‘You’ve turned a corner, Gio.’
‘I’ve been progressing for ages.’
‘I’m not talking about physically,’ she said when they were done with the squats. ‘I’m talking about mentally.’
Aysha called him her star pupil after they finished up another couple of exercises and he felt ridiculously happy withthe praise. He felt like today, he was getting to see a glimpse of the man he’d been. And he liked what he saw.
On a high, Gio decided the exercises and the short walk earlier was enough for the day. He didn’t want any setbacks and so he made some dinner and parked himself in front of a movie.
He was beginning to drift off when his phone rang beside him. He’d started to dream about Bess, not something he wanted to be disturbed from, but he reluctantly answered the call and mumbled a hello.
It was his mother. He put a finger in his opposite ear. ‘Mum, speak up, I can’t hear you. Where are you? Is Bess having a party or something?’ That or her television was on so loud, it sounded like they were.
He got fragmented pieces of speech – ‘Gio… with Bess… pub… no money… taxi.’
All he heard in that spiel was the word ‘pub’ and he closed his eyes. This couldn’t be happening.
‘Gio… sorry…’
And then came a crashing sound, anOh my God!, followed by a lot of laughing.
She was off her face.
A male voice took the call and Gio realised it was the landlord. ‘Look, mate, she’s wasted, needs to be picked up. Neither of them have any more money or cards on them.’ He sounded unimpressed. It was one thing to drink in his pub, another thing entirely to cause trouble and hassle.
Gio thought about putting the phone down, washing his hands of it all. But he wouldn’t be the man he was if he did that. ‘Get them a cab or whatever. Take them to Bess’s place and I’ll make my way there to pay the fare.’ If he left now, he’d arrive around about the same time if they got a lift in the next ten minutes.
He felt like putting his fist through a wall. Why? Why had she done this to them again?
He pulled on his coat, picked up his walking stick, but immediately swapped it for the crutches. Funny how you got used to something you’d once resented. They’d get him there a lot quicker than the stick.
He couldn’t bear the thought of Bess being angry at him, that this could interfere with their friendship or anything that might have had a chance to develop between them. She’d taken his mother in as a lodger, he’d assured Bess that she would make the rent. He hadn’t thought he’d have to also explain her addiction and that it could cause no end of problems. Bess didn’t deserve this.
Marco was going to sayI told you so,and not only that, he wouldn’t be bringing himself and his kids here to visit any time soon either.
The cold air whipped at his cheeks as he made his way to Bess’s. He thought about the dinner they’d shared, his mother’s face radiating joy, the pride practically bursting out of her.
But tonight, she’d ruined everything. Again.
And this time, Gio wasn’t sure even he could manage to be so gracious as to give her another chance.
20
Bess woke up bleary-eyed the morning after the pub. And right away, she remembered the contents of the brown envelope that had been lying in wait for her before she headed up to bed the night of her dinner with Marianne and Gio.
The letter was the most frightening one yet.
Bess had thought she was on top of it all, at least as much as she could be for now. Her mortgage payment had gone out of her account, she’d paid her electricity bill, the amount owing on the payday loan, and she’d worked out she could afford to pay the minimum amounts for two credit cards as well. What she’d failed to realise the significance of was the missed council tax payment. Somehow in the haze of so much debt, she’d not registered the urgency of the demands she’d been getting, and she’d let it go a step too far.
The letter that had been lurking on her doormat obscured at the edges of the thick curtain she’d drawn across her front door was a court summons. Going by the date, the saving grace was that it had only been there since that morning. But it was small comfort when she opened it to read that she was being taken tocourt! There would be additional court costs, she would have to find the full amount to cover the council tax bill for the entire year. And the only way to avoid court was by paying that amount before the deadline.
Which was impossible.
She’d dropped the letter at her feet and sobbed her heart out before taking her troubles up to bed.
She hadn’t slept a wink, she got through work the next day on autopilot and as she let herself into the house after shift, her problems engulfed her yet again. And that was why when Nadia’s text came through to ask whether she’d make up the numbers on the pub quiz team, she’d accepted straight away.
She wanted to forget everything, if only for a moment. One more night out and then she’d have to take action, maybe start selling some of the contents of her house to pay her debts – her television could go, her furniture. Maybe the car would have to be sold, although she needed some form of transport for work. Whatever she did, it had to get her out of this mess that scared her deep to her core.
