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He starts up again. ‘Listen, Sophie—’
‘Here I am!’ Celeste bustles in, cutting him short.
‘We knew you’d be here.’ Tally beams at Joe, whose demeanour switches to alarm.
‘Didn’t want to miss out on this,’ Celeste breezes. They are followed by another alpha mum called Olivia. They’ve come for more perving, and I bet Joe will love that, I think to myself with an inward eyeroll.
He’s already enveloped by the clique and I’m left on my own setting up the cash register.
Soon parents and children are filing in to buy a bake. I spot Lila’s class coming in and when she catches my eye, she waves. She’s with Sidney – Joe’s son – and they rush over to check out the till, so I decide to get them involved with helping to take people’s money. In spite of other annoying parents, it’s really interesting to be here and see Lila in her school setting. I find myself glancing up to see if Joe’s spotted Sid, too.
In fact he’s surrounded by a swarm of randy mothers and appears to be lapping it up. Celeste, Olivia, Tally and the others have appointed themselves cake tasters to decide on today’s star baker, and at one point Tally tries to feed Joe a slice of cake from her plate. I overhear him saying something about being gluten intolerant. Don’t worry, pal, I’ll look after your kid!
‘Mummy,’ says Lila, pulling on my top. I bend down to give her my attention. ‘Sid says he’s going for pizza with his daddy tonight. Can we go too?’
‘I don’t think we should interrupt their plans, sweetheart,’ I reply, which is my child-appropriate way of saying, hell no.
‘But Mummy, we never go out for tea! Sid says his dad takes him out all the time.’
Typical Joe.
‘That’s lovely, Lila, but we haven’t been invited so it wouldn’t be polite.’
Lila hops up and down excitedly. ‘Sid’s invited us! He checked with his dad and everything.’
I glance over at Joe, who catches my eye and gives me the thumbs up. Oh GOD. If that smug shite is taking his child out ‘all the time’ I’m going to have to accept, aren’t I? It’s like a red rag to a bull. And Lila’s right, we don’t eat out all that often.
‘Okay,’ I concede as Lila, triumphant, clatters off.
Eventually the queue dwindles, the bake sale finishes and, with the other volunteers still doing resolutely no volunteering, I divide up what’s left of the bakes and clear away the trestle tables, feeling sidelined again.
A brown paper bag is thrust in front of my face.
‘For you,’ Joe says, looking windswept.
‘A sick bag?’
‘Cookies. I kept them to one side since you said you missed lunch.’
It’s a surprisingly sweet gesture but then he has spent the bake sale hanging out with his groupies while I did all the work.
‘And you did all the work this afternoon,’ he says, reading my mind. ‘Sorry about that.’
I’m vaguely blind-sided by the apology and take the cookies. ‘Thanks. You look like you’ve just come out of a wind tunnel.’
Joe’s back is turned to the mums and he nods his head in their direction with a grim look which I don’t understand.
‘Is the pack of wolves causing you a problem?’
‘I’m more of a lone wolf, myself,’ he replies, picking his coat up from a chair.
‘You could have fooled me,’ I say as Celeste arrives by his side, quick as a flash.
‘You’re not leaving are you, Joe?’ she asks.
Joe swallows, hard.
‘You should stay because the girls and I were just discussing what meals to make for you next week. It’s so good to have your input.’
