I check my phone where I re-read the very curt and formal message from Ryan:
Removal van is scheduled to arrive at one. Contact this number if there are any issues. R.
I feel my throat closing as I bite back the hurt. No kiss. No funny one-liner. No love. It’s as though the last three years no longer exist.
I look up and plaster on a smile. ‘One-ish. Fancy a cuppa?’ I root into my shoulder bag and pull out a packet of digestives, wiggling them, despite the fact that I can tell they’re already probably more suited for a cheesecake base.
‘Better not.’ Spence looks around the room then back to me. ‘Got to get this one to her swimming lesson.’
‘Do we have to go? I hate it. The girls are all so…’ Georgia sucks in her cheeks and flutters her eyelashes.
I laugh and Spence folds his arms. ‘It’s a life skill.’
‘I suck at life skills. And I can already swim.’
‘No, you don’t, and you can’t in your pyjamas.’
‘It’s stupid. I mean, who goes into the water in their jammies?’
Spence glances at me with a wry smile. We’d had this same conversation at her age, and again when we went on holiday theyear Heather got pregnant with Georgia. We purposefully did it just so we didn’t feel that we had wasted the experience.
‘It’ll be fun.’
‘I doubt that,’ she grumbles. ‘Can’t I stay here with Alice? I can help?’ She pushes her palms together. I hesitate and look to Spence who gives me a minute shake of his head.
‘Oh, swimming will be more fun than unpacking with me.’ I pull her into a hug and kiss the top of her head.
‘Bruh—’
‘No buts, and don’t call me bruh,’ Spence says. ‘I’ll shout you a Maccies straight after if it’ll ease the pain?’
She spins to me. ‘He says it’s for me, but he’ll be desperate to escape – the mums go all weird when he’s around.’
Spence shakes his head. ‘No they don’t.’
‘Yes they do. I heard Amy’s mum saying to Sam’s mum that she liked your—’ she hesitates, a mischievous smile in place ‘—OK, I’m not going to say the word else I know you’ll change the Wi-Fi password again, but s-l-u-t-t-y little glasses.’
‘And on that note, we’re going.’ Spence places his hands on Georgia’s shoulders and steers her through the room.
‘Fine, but I want a McFlurry too!’
‘We’ll see,’ he answers. ‘Now get in the car.’
I follow them to the door, Georgia pushing her rose-gold earpods back into her ears before climbing into Spence’s very sensible black Ford. As a teenager, he’d had a poster of a Lambo on his bedroom wall, but then becoming a single dad before you’re even legally old enough to drink will squash your dreams of sports cars.
‘Slutty little glasses?’ He turns to me shaking his head. ‘What does that even mean?’
‘It’s a whole TikTok thing, bruh.’
‘Don’t you start.’
I grin. ‘Have any of the swim mums asked you out?’
‘No. Well, kind of.’
‘You should go for it. It might be fun?’
Spence looks towards the car. Georgia lowers the window and shouts, ‘Come on! Or I’ll be last to get changed and that will make it suck even more!’
