‘No, I’ll come and get you.’
‘What? At the airport, you mean? You don’t need to do that…’
‘No, I’d like to. I’ll come out to Stansted and bring you all into town. I’ll drop off Pearl and Lena at their places too?—’
‘Really?’ she gasps.
‘Yeah. ’Course I will.’ He feigns hurt at her surprise that he can do something nice for other people. ‘It’s not a big deal,’ he insists, really embracing the role now. Because somehow, it feels that this single act will cancel out all the lying and deceit and awfulness. Somehow, it’ll turn Joel into adecent guy.‘They’ll want to get home and enjoy Christmas Eve, won’t they?’ he goes on. ‘Lena will want to see Tommy, and Pearl will be keen to see, er, thingie…’ A minor slip-up there – he can never remember Pearl’s kid’s name – but Shelley doesn’t seem to notice.
‘Wow. That’s really sweet of you, honey. I know they’ll appreciate that.’ He senses her smiling. ‘And thanks for manningthe fort there. Honestly, it’s amazing here. So beautiful and lovely to have this time with the girls. It’s doing me so much good to be away, you know? After all the worry at work, the job cuts and everything…’ He starts to faze off. He has never managed to be interested in Shelley’s job. ‘…And thanks for the other stuff too,’ Shelley adds.
‘What stuff?’ he croaks.
‘Just those last bits I asked you to do. Dropping off the neighbours’ Christmas cards and wrapping those presents…’
‘That was no trouble.’ His voice is oddly high pitched. ‘No trouble at all.’
She clears her throat. ‘So you managed the wrapping okay?’
‘Yeah, fine!’
‘The Sellotape didn’t try and attack you?—’
‘No, the Sellotape’s been very well behaved.’
But I haven’t,Joel reflects when the call is over.I have been appallingly behaved.And now he sees that Martha has messaged him again, and with a thudding sensation in his gut, he reads it.
Martha
Dad we’re not stupid. We know someone bit your neck last night and you’ve been lying to us. Don’t really want to think about what else you’ve been doing. Don’t want that in my head. So we’re going out tonight – Fin’s staying over at Ajay’s and I’m going to Lizzie’s. We need to get away.
Oh, do they really! Seemingly, the whole sodding world needs to get away! No matter that Christmas is hurtling towards them?—
He catches himself and reads on.
Martha
So the deal is we won’t say anything when Mum gets home and you can cover up the bite with something or do whatever you have to do. Just don’t say anything to Mum about the party and we won’t say anything about your neck. We’re just going to pretend none of it happened. Is that a deal?
Joe senses sweat pulsing from his forehead as he mutters under his breath. Blackmailing him like this! What sort of monsters has he raised? He looks around his trashed studio, and again his fingers go to the tender part on his neck.
Joel
Deal.
And then, for the first time in his life, Joel heads downstairs, pulls on rubber gloves and cleans the entire house.
31
TWO DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS
Before Shelley has even opened her eyes she knows everything is different. It feels and sounds and evensmellsdifferent as she lies there in bed. Everything is still and quiet, as if muffled. And she thinks: what’s happened?
Could it be that, in this short time she’s been away from home – although it’s hardly been restful – her head has cleared, and by tomorrow she’ll be ready to return to her real life? Already she feels as if she is firing on all cylinders again. That day last week, when the chilli had been scoffed and she’d glugged a bottle of sauvignon for dinner, at least one of those cylinders had felt broken.
She opens her eyes and lies there in the quiet room. Beside her, Pearl is still asleep. And over in the little fold-out bed, Lena mumbles and repositions herself.
Shelley looks up at the ceiling as she replays her conversation with Joel yesterday. Okay, he only said he’d come and meet them at the airport. He didn’t say he’d whisk them all home on a flying carpet – but still. It’s unexpectedly generous of him. Shelley realises she can’t remember the last time Joel did anything kind for her.
