A snippet of a memory flickers across my mind. ‘You want to buy this, do it up and flip it?’
‘The only thing is … ’ He pauses, purses his lips nervously.
‘Is that you want to use our house savings to do it,’ I finish for him. I remember having discussions about this around this time, although I have no memory of him bringing me to see the house, just that we talked about it. I’m pretty sure it never happened. I wonder what’s changed to make him bring me this time? It can’t be a bad thing, can it? He’s sharing more with me, making me more of the decision-making process. That means my scheme to change the state of my marriage must be working somehow.
‘Yes … ’ He’s perplexed I’ve hit the nail on the head. ‘I know it’ll put our plans to get a place of our own back, hopefully only by a year, but if this works out, we’ll have even more to put down than we have now. We’ll be able to afford something with a proper garden, possibly even a third bedroom.’
I stare at the house again. Some of those roof tiles don’t look entirely sound. ‘I know we’ve been saving hard, but how on earth are we going to afford something this big?’ I know we don’t have the budget for it. It was a scrape to put down the deposit on our much smaller house in a not-so-nice street.
He’s saved from answering by the estate agent appearing out of the sliding patio doors. She’s chatting to someone behind her, and when she steps out of the way, I realize I know exactly how Luke and I – or maybe just Luke – can afford to buy this house.
‘Hey, you!’ the woman says, smiling brightly at Luke, and then adds, just as brightly, ‘Hi, Jess!’
‘Elena!’ I reply, smiling back.
‘What do you think?’ Elena asks, turning to take in the house. ‘I think it could be a wonderful first project.’
I know. It would. But I also know the first time Luke brought this up, I wasn’t ready to risk the money we’d been saving on something that might not work out. The thought of it still makes me nervous. ‘I think it could be perfect,’ I reply.
Both of them grin at me and then Elena turns to Luke. ‘I had an idea about the area under the stairs,’ she says, walking back in the direction of the kitchen. ‘Let me show you what I’m thinking about.’
I trail back inside the house behind her and Luke, where she proposes putting a series of hidden drawers and cupboards to make the under-stairs storage much more workable. They bounce ideas of each other, and even the estate agent gets excited and chips in. I know as much about joinery as I do piloting spacecraft, so I stand in the corner of the hallway and try to look encouraging but end up wandering off to have another look at the front room when the discussion drags on. I want to check if the leaded lights in the top of the bay window are reproduction.
They turn out to be original, with brightly coloured Art Nouveau-inspired shapes, but two out of seven are missing, and the window frames are rotten as anything.
While I’ve got a moment, I pull out my phone and open my banking app. I quickly scroll through the list of pages and shoot twenty pounds off to my mother. Technically, after a couple of loans have remained unpaid for more than a year, we are not lending her any more money, but she phoned me up this morning in tears, really struggling. She didn’t have any cash for groceries. I can’t let her starve, can I, even if Luke says there areother kinds of support we can give her, that she ought to be standing on her own two feet?
As I head back towards the hallway, where the others are still talking, I hear the estate agent, Gillian, saying, ‘Well, I think this is a great starter home for a young couple like yourselves, and you seem to be brimming with ideas on how to do it up!’
There’s awkward laughter from Luke and Elena as I appear around the living room door. Luke slings an arm around my shoulder and kisses the side of my head. ‘Actually,thisis my wife.’
‘Oh, God. I’m so sorry!’ Gillian says, looking a little flustered. ‘For some reason I … ’ She smiles apologetically at me. ‘I thought Luke said he was bringing his sister along to look.’
‘Well, she does want to come and have a nose,’ Luke says, laughing, ‘but this isn’t her.’ He laces his fingers in mine, and I stand there, trying not to look bothered about what I just overheard.
Because I am. Bothered.
I can see why Gillian thought Elena and Luke were a couple. I can also see how easy a mistake it was to make. They make an incredible team.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
JESS
‘Wow, you look … fancy!’ Luke says as I emerge from our bedroom. I know we’re only going to a local Italian restaurant, but I’ve gone all out – heels, make-up, a little black dress. Mrs Wonderful would be proud of me. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I kept replaying the moment the estate agent assumed Luke and Elena were husband and wife and I was demoted to annoying kid sister.
I kept seeing images of Elena as I got dressed, her effortless style, her beauty. Because Elena is beautiful. Not just pretty. Her hair is thick and glossy, her skin a gorgeous smooth golden brown. She has huge eyes, an expressive mouth, and more curves than I could ever hope to have.
I don’t know if Luke notices, or cares, about the differences between me and Elena, but I notice them. And I don’t like the fact that I do.
I walk over to him and kiss him softly on his cheek, taking a moment to linger before pulling back. ‘You’re worth the effort.’
He blinks and I see his pupils dilate as he looks me up and down.
‘What time is our reservation?’ I ask, a cheeky smile playing on my lips.
Luke doesn’t even bother to check the time; he just scoops me up and heads for the bedroom.
I’m looking a little less, um,polished, when we emerge again, but I can’t stop grinning. He’s mine. Totally mine. In this moment, anyway. I just need to find a way to make sure things stay like this, so I’m quiet in the car on the way to the restaurant, trying to work out how I can up my game.
