Date: 20 June
Subject: Your website
So pleased you love the logo and thanks for confirming your preferred colour. The red was my favourite too. I’ve set up your website and attached a link. It’s not live yet but I’ve added in Lorem ipsum – dummy text – so you can get a feel for how it looks with words. I’ve included some of the photos I took earlier but can easily change those, the tabs and the dropdown menus. My advice is to start fairly simple and add to it when you get a better feel for how you want to use your website v your socials.
‘That Lindon’s a talented young lad,’ Mam said as we scrolled through the website together. ‘I wonder if he’s got a girlfriend.’
‘I think he might be a bit young for you or me.’
She gave me a playful shove. ‘You know full well I was thinking for our Maddie.’
I smiled at her. ‘From what I’ve seen so far, he’d be a thousand-fold improvement on Alfie but, even if he’s single, I don’t imagine he’d like the version of Maddie we’re seeing at the moment. If the old Maddie ever returns, who knows?’
* * *
Maddie reappeared when Mam called her down for tea a few hours later but she refused to join in the conversation, giving one-word answers any time Mam or I tried to engage with her.
‘Lindon sent us a logo,’ I said, taking out my phone and handing it to Maddie while Mam cleared the plates away. ‘What do you think?’
Maddie stared at the phone for a while. ‘Green.’
‘What’s green?’
‘My colour preference for the writing. Unless…’ She looked from me to Mam and shook her head. ‘You’ve already made your decision without me, haven’t you? Cheers for that.’
‘You’ve shown no interest in the business so far,’ Mam said, her voice gentle, ‘so I don’t think it’s fair to get snippy with us for choosing a colour without you.’
‘What did you go for?’
‘We both went for red,’ I said. ‘Lindon preferred red too.’
‘So your logo designer got a vote but you never thought to ask me?’
‘Like your nanna said, you haven’t shown any interest before and?—’
The scraping of her chair across the tiles stopped me mid-sentence and, with a heavy sigh, she strode across the kitchen.
‘Stop right there!’
The volume of Mam’s command even shocked me and Maddie turned to face her, eyes wide.
‘Youcannotstorm off in a mood because you weren’t asked for your opinion on something you’ve shown no interest in,’ Mam said, her voice strong and firm. ‘Honestly, Maddie, I don’t understand what’s going on with you. You seem to be angry about so many things but you’re not consistent with it so it’s like treading on eggshells around you. I’m exhausted after only a few days so your poor mam must be on her knees.’
Maddie’s glare shot to me, as though challenging me to tell my mam it wasn’t that bad. But it was. Worse, in fact.
‘I’m not sure how much more I can cope with,’ I admitted. ‘I don’t want us to be fighting all the time. I want things betweenus to be how they used to be but that feels impossible when you won’t talk to me.’
‘There’s nothing to talk about.’
I rose from my chair and took a step closer to her. ‘There must be. Please, Maddie. If you just talk to me, I’m sure we can find a way of making this work for all of us.’
Her eyes were glistening with tears and I thought she might break but she blinked and straightened up.
‘Stop trying to solve everything. You’re not my therapist. And I should have known you two would gang up on me.’
‘Nobody’s ganging up on you,’ I said. ‘We’re worried about you.’
‘If I’m that much of a worry, I’ll leave.’
