This caused a degree of hilarity at the table but wasn’t doing anything to improve Janine’s temper.
‘Let it go, Janine,’ muttered Finn. She hesitated for a moment but had the sense to read the room. She lowered her voice. ‘Just you wait, Finn, just you see how much access you get to those kids after this.’
At that, she swept out of the pub. Cassie felt shaken and Finn looked positively grey.
‘Don’t you mind her, son,’ said one of the men kindly. ‘She’s only an old wagon. I know the type.’
‘What a ’mare,’ observed another. ‘Reminds me of my ex. See that?’ he said, jabbing his finger at his balding head while looking in Cassie’s direction. ‘She done that to me.’
The problem was that Janine did potentially have some power. Mean, vindictive power maybe, but power nonetheless. They sat in silence, flinching at the surreptitious glances and mutterings around them.
‘God, I’m sorry, maybe we should’ve left .?.?.’
‘Babe, you were absolutely right. I’ve nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe it wasn’t the wisest thing to come here in the first place, but if not now .?.?. when?’
Babe. It was a long time since she’d been called that. It felt lovely.
‘I thought you stayed calm and handled it brilliantly.’
‘Yeah?’
She squeezed his hand. ‘Yeah. You couldn’t have dealt with it better.’
She knew that if they’d been in private, he’d have kissed her.
‘Thanks, but there’s no point pretending. She could make life hell for me.’
‘Your child custody hasn’t been made official yet?’
He shook his head.
‘Right now, it’s all based around goodwill, which works fine .?.?. until it doesn’t. And the last thing I need is that one sticking her oar in. The only good thing is that Marisha doesn’t particularly like her. And Marisha’s job is high pressure, so breaks from the kids actually suit her. She always seems in pretty good form when I collect them.’
This provoked an unease in Cassie. She loved the feeling of being trusted with painful family stuff but, on the other hand, there was something unnerving about the familiarity with which he still spoke about his ex-wife. The rest of the pub appeared to have lost interest in their drama and gone back to their own conversations. Nonetheless, it was a relief to see the tables clearing and the crowd thinning out. The men who’d come to their rescue stood up to go, and one of them leaned over to speak to Finn.
‘This’ll pass,’ he said and patted his shoulder. ‘Don’t let the haters call the shots.’
It was a kindly remark and it seemed as though Finn welcomed it, especially as the other man exuded an air of quiet authority. Finn nodded and Cassie noticed that he was looking down busily at his phone, holding back tears.
‘Let’s go,’ she said, reaching for her coat.
They stood outside together in the cold night, in the same spot they’d been only a couple of hours earlier, but Cassie could feel a shift in the air. The season was changing.
Chapter 12
Mam couldn’t stop talking about the new apartment.
‘And tell me, is there a kitchen island?’
‘Yes.’
‘Five hundred a month, that sounds like an awful lot.’
‘It isn’t.’
‘Well, I can come with you on Saturday to help you carry some stuff. You don’t want to be up and down in the lift like a yo-yo.’
Cassie sighed. That much she could concede to. Mam was also bursting with curiosity about Ramona, not to mention feeling more than a little guilty about the speed of her daughter’s exit.
