It failed. He smiled again, stood next to her and reassuringly squeezed her shoulder. Reassuringly! Was he insane?
She pushed his hand off and stalked towards the women to properly greet the combined force of her head of the PTA and Ange-bloody-lina. Both of whom were still tottering slightly on heels and clinging to each other, almost joined, a bit like butterfly chicken.
‘And then they said… bwahahahah,’ Angelina nonsensically cawed at Marion, who responded with maniacal laughter.
‘Marion, how lovely to have you here.’ Rosy approached the-parent-from-hell-recently-made-ally and laid her hand on her arm in greeting.
‘Bwahahahahah,’ the two drunken women cackled together.
Scramble opened one eye, finally woken, and moved deftly under the couch.
‘Marion.’ Rosy heard her own voice, louder and sharper this time. Marion’s head snapped up as she looked at Rosy, furrowing her brow with what looked like confusion before being distracted, within a microsecond, by Angelina launching herself at her brother.
‘Mattie! Oh, Mattie, I do love you!’
Mattie, clearly practised, caught her as she teetered in his direction, tried to plant a giant kiss on his cheek and slowly slid down him.
‘Whoops, I’m a silly billy.’ She nestled into his chest and he, hand placed in the small of her back, tried guiding her to a chair.
Matt shrugged his shoulders at Rosy and shot her a broad what-can-I-do grin, but this was all becoming a bit too difficult for Rosy to take. The grinning, combined with Marion being in the room and Angelina fawning all over her brother, who only minutes ago had had Rosy pressed against the table with her skirt hitched up, was making everything a bit claustrophobic. And this was her house, supposedly her refuge, invaded.
‘Ooh, so this is your Matt?’ Marion said, suddenly sharper than she had been, standing a little straighter and zooming in on the only man in the room. ‘Well, you said he was a sweetie but you didn’t say how very attractive he was.’
Oh God. Marion could not have put more emphasis on the ‘very’ and was now in predator mode. Rosy had seen this before with unprepared fathers who made rare appearances in the playground. Marion had form for purring and stroking men she fixed upon, at school functions, sports day, pretty much anywhere, regardless of marital status or indeed spousal presence. Her overtly flirtatious behaviour had meant that in the past Rosy had witnessed desperate glances from bewildered fathers unsure how to escape and knowing their wives weren’t brave enough to haul her off. She was not voluntarily watching this today, not with this cast.
Rosy silently turned and headed to the kitchen where she slammed the door, stamped her foot and violently wrestled the lid off a cake tin and started to eat the contents. Cake might calm her long enough to work out how to throw them out without drawing attention to her fear that her carefully controlled world could collapse around her at any minute.
It was proving hard to think with the noise seeping under the door – even chewing as loud as she could, particularly difficult with a sponge cake – there seemed no escaping the drunken guffawing of Angelina or Marion’s purring. She probably had her hand inside his shirt now. If Angelina or Matt weren’t going to slap her off, then Rosy sure as hell wasn’t. She’d just stay in here a bit longer, let her breathing get back to normal, maybe find some crisps.
She had just perched herself on the worktop and had started a second bag of cheese and onion when the door was pushed open.
‘Hey, I think I need to get her home. Apart from anything else she’s beginning to turn a funny colour, which experience has taught me means she’s best removed. But I do need to speak to you – I’ve not just been getting thrown out of clubs in London, and there’s something we need to discuss.’
You think!Rosy would’ve smiled sarcastically, but she had a great big bit of crisp wedged between her teeth. Plus maybe a clear message needed to be sent here, now there was just the two of them. She concentrated on giving him her most evil look instead. One that had four-year-olds quaking before turning to a life of obedience. It didn’t seem to put him off.
Instead he had the temerity to approach her, smiling that oh-so-charming-aren’t-I-adorable smile that he should probably patent, and stop mere millimetres in front of her. She narrowed her eyes even further, so far that it began to hurt her forehead. He just laughed and popped his hands between her knees in an attempt to widen them so he could stand as close as could be.
She clamped her knees as tight as they would go, and carried on scowling. Using all these muscles, with such force, could well be some kind of workout. She should make a DVD. It was taking some welly and she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to hold out. Not because her determination not to break The Rule again was wavering, no – that was very firm – but because it was quite a lot of physical effort, all this frowning and clasping.
He initially laughed and leaned in to stroke her face, but she flicked out of his reach, and his smile turned to confusion. She still hadn’t spoken a word but it would appear her body language was doing all the communicating she wanted.
‘Um, OK. Well, like I said I’ll get her home. But this evening has been special, Rosy, and I’m not entirely sure what’s going on but um… I’ll leave now. Maybe we could meet up tomorrow evening. I know it’s a bit clichéd, but I’d really like to and, Valentine’s Day aside, I really need to talk to you. It’s about the school and what you said about maybe it closing.’
It was the school dance tomorrow – what exactly did he have in mind? French kissing and a fondle in front of nearly one hundred kids and their parents?
‘I’m busy.’ She arched an eyebrow at him in a challenge. ‘I have a prior commitment, and I don’t think this is a good idea. Do you?’ Oh shit, although if he did want to talk about the school maybe she should hear him out. But tomorrow – he must be mad. Suddenly she had a solution. ‘The school, though, um – is it important?’
‘Yes, I think it could be, I think I’ve got something that will help. Why? Is it definitely being shut now?’
‘Looks that way, although we’re fighting to save it.’Stop! Don’t get lulled into conversation; he has crafty skills, this man. Stand firm!‘But you are right, we do need to talk. We should talk about how this can’t happen again.’
She felt two sides of her having the most almighty battle. She didn’t want to do this; she’d quite like to relax her glare and soften right into his arms but that was never going to be an option for her. Not with someone who lived bang smack in the middle of her community. No, this was not about what she wanted to do, it was about what she needed to do to keep things on the beautifully smooth and even keel that she had now. Certain things needed to be said.
‘What? Why?’
‘I just feel… um… I feel it’s for the best.’
‘But… we… but… we’re…’
