyway?’
‘Only Eva’s.’
‘To do homework?’ Nina asked hopefully.
‘On the first day back? Not even my teachers are that mean.’
‘How was school?’
Scarlett pulled a face. ‘Mrs Russell has left. She got a better job in Chester.’
‘Good for her,’ Nina said. Scarlett owed much of her academic success to the woman who had been her form tutor for the last four years. Whenever there had been a suggestion that she was becoming distracted or disheartened, Mrs Russell had managed to get her back on an even keel. ‘You’re going to miss her, aren’t you?’
Scarlett shrugged. She preferred not to admit to liking any of her teachers and Nina had to read between the lines. ‘So who’s her replacement?’
Wiping her eyelid with a dampened cotton bud, Scarlett appeared disinterested in both the question and her answer. ‘Mr Swift.’
‘Ooh, isn’t he that good-looking English teacher?’
The soiled cotton bud was cast across the dressing table. ‘Urgh, if you’re into ancient relics.’ A smile began to form as she drew her dazzling violet eyes away from her reflection and towards her mum. ‘He’s about to turn thirty and the whole of our form convinced him he’s losing his hair. He’s probably gone home to ask his wife if he really does have the massive bald spot we all swore we could see.’
‘The poor man.’
‘Linus said he’s going to bring in one of his granddad’s caps as a birthday present.’
‘Ah yes, Linus. Will he be at Eva’s tonight?’
‘Probably,’ Scarlett said as she began reapplying her eyeliner.
Scarlett had spent most of the summer helping her best friend Eva convert her parent’s garage into a crash pad. She had stayed over so often that Nina had felt obliged to send groceries as a contribution to Eva’s parents’ burgeoning shopping bill. According to Eva’s mum, they had a strict no smoking and no drinking policy in place, and thanks to an internal door that meant an adult could barge in at any moment, Nina was reassured that they weren’t up to anything else either.
‘I hope you behave yourselves.’
There was a split second where Scarlett might have been about to ask her mother what she meant, but they had already had that conversation and Scarlett was in no hurry for a repeat. ‘We will.’
Having remained on the threshold, Nina looked over her shoulder towards Liam’s closed door. ‘Boys might seem a mystery to you now, but, believe me, it doesn’t get any better.’
The comment had been directed to herself as much as it was to her daughter, and Scarlett chose not to respond.
‘You do know you can talk to me about anything, don’t you?’ Nina continued.
Scarlett huffed, suggesting she didn’t quite agree.
‘What?’
‘I would have thought you’re too loved up to be bothered about what’s going on in my life any more.’
‘Just because Bryn is here, it doesn’t mean I haven’t got time for you, Scarlett,’ Nina said carefully. ‘I know you’re getting to an age where you can make your own decisions, and I trust you to make the right ones, but sometimes it helps to talk them through with someone, and not only me. Maybe Bryn can give you the male perspective where I can’t.’
Scarlett put down her eyeliner. ‘OK, Mum, is this conversation about me, or could it possibly be about Bryn?’ she asked.
Nina felt her heart being pulled in two opposing directions. She and her children had made a formidable partnership over the years and she didn’t want that part of her life to change. ‘All I ask is for you and Liam to give him a chance. He’s not trying to foist himself on you as your new dad. We both know you’d only resent him if he tried.’ Nina left a pause in the hope that Scarlett might tell her she was worrying for nothing, but her silence told her all she needed to know. ‘Please, Scarlett.’
Scarlett bit her lip. This was another conversation they’d had many times before, right up to the eve of her wedding, in fact. Both Liam and Scarlett had needed some convincing that Bryn wasn’t a con artist preying on a lonely woman who just so happened to have a house and a business. It didn’t help that Bryn had made the mistake of mentioning to Sarah that he had been made bankrupt in a previous life, and so Sarah had sided with the children. Nina had told them to trust her judgement, and although that argument hadn’t been completely won, she clung to the hope that one day Scarlett and Liam would come to love Bryn as much as she did.
‘I’ll try,’ Scarlett promised.
Leaving a pause that was thick with disappointment, Nina asked, ‘What time are you planning on coming home?’
‘Eleven.’
‘Ten.’
‘Ten-thirty?’
‘If you’re expecting me to pick you up, it has to be ten o’clock, Scarlett. Some of us have to get up at five.’
‘I could walk. It’s not far.’
‘Not at that time of night.’
‘I’ll get a taxi.’
‘Bryn will be out then, I could ask him to pick you up?’
