Wear boots, Esther.
No, I’m wearing flip-flops!
You can’t take that fur coat, it’ll be like wearing a rug.
It’s fine, it’s really light!
However, today she decides to listen to what he’s saying. For what feels like an age, she lets him talk and doesn’t interrupt at all. They sit there together with the small bunch of pink carnations that he’d dropped on the floor now lying next to her on the bed.
‘Thanks, Dad,’ Esther murmurs finally.
‘What for, love?’
She looks at him and manages a wobbly smile. ‘For not saying I told you so.’
‘Oh, Est.’ He shakes his head. ‘I’m not going to do that, am I?’
‘No, I know you’re not. I’m just …’ She tails off and exhales forcefully. ‘I’ll need to get some things together, okay? Will you wait for me?’
‘Of course I’ll wait. I’ll wait as long as it takes, Est. Where d’you think I’m going?’
She grimaces. ‘How’re we going to do this?’
‘Just get your basics together. We’ll get a cab over to mine. We can come back for the rest another time—’
‘No, I want to take my stuff, Dad.’
‘What,allof it?’
‘There’s not much,’ she insists, jumping up. She knows he’s remembering the three suitcases she’d packed for Corsica, but there’s no way she’s leaving without her precious things.
‘I just think we should get going,’ her dad starts. ‘Before I punch him—’
‘Don’t do that! It won’t help—’
‘No, I know it won’t. But c’mon, Est. Let’s get your stuff.’
‘Can you reach those down for me?’ She indicates the cases stashed on top of the double wardrobe. ‘There’s another one under the bed. Can you get that too?’
He presses a thumb and forefinger over the top of his nose before doing as she asks. Esther starts to pull out stuff from various drawers and flings it all into the cases. She darts out to the bathroom and hurries back into the bedroom with armful of pots and bottles, all those mysterious potions that, seemingly, she can’t live without. ‘What’s he doing anyway?’ her dad asks, meaning Miles.
‘Keeping out of the way. I think he’s a bit scared of you, Dad.’
He splutters. ‘So he should be.’
‘You can actually be quite fierce.’ Surprisingly, Esther finds herself smiling as she squashes several sweaters into a case. ‘Could you go through that pile,’ she adds, indicating the mound on the floor, ‘and see if my red shoes are there?’
‘Esther, we need to go.’
‘They’re my favourites.’
‘You can get another pair—’
‘They’re last season!’
‘So?’ He genuinely doesn’t understand.
‘They don’tdothem anymore, Dad …’
