‘Okay, can you two go up to your rooms for a quiet half hour?’
‘Are we still going to town this afternoon?’ Eva asks.
‘Yes, we are,’ I reply with a smile.
Eva gives me a shy smile in return. ‘I’m sorry about this morning,’ she says.
‘Can we have a hug?’ I ask.
Eva nods and melts into my body. I give her a squeeze, waiting for her to immediately let go like she always does. But she only hugs me harder. I kiss the top of her head and realise she’s crying.
‘Hey, why are you upset?’ I ask. ‘We’re going to have a nice afternoon later, aren’t we?’
She nods but still doesn’t let go of me.
‘Eva?’
‘I just feel really bad for shouting at you and running off. I didn’t want to, but I just did it and it felt awful, but I couldn’t help it.’ Her body is shuddering with sobs now and I lead her over to the kitchen table and pull her onto my lap.
‘Hey,’ I say. ‘Everyone has days like that now and again.’
‘Even you?’ she asks.
‘Especially me.’
‘And Daddy?’ Katie asks.
‘I’m the worst one of all,’ Robert says, pulling a face. ‘I slam doors and cry and go storming off. Mummy has to put me in time out.’ He catches my eye and I know he’s trying to figure out what he’s done wrong as I’ve been giving him the silent treatment all through lunch.
The girls start giggling. ‘Do you really give Daddy time out?’ Katie asks.
‘All the time,’ I say dryly, refusing his attempts to win me round.
‘Okay, girls,’ Robert says, turning serious, ‘so Mum and I need half an hour’s peace and quiet. Go on upstairs now.’
‘Are you all right?’ I ask Eva.
She nods.
‘Let’s forget this morning ever happened, okay?’ I say. ‘I know you’re sorry, and that’s what counts. As long as you promise to never ever run off like that again.’
She nods and slides off my lap. ‘I promise.’
My two girls go upstairs, and now I have to speak to Robert.
I pick up a dinner plate and start scraping the leftovers into the bin.
‘Leave that for a minute,’ Robert says, ‘and tell me why you’re so angry with me.’
I put the plate on the draining board and pick up another, scraping more food into the bin. ‘The reason Eva stormed off this morning,’ I begin, my voice cold, ‘is because I said she couldn’t have a phone until next year. And so what do you go and do? Offer to buy her and her six-year-old sister a phone.’
Robert’s face darkens. He gets to his feet and takes the plate out of my hand. Places it back on the table, to my annoyance. ‘Well I didn’t know all that. If I’d known I wouldn’t have offered to get them.’
‘But we should have talked about it first, before you made a grand gesture and gave in to her emotional blackmail.’
‘That’s a bit harsh!’
‘Well it’s true.’