The refusal was already forming on Scarlett’s lips, but with her promise to her mum still fresh in both their minds, she managed another shrug. ‘I suppose.’
‘Gr
eat, so that’s settled. And like I said earlier, don’t think this is a regular occurrence. As of next week, studying begins in earnest. You’ve worked really hard to get this far, don’t fall at the last hurdle, Scarlett.’
‘Mum, it’s the first day, at least give me a chance to mess up before you go into nag mode,’ Scarlett replied before returning to the task of putting on her makeup.
Rather than leave, Nina crept deeper into the room until she was standing behind her daughter. She waited for Scarlett to stop what she was doing and look at her mum through the reflection in the mirror. Nina kissed the top of her head. ‘Sorry. I should have more faith in you,’ she said.
‘No arguments from me,’ Scarlett said with a smile and the kind of assured tone that Nina was convinced would see her daughter achieve the A-star grades her teachers were predicting.
Sunday, 6 September 2015
There was a varied selection of restaurants in and around Sedgefield, and if it were up to Nina, she would have been happy enough with the local pub for Sunday lunch, but Sarah had other ideas. The two friends had known each other from childhood, back when Nina had helped out at her dad’s shop and Sarah had faced a similar plight in the shop next door. Unfortunately for Sarah, her father had been a butcher; she would often sneak off to help Nina with her flower arranging, if only to avoid the smell of blood and guts.
Despite the similarity in their backgrounds, Sarah’s life had taken turns that neither of them could have imagined. Sarah would say she had more of an incentive to turn from the paths their parents had led them towards, but it also helped that she had a driving ambition. She had gradually taken over the management of the butcher’s and introduced new product lines until the business was as well known for its delicatessen as it was for fresh meat. When she had married Miles, he had encouraged her to diversify into property management and goodness knew what else. Nina often wondered what she might have made of herself if she had hated flowers as much as Sarah hated raw meat. Would she have gone on to explore new and exciting opportunities instead of being satisfied with business as usual?
As things stood, Nina lived an average life with average expectations, while Sarah had become accustomed to a certain level of service. Pub grub would not do and a table had been booked at the Stone Bridge, a restaurant that overlooked the Bridgewater Canal and was on track for its first Michelin star.
‘Are we happy with the table?’ Miles asked, pulling out a chair for his wife.
Nina had already taken her seat and felt Bryn’s hand on the back of her chair in a clumsy attempt to follow Miles’ example. ‘It’s a lovely view,’ she said.
‘Hmm,’ Miles said, glancing out of the window only briefly. They were on the upper floor of the restaurant, which had a grand view of the dense Cheshire countryside that had yet to be touched by autumn’s scorching fingers. Sarah’s husband was more interested in checking the distance between their table and those on either side, which were both occupied. Even if he had wanted to move, which he was obviously considering, the restaurant was almost full and their options would be limited. ‘I suppose it will do.’
‘I hope you’re all hungry,’ Sarah said, ‘and I don’t want to hear anyone suggesting we skip starters.’ She was directing the comment towards Scarlett and added, ‘You can always give dessert a miss if you want to watch your figure.’
Scarlett blushed fiercely but said nothing.
‘She doesn’t need to watch her figure. She’s perfect as she is,’ Bryn said.
His tone had been light but there was no mistaking the defensiveness in his remark and it made Nina smile. He was protecting her family, but judging from Sarah’s expression she wasn’t reading it that way.
‘You think so?’ she said, raising an eyebrow.
Nina held her friend’s gaze long enough to let her know she should keep her thoughts to herself. The only reason she had gone along with Sarah’s suggestion that they all have lunch was because she saw it as a way to cement her new husband’s place amongst her friends and family. It was not another opportunity for Sarah to sit in judgement of Bryn, and she had told her as much.
‘Of course it’s perfect,’ Sarah continued, with a small nod of apology to Nina. ‘You’re turning into quite a stunner, Scarlett. Your mum’s going to have to keep her eye on you.’
Scarlett slunk lower in her chair, threatening to disappear and never return.
‘How’s business, Miles?’ Nina asked, to divert attention. After all these years she still wasn’t sure what exactly Miles did, other than he was something big in engineering and the demand for his skills took him all over the world.
‘Busy as always,’ he said, ‘and it doesn’t help that my darling wife has a habit of jumping from one new project to another while expecting me to sort out the paperwork for what is meant to be her company.’
