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I scribble notes on my form as he talks.
‘I came over for uni, studying at Leeds, and then I moved around a fair bit for work before settling in Bristol. I wanted Sidney to be closer to his grandparents after Claire died and my folks, Denise and Jim, had moved here from Ireland by then. The lecturer position came up at just the right time.’
I bob my head up and down, encouraging him to go on.
‘Sid adores his grandparents. He calls them Cookie and Gramps. Mum loves to bake and made cookies for him when he was tiny so the name stuck.’
‘Wait a minute. Were those cookies you brought to the bake sale—’
‘Very much not made by me.’
I raise my eyebrows and point a finger at him. ‘That’s cheating!’
‘Anything for an easy life.’ He shrugs.
The words easy life remind me of why I took an instant dislike to Joe in the first place.
‘Why did you tell Celeste that being a solo parent is easy?’ I ask.
He looks me straight in the eyes then. His are obscenely blue.
‘Right.’ He nods, spinning his beer around. ‘I knew that had wound you up. Honestly, I come out with some utter shite around those women sometimes. Celeste was being all intense and I just blurted out any old thing to end the conversation and deflect the focus away from me. Because it’s not easy, is it? That was bullshit. I am sorry if I upset you.’
I lean back in my chair, unconvinced.
‘You’ll get used to me.’ He smiles. ‘You never know, we might even end up as friends at the end of all this.’
‘Hmm … I’m quite fussy. And I have my suspicions about you. I bet you’re the kind of person who has their alarm set for, like, 6.52 a.m., 6.54 and 6.56.’
Joe lets out a low rumble of a laugh, holding his hands up in surrender. ‘You got me. Of course, you have no unread emails or app notifications on your phone because those red bubbles drive you insane, right?’
‘Guilty as charged.’
‘And you start a to-do list with something you’ve already done, just so you can tick it off already?’
‘That’s just good sense. And utterly satisfying. Now tell me more about your mum and Sidney.’
Joe beams. ‘She adores him. Especially the baking. I think my biggest let-down in her eyes was the whole gluten-intolerance thing.’
I bite my lip but a ripple of laughter comes out anyway.
‘I know.’ He grins. ‘A baking fan with a child who can’t eat bread? We still have a good laugh about it now, although Mum says she’s grateful because it got her into gluten-free baking. And Sidney’s fine so he’ll lap up whatever she cooks.’
‘There’s something really special about the bond between grandparents and their grandchildren. Lila adores my mum and dad. They live in Wiltshire so they’re pretty close.’
‘My folks live a ten-minute walk away,’ Joe says. ‘Mum’s very hands-on.’
‘Do you think we should meet each other’s parents? Will we even tell them? And what about the kids?’
Joe thinks on this. ‘I’d say Sid and Lila are too young to be involved.’
‘Totally agree. The children should not be tangled up in our web of lies.’
‘So we tell them we’re friends?’
‘I think so. I mean, I am genuinely surprised to hear myself say this but I definitely prefer you to ninety-nine per cent of the other parents at school. Although I haven’t spoken to anyone else properly yet …’ I drift off.
‘Another glowing compliment from Sophie.’ Joe laughs. ‘I don’t think we need to say anything. It’s only natural that parents with kids in the same class will end up spending time together. I think just the fact that we’re hanging out is enough.’
