‘You’ll be busy with the rest of us, won’t you?’said Leo, smiling down at Sophie in what even he could tell was a pleading way.Why did she always make him feel so needy?She was stunningly beautiful in the lamplight, but her eyes were steely, and if she wasn’t careful she would soon have frown lines.He made his voice even more encouraging.‘I can lend you some overalls.It’ll be a laugh.’
‘You are joking, aren’t you?Cleaning?Going to the “tip”, whatever that is?I don’t think so.I thought you and me were going to have some quality time together, Leokins?I haven’t come all this way to break my nails.’She admired her long fingernails, with their extensions and thick coating of frosty blue, and gave Leo another of her special ‘under the eyelashes’ looks.He felt a pang of irritation.
‘Well, it’s going to be your home, love, so I thought you’d want to…’ He ran out of words as Den stood up.
‘Of course she wants to help, don’t you, Sophie?She’s just kidding.We’ll all muck in tomorrow.Anyway, let’s eat.I’m starving.’
The dinner party increased Leo’s sense of coming home.Annie’s big dining table could fit all nine of them around it easily, so they sat, elbows on its scarred surface, sharing the two massive dishes of bubbling, cheesy pasta and tearing chunks of bread from the baguettes that Den had thrown into his trolley on the supermarket dash earlier.The rest of the ingredients seemed to have been brought down from the North.
‘You guys are very self-sufficient,’ said Mab, ‘you’ve thought of everything.’Her dip in the lake seemed to have made her ravenous, and the others were attacking the food with gusto too, apart from Sophie, who toyed with a small plate of Jess’s salad.Finally, when the dish was scraped clean of everything, even the little burnt bits around the edges, Den stood up and pushed his chair back.
‘I reckon it’s high time we got some beds sorted out, before we all doze off in our chairs.Leo, why don’t you take Sophie down to the hotel and we’ll all get the sleeping arrangements sorted.’
Leo tried to keep the note of disappointment out of his voice.He’d completely forgotten that he’d got to leave this cosy place.‘Oh, OK then – come on, Soph.You’ll like the hotel.It’s like something out of an Agatha Christie novel.I’ll be back soon, guys – make yourselves at home.’
Sophie opened her eyes wide in astonishment.‘But Leokins, aren’t you staying with me at the hotel tonight?You know I get lonely if I have to sleep on my own.’
‘Yes, I’d heard that…’ muttered Den to Mab loudly, and she giggled, gaining herself a filthy glare from Sophie.
Den continued out loud.‘Go on, Leo, you stay at the hotel.Then Dad can have your bed – he’s way too old to sleep on the floor.’
‘Cheek!’said Harry, looking relieved all the same.
Leo looked down at Sophie.It didn’t seem five minutes since just the sight of her pert little bottom would have made an offer like this irresistible.Now, all he could think of was that he didn’t want to leave the warmth and friendliness of this place and these people.And Mab was flatly refusing to catch his eye.The interlude with Sophie back at the flat earlier, which he’d been looking forward to, had been disappointing to say the least.Oh, yes, they’d made love, but she had seemed cool and detached, disentangling herself soon afterwards to have a shower and reapply her make-up.The only thing that Sophie had been passionate about was her new hair straighteners.
‘Leo, these are wicked!I got them off eBay and they only cost £200,’ she’d said, demonstrating their cleverness as she perched on the bed wrapped in a miniscule towel.
Leo had felt unutterably weary.Sex with Sophie had always been more of an athletic exercise than a loving experience, but usually exciting and unpredictable.Today it had left him strangely chilled.
He shrugged.‘Fair enough.Come on then, Soph, let’s hit the sack.’
‘Charming,’ she said, pouting prettily, ‘can’t you raise up a bit more enthusiasm than that?I bet Stan would be a bit more eager, wouldn’t you, honey?’
Stan blushed an unbecoming brick red, and Jess glared at Sophie.The atmosphere in here was getting frostier by the minute, thought Leo.He held out a hand to Sophie, waved a reluctant goodbye to the others and headed for the stairs.
8
As everyone busied themselves shaking out rolls of bedding, sleeping bags and pillows, Mab finally managed to get Jess alone in a corner.‘So, what’s happened?You said there was a problem?’she whispered.
Jess rubbed her eyes and sighed.‘It’s George.The school have finally excluded him.Last time it was only for a day, but now he’s banned for the whole of next week while they decide what to do next.Oh, Mab, it’s a disaster.Where will they send him?And what am I going to do in the meantime?I want to help Leo if he’s going to be good enough to let me come in with you on the project but Mum can’t look after George because she’ll be busy at work.I had a job to persuade her to put him to bed for me tonight so I could come here.It’s not an easy job getting George settled.He has his routines, you know.’
‘Oh, Jess, I thought he was doing OK so far today?’
‘So did I, but when I got there to collect him he was up a tree and he refused to come down for two hours.Apparently, he’d gone up there when the head tried to get him to say sorry to his teacher.’
‘Right… so… what was he supposed to be saying sorry for?’
‘Spitting in Jade’s dinner.’
‘Spitting in someone’s dinner?That’s… erm… quite bad, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, and then he ran out of the hall shouting obscenities at the dinner ladies and went and wrote something very rude on the toilet mirror in soap.’
‘I like his style!’
‘Don’t joke, Mab.They didn’t see the funny side, the chief dinner lady called him a holy terror.She’s really scary, Mab.Don’t you remember Mrs Carmichael?She was one of the younger supervisors when we were at school, but she put the fear of God into me even then.’
‘What?George is eight, for goodness’ sake.Everyone shows off sometimes when they’re eight, surely?Stan spent most of his early years trying to upset the dinner ladies.Mrs Carmichael hated him too.’