‘But you’re far better at it than I am,’ Sarah said with a playful smile. ‘And there’s so much to do.’
‘Which means I should be back at home sorting things out, but you insisted, and what Sarah wants, Sarah gets.’
‘Well, we’re glad you could make it,’ Nina answered, ‘aren’t we, Bryn?’
‘Most definitely. I know how work can take over your life.’
Miles gave a disinterested nod and it was Sarah who asked, ‘Have you never thought of starting up a business again?’
Bryn seemed to consider the possibility for a moment, only to shake his head. ‘Printing was all I knew, but the industry changed so fast. I wouldn’t know where to begin these days, and I wouldn’t want to try. Taxi-driving suits me fine: not as much stress and more time to spend with Nina and the kids.’
‘Have you been working this weekend?’ Sarah asked.
‘Yeah, and I’ll probably go out for a few hours tonight, although it’s hardly worth the effort on Sundays.’
Scarlett stopped gazing out of the window and turned an arched eyebrow towards Bryn. ‘Could you pick me up later?’
‘Pick you up from where?’ Nina demanded.
‘Eva’s,’ Scarlett said, as if it were obvious.
‘You were there last night and it’s school tomorrow.’
‘Oh, let the girl live a little,’ Miles said. ‘Is there a boy on the scene by any chance?’
Nina was about to come to her daughter’s rescue again, but this was a question she had asked often enough and it was refreshing to hear it from someone else.
‘No.’
‘How about you, Liam?’ Sarah asked.
All eyes turned to Nina’s eldest, who had kept his head down and his eyes fixed on his smartphone throughout the entire conversation. Nina had warned Sarah not to make any remarks if he insisted on using it during their meal; it had been part of the deal to get Liam there in the first place.
‘Yes, Liam, are you seeing any boys?’ Miles said. He was the only one to laugh at his joke.
Nina was about to say that it didn’t matter which of the sexes her son preferred provided he was happy; but saying such a thing would only expose the fact that this was a possibility she had considered. She really didn’t care if he was interested in girls or boys, just as long as he was interested in someone with a pulse. She had shared her concerns with Sarah and suspected her friend had continued to speculate on Liam’s sexuality with Miles.
Liam lifted his gaze and fixed it on Miles. Her son didn’t speak often but when he did, he used his words to full effect. ‘Sorry, Miles, you’re not my type.’
From the corner of her eye, Nina knew Bryn was trying not to laugh, which made it doubly hard to suppress her own smile. She would have liked nothing better than to high-five her son.
After placing their orders, it was Sarah who kept the conversation flowing. And while she was busy telling Bryn how her company supplied the hummus he had ordered for starters, Nina let her mind wander. She looked at her children in turn and wondered how the next critical years in their lives would play out. She was hoping that her marriage would add some stability to their lives
; although they weren’t quite there yet, Scarlett appeared more comfortable in Bryn’s company of late, possibly because she had worked out that she had a chauffeur at her beck and call. Except she didn’t look comfortable now, Nina realized when she saw a deep blush rising in her daughter’s cheeks.
‘What’s wrong, Scarlett?’ Nina asked quietly.
‘Nothing.’
Scarlett pressed her chin to her chest. Her sleek blonde hair fell over her shoulders and partially obscured her face while she played with her hands.
Liam was first to locate the source of her embarrassment. ‘It’s Mr Swift,’ he said, tipping his head to the far side of the restaurant.
Scarlett’s form tutor was even more handsome than Nina remembered and, in contradiction to his students’ teasing, his thick dark hair showed no signs of thinning. On the few occasions she had spoken to him at parents’ evening, she had been almost tongue-tied, but it was Mr Swift who looked lost for words at present. He was with a small group consisting of two women and a young child, and was as yet unaware of the attention he had drawn from their table, being fully preoccupied with the two helium balloons that had been tied to the back of his chair. A large silver number three and a matching zero.
‘I remember him, he was one of Charlotte’s teachers,’ Sarah said. ‘Why didn’t we have teachers like that in our day, Nina?’
‘Maybe we should go and say hello,’ she suggested.
Scarlett snapped her head towards her mum. ‘Don’t you dare!’
‘She’s only teasing,’ Bryn said. ‘Even your mum wouldn’t embarrass you that much.’
‘I think the embarrassment is all his,’ Miles said. ‘I spent my thirtieth in New York having a whale of a time.’
‘Would that be the business trip you were forced to take while I was at home caring for our baby girl?’
The Affair Page 2