‘Lou, I am so sorry.’ There was Ned beside their daughter, and Lou could swear he had tears in his eyes.
Ned – crying? She hadn’t seen Ned cry since they’d mistakenly watchedMarley and Meon the TV.
He had a bouquet of flowers in his arms, a bouquet so big that his credit card must have winced when it went through the machine.
‘I am so sorry,’ he was saying. ‘I didn’t know how to support you or anything, and I’m a hopeless husband, but I’ll be better.’
Lou stared at him in amazement. She had not expected this.
Her plan had been to have a sit-down with her husband and tell him, calmly and like a grown-up, that she did not want to be in a marriage where she gave everything and received nothing. That there had to be balance, that he had to make an effort.
Ned had scuppered this lovely, well-thought-out plan by arriving at the airport with flowers and apology written all over him.
‘It’s my fault,’ he went on, as if he couldn’t get the words out fast enough. ‘I take you for granted, I let you do everything in our marriage – and look at Martin! He lost Mim and what would I do if I lost you? I am so sorry, Lou. Please forgive me.’
‘Where is Ned and what have you done with him?’ she joked, to hide how jolted she was.
‘I’m serious,’ said Ned. His eyes sought hers. ‘Please?’
For a moment, Lou couldn’t speak. She just nodded and then Ned was hugging her and someone had taken the giant bouquet from him so he could put both arms around her.
They were both crying then.
‘I’ve missed you,’ Ned said.
‘I think I’ve missed you for longer,’ said Lou meaningfully.
‘You’re right.’ He was rueful. ‘It won’t happen again. Promise.’
Finally. He let her go and she was able to hug Emily again. ‘You look fabulous, Mum,’ said Emily, standing back. ‘Totally amazing.’
‘Amazing,’ agreed Simone, who was now holding the flowers.
‘Oh darling.’ Lou hugged Mim’s beautiful daughter.
‘Evan came too, but he had to stay in the car,’ said Emily. ‘He’s taking care of something.’
Before Lou had a chance to ask what, Toni had arrived beside them and they were all hugging again, then they had to meet Ferdie, a tall boy with wildly peroxided hair who was dressed exquisitely fashionably.
‘I love your show,’ Ferdie said to Toni, touching her hair thoughtfully. ‘I can totally see you as a brunette. Do you mind me saying that?’
Toni laughed. ‘I’m always up for a total life change,’ she said.
Ferdie carted Trinity and her bags off to his car and Toni grabbed her case to head off to hers.
‘Do you want us to come home with you?’ Lou asked her sister before she left.
Toni shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve got an agency coming in tomorrow to pack everything up into storage, before it leaves the premises by other means. I’ll be sorting my stuff out tonight. I need to face it myself. Love you, talk later.’
‘We’ve got a surprise for you,’ said Emily as they took the lift up to the third floor of the airport car park.
‘Not more flowers,’ said Ned, who was holding his wife’s hand as well as pulling her suitcase.
The surprises were being taken care of by Emily’s boyfriend Evan: two small and slightly outraged dogs who obviously felt that the car was not big enough for them.
‘They ate all the biscuits,’ said Evan as Lou stared in amazement.
‘This is Boo,’ said Emily proudly, holding up a small grey dog who had a bit of whippet in her parentage along with some terrier. ‘And this is Lola.’
