Anna glanced across the room and saw Gayle smiling widely, but her eyes were glittering, and she kept looking down at her lap as the others laughed and delved into the memory in greater detail. She suspected her mother-in-law was thinking exactly the same thing as her: that it seemed so unfair. Everyone had always joked that Spencer’s reckless side would be his undoing, so it seemed wrong that he’d been minding his own business, sensibly walking across the road, when the end had come. It made his death even harder to bear.
When there was a gap in the conversation, Anna said, ‘What about that night when Spencer stayed in and missed going up to London with everyone because Lewis was sick? He wasn’t always impossible.’
‘God, I loved that dog,’ Richard chipped in, smiling. ‘Only one in this household who took me seriously!’
Gayle turned to face Anna. ‘Did Spencer tell you about that?’
‘No.’
‘But you weren’t on the scene then, were you?’
Anna took a moment before she answered. She didn’t want to contradict her mother-in-law,but she wasn’t going to lie. ‘We’d only just got together. It was all very new.’
Gayle frowned. ‘I don’t think you were.’ And she went on to supplant Anna’s story with one of her own.
Anna stayed quiet. She knew she was right, because that had been her and Spencer’s first New Year’s Eve together. They’d spent it here in this house, cuddled up on the sofa with the poorly dog. Even if her mother-in-law didn’t remember, why had she pressed the point, and – to be honest – been a little snippy? Was this punishment for holding up lunch?
However, if Gayle was annoyed, she showed none of it as she recounted an incident from when Spencer had still been in primary school. In fact, her usually prickly demeanour melted away and she laughed and gesticulated as she told how Spencer had hidden behind the sofa so he could stay up to watch the new year in with the family. They’d found him asleep there in the morning, after a great deal of panic about his empty bed. This memory was safe territory for Gayle. No danger of anyone not born a Barry accidentally trespassing in it.
Anna nodded and smiled along – she couldn’t do anything else, having no personal knowledge of the incident – but as she sat there, she realized this hadn’t been the first time that Gayle had been a little ‘off’ with her in recent months. She hadn’t thought anything of it at first. Her mother-in-law had never been an easy person to get along with, so she’d merely assumed it was just Gayle being Gayle. Maybe she was being uncharitable, but now she was starting to think otherwise.
Chapter Six
ANNA FELT A little nervous as she walked up the path to Gabi’s block of flats. She’d stopped off at a service station on the way back from Gayle and Richard’s, where she’d picked up a bottle of red wine and a large Toblerone. She balanced them in one hand while she pressed the intercom with the other.
‘Hello?’
‘It’s me,’ Anna said, her voice less confident than she wanted it to sound. ‘Can I come in?’
Usually, the buzzer would have sounded immediately, but today there was thick silence. After a few seconds, however, the door hummed and clicked. Anna stepped inside the communal hallway and began to climb the stairs to the first floor.
Gabi opened her front door, smile noticeably absent, and allowed Anna to walk past her into the living room. Anna perched on the edge of the sofa and looked around the room she knew so well. While she went for clean lines and neutral tones, Gabi’s decorating style was more colourful and eclectic.
What always stood out to Anna was the number of photograph frames cramming every single surface, of all Gabi’s family back in Brazil. Not only were there plenty of pictures of her parents and siblings – two brothers and three sisters – but there were snaps of uncles and aunties,nieces and nephews too. From what Gabi had told Anna, they were a large, close-knit family, always in each other’s business but always there when they needed each other. Being an only child, Anna had often wished for a family like that.
She and Gabi had met in their early twenties when Gabi had moved from São Paolo to London for university, and they’d instantly hit it off. However, it was after Anna’s parents had left for Canada that they’d really become close, bonding over both having their family thousands of miles away. Gabi had become the sister Anna had never had, which was why she was determined to fix this.
She placed the chocolate and the bottle of wine on the coffee table. Gabi sat down on the armchair across the room, back straight, arms folded.
‘I’m so sorry, Gabi. I was a total bitch last night.’
‘Yes, you were.’
Anna swallowed. ‘Did you get home okay?’
Gabi raised an eyebrow and shot Anna a look that said:Seriously?
Anna buried her face in her hands. ‘I know, I know… I don’t know what I was thinking! I was just…’ She looked up again. ‘You know I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose, don’t you? Because you’re the best friend anyone could ever have. You try to help me, put up with all my crap, and this is how I treat you. I don’t blame you if you don’t want to speak to me at the moment. I don’t blame you if you don’t want to speak to me ever again!’
Gabi’s expression softened a little. ‘There you go, being all dramatic again.’
Anna paused for a few moments and thought hard. There wasn’t much more she could say but: ‘I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?’
Gabi sighed. ‘Maybe. But things need to change.’ She tucked one leg up underneath herself and reached for the Toblerone. ‘Youneed to change.’
‘I’m okay,’ Anna said, mostly on reflex.
‘No. You’re not. You walk around like a zombie most of the time, and when you do connect with the world around you – with thepeoplearound you – you go crazy!’ She shook her head. ‘It is not healthy, Anna.’
