“You should go brush your hair.” She tuts. “Use my bathroom. I have make-up wipes in the cupboard.”
“Thanks, Mum, but I’ll politely decline.” It kills mum that since I left Daniel, I turn up more often than not to family lunch not ‘put together’. She wakes up and puts on a full face of makeup regardless of whether or not she’s even planning on leaving the house that day.
Mum throws me disapproving glances as she makes her way around the table. Just as she places the last plate down, the doorbell chimes and she throws me one last hopeless glance before she rushes to answer it.
“Ten bucks says it’s the solar panel guy and mum giveshim half an hour,” Tony says as he swipes a small, crusty loaf of bread from the table.
“Make it twenty, and I vote Avon. She’ll come back in with a new lipstick,” I reply, snagging the bread from Tony’s grasp and taking a bite. I hope it isn’t the solar panel guy. Ireallydon’t have ten bucks to spare right now.
“Stop it you two.” Dad huffs, but there’s nothing but amusement dancing in his eyes as they skim across the page of his paper.
“This isn’t the sixties, you know.” Lia laughs, the sound a pleasant tinkle. “People don’t go door-to-door selling stuff anymore.”
When I hear Mum greeting someone followed by the sound of heavy foot steps coming down the hallway, I look around at Tony and Lia. They both shrug their shoulders at my silent question. Dad still has his head buried in his newspaper.
That’s when my eyes snag on the extra place setting at the table. A sudden, foreboding hum takes root beneath my skin just as Mum steps back into the dining room with a huge beam on her face, followed closely by my estranged husband, Daniel.
Daniel, who’s tall, wide frame is taking up the entire threshold to the dining room, stands with his hands casually resting in the pockets of his jeans as if he has not a care in the world.
What the fuck?
My breath hitches in my throat as I turn my attention back to Mum, who looks as though she’s presenting me with a brand-new shiny car and not the asshole I’ve wasted the last ten years of my life on.
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.
“What are you doing here?” Tony demands into the awkward silence, plucking the thought straight from my mind. Dad has put the paper down and is now sitting forward in his chair. Neither of them have seen Daniel in six months, and their show of solidarity makes my heart briefly swell with affection.
“Come on, let’s go and get your hands washed,” Lia says to Leo, lifting my nephew off his chair and directing him back though the kitchen. This is a conversation she probably doesn’t want him around for.
Daniel, however, seems completely unfazed by the unwelcome reaction to his presence. He smiles wider at Tony, showing off his whiter-than-white teeth.
“I’ve come for lunch,” he says, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. As arrogant as ever, I bet he thinks he can get back into my family’s good graces with a bit of chit-chat over Mum’s melanzane.
Judging by the way Mum’s ogling him, he’s already got one in the bag.
All of a sudden I feel really silly sitting here, hungover and feeling like shit, while Daniel looks better than ever, like the last six months never happened. The urge to cry appears out of nowhere, prickling the back of my eyes. The brief feelings of power and control that my night with the sexy stranger evoked within me, however badly it ended, vanish into thin air like they were never even there to begin with. Now I’m just the same old Gianna that I’ve always been, letting everyone around me decide what happens in my life while I sit back and take it.
“Why?” Tony spits through his teeth.
“I invited him,” Mum says like she hasn’t just gone and dropped a nuclear bomb on lunch. She places a hand on Daniel’s back and directs him to the seat next to Tony, sothat he’s opposite me, while I sit like a stunned mullet and watch my tormentor join family lunch. How could she do this?
Of course I know the answer to that. Mum thinks she’s doing what’s best for me by trying to patch up my marriage. You think she would ask me first if that’s what Iwant, but this is the way it’s always been. I just do what I’m told. Living by myself in the city since I left Daniel is the most free and happy I’ve been in years, but now after a single appearance from Daniel I can feel the walls closing in on me, the puppeteer’s strings snaking towards my wrists, trying to force my hand and dictate how I should be living my life once again as though the last six months never happened. My palms slick with sweat and my skin feels clammy.
Useless. Dumb. Nothing.
Daniel’s pet names for me behind closed doors, playing in my head constantly like a mantra.
“Elena,” Dad barks from the head of the table, shocking me out of my thoughts. Mum’s name sounds like a warning in his deep voice, but Mum just waves him off as if there’s no problem here.
“What? It’s just a friendly lunch.” She quickly disappears out the door to the kitchen, returning seconds later with a piping hot dish. The rest of us just sit in stunned silence. I can feel three sets of eyes on me as Mum dishes out pasta on to Dad’s plate, waiting for my reaction. I look down at my fingernails, pretending to inspect my non-existent manicure while trying to calm my racing heart.
“This looks delicious as usual, Mrs M,” Daniel says, leaning back into his chair. It’s like he’s immune to awkwardness. I peek a look up at him, assessing him more closely now that he’s right in front of me. The sight of him floods me with red hot anger. I don’t know what I wasexpecting him to look like now. Heartbroken, maybe? What does that even look like? According to the movies, he should be five kilos lighter, his hair outgrown and messy, the beginnings of a beard on his face as he lacks the will to go on without me. If I had it in me I would scoff. Daniel doesn’t look heartbroken, not that I actually believed he would. He looks gorgeous. Like he hasn’t missed a day in the gym and is on a first-name basis with his barber. As if I should have expected anything less from the narcissistic bastard.
What a fucking asshole.
Good, anger is good. I’ll take anger over helplessness any day.
“So, Daniel. What have you been up to?” Mum asks as she passes the tongs to Tony.Since Gianna caught you fucking a teenager and left you-I’m sure everyone finishes the sentence in their heads. Well, I know I do.
