I walked over and put my arms around him, hearing his heart racing against my ear. Jay had told me about the bullying he endured in secondary school; being a shy and gentle child who wasn’t into sport, he had been easy prey. I knew he still carried the scars around after all these years so it was entirely natural that his protective instinct was going to go into overdrive if he felt his son was going through the same thing.
‘I know you had a rough time of it and I hate that you experienced that. I don’t want Finn to go through that either butthis is different,’ I assured him. I felt his body soften against me as the fight left him. ‘I promise you, I’ll keep a close eye on them and if I feel Elliot is out of line, I’ll speak to Maya – deal?’
Jay shrugged. ‘I guess so…’ he conceded.
30
MAYA
I couldn’t sleep a wink that night. When we had left the O’Dowds’, I had been so busy trying to keep the peace between Hugo, Liv and Jay and making sure Elliot didn’t cause any more trouble that all I had cared about was getting out of there as quickly as I could but now that I was home, the anxiety had started to set in. I had lain awake all night, worrying about the situation and thinking about what I should say to Liv. She had become such a good friend and confidante to me and I didn’t want this to come between us. As I wrestled and tussled with what was the right thing to do, I eventually decided I would call over to their house the following morning to apologise.
The thing was, although Hugo was adamant that Elliot would never have deliberately hurt Finn, I wasn’t so sure. Hugo didn’t spend as much time with Elliot as I did and he probably hadn’t noticed the recent shift in our child’s behaviour. Since he had started school, he was acting out more, throwing tantrums when things didn’t go his way. He had also become territorial and possessive with his toys. And something else had happened. Something that niggled inside me and made a little voice in my head say that maybe Elliot wasn’t entirely innocent in all of this.Just last week, Ms Higgins had phoned me to say that he had hit another child in the yard at break time. I hadn’t told Hugo about it; I wasn’t too concerned at the time and then it had gone out of my head. I had put it down to the huge adjustment that starting school takes for a child, the overload and tiredness that this new stage brings. When I had suggested this as a possible reason for his behaviour, his teacher had agreed with me that sometimes, it took children a little while to settle. But what if it was something more? It seemed too coincidental that a similar incident should happen only a few days later. What if Elliot had picked up on the tension between Hugo and me and this was his way of expressing himself?
I got up that morning and got dressed. I didn’t tell Hugo where I was going; I knew he’d be furious if I told him I was calling over to apologise so I just said I was going out for a while. I sat into my car and headed straight to the florist that was at the top of the road. I chose a bunch of blush-coloured roses. She wrapped them in brown paper and then I set off towards their house.
I had to go right down to the end of their street before I eventually found a space. I parked parallel with the footpath, then I got out and walked to their door. A dog barked and a persistent house alarm pierced the air. When I arrived at the door, I took a deep breath to steel myself before pressing the bell.
Jay answered the door to me. His hair was tousled and it looked like he wasn’t long out of bed. He was wearing shorts that I suspected were pyjama shorts. They were loosely tied and his belly hung over the drawstring, peeking out just beneath his t-shirt.
‘Maya,’ he exclaimed. ‘I-I wasn’t expecting you…’
‘Sorry, I can come back later if this isn’t a good time,’ I said, thumbing over my shoulder towards where my car was parked.
He ran a hand through his long hair. ‘No, no, of course not, come in.’
I stepped inside.
‘Liv?’ he called upstairs. ‘Maya’s here.’
After a minute, Liv appeared at the top of the stairs wrapped in a huge, fleecy dressing gown which she had belted around her waist. Her hair was wet and hung lank around her shoulders.
‘Maya!’ she exclaimed, making her way down the stairs towards me. ‘This is a surprise. Jay got up with Finn this morning so I had a lie-in. I’ve just had a shower,’ she added to explain why she was still in her dressing gown.
‘I should have told you I was coming,’ I apologised. ‘But I just wanted to drop these in.’ I handed her the flowers.
‘Oh,’ she said, taken aback. ‘What are these for?’
‘I just wanted to apologise… for last night…’
‘You didn’t need to do that.’
‘I wanted to.’
‘Well, they’re beautiful. You shouldn’t have done that; you brought flowers yesterday too. We’ll be opening a florist at this rate.’ She laughed. ‘Come on in.’
I followed her into the kitchen where Jay was stirring a teaspoon around two mugs.
‘I thought you two might like a coffee,’ he said. I noticed a jar of Nescafé stood with its lid off on the countertop. He took the spoon out, dripping coffee across the worktop, before laying it on the counter where it made a small pool. I had to restrain myself from picking it up and putting it in the dishwasher. He placed a coffee in front of me and handed one to Liv.
‘Thanks, love,’ Liv said, reaching in to give him a kiss on the cheek.
‘Do you take sugar, Maya?’ he asked.
I shook my head. ‘I’m sweet enough already.’ I cringed as I trotted out the timeworn response.
They both indulged me with a smile.
‘Thank you, Jay,’ I said, taking the mug gratefully and taking a sip. Even though it was instant, it wasn’t as bad as I feared.
