‘What is?’
Both Lisa and Felicity turned as one to face Melissa. ‘Nothing,’ they chimed innocently and pressed on towards the next hole. As they caught each other’s eyes they smiled; each recognising that their knack of quick collusionwhen needed remained true to form.
Not wanting to share her Weekend Bear wisdom with Melissa, Felicity changed the subject. ‘Lisa is about to tell us about her night with Nathan.’
‘Night?’ Lisa echoed, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink as she wondered how Flick knew.
‘Yes, your night out. Hold on—’
‘Yes, my night out. The parade was good, didn’t you think?’Lisa deflected.
Felicity and Melissa looked at each other and raised their eyebrows.
‘Hmmm, well I liked it, didn’t you, Melissa?’ Felicity mocked, feigning interest in the subject before moving swiftly on. ‘Of course, we don’t mean the parade, you fool. We saw the parade. How was Nathan?’
Lovely, great, bloody amazing.‘Good, he seems to be really enjoying life, quitethe adventurer.’
Felicity pulled a face. ‘Melissa is it just me or do you think Lisa seems a bit cool about her evening?’
Cool.No, she wasn’t cool. Apparently Nathan was ‘cool’.
‘I—’
‘Mummy! Weekend Bear fell in the crocodile pit!’ Callum bellowed, holding Weekend Bear up to show just how covered in swamp grass and soggy sand he was.
Megan held the phonealoft. ‘I got a great photo of it.’
‘Let’s take him home. I’ll operate.’ Alice leapt with glee.
Lisa breathed a sigh of relief;saved by the bear!
As the three of them sat in Felicity’s lounge drinking coffee, while the children played upstairs and Weekend Bear dripped soddenly on the radiator – not needing an operation after all – Lisa decided not to reveal too much abouther evening to Felicity and Melissa. It felt very personal to her, and already it didn’t seem casual. She told them she’d had a good time and about the bobble-beanie palaver. Felicity and Melissa loved the part where Lisa got swept up by the pirates and hoisted onto the float. And while they swooned over that moment Lisa could only think about the kiss that followed. It felt like a claiming moment– in front of all those people. But not in the over-bearing way Ben would treat her in front of others. Nathan had made it feel like nobody else was there, that nobody else mattered. It was very much about the two of them and not the onlookers. She could not bring herself to relate it all and then tell them Nathan had dismissed her with the word ‘cool’. They might ask her what else she expectedand she really didn’t have an answer for that. Lisa checked her phone, there were no messages from Nathan, but looking at the screen reminded her of the message she had seen earlier. The message she wished she had never seen.
‘So Pete had to miss the fireworks then?’
‘A last minute drama at Cin Cin or something. He really didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to disappoint the children.’
Lisa smiled and pondered Felicity’s response while Melissa told them how her Adam was sorry to have missed it too.Pete didn’t want to go, he didn’t want to disappoint the children!Lisa felt relieved.Of course he didn’t. Pete loves his wife. He loves his children. See, it’s nothing.She really wanted all to be right in Felicity’s world. If Flick and Pete, who had been together foreverand presented the picture of familial harmony despite their children’s best efforts to lead them into conversational minefields, weren’t happy, what hope was there for anyone else? If they couldn’t make it work, then who could?
‘That’s three times this week he’s been called in!’ Felicity added.
‘Bloody hell, really?’ Lisa bit her lip as she realised her response was too much.
Felicity and Melissa looked at her quizzically.
‘I mean, you… umm, you have to stand up to these bosses. They can’t just call people in at the drop of a hat! Is there no respect these days?’Drop of a hat…no respect these days!Wondering why the pressure of Melissa and Felicity staring at her had made Winnie’s voice come out of her mouth, Lisa paused.
Felicity lookedat her. ‘Are you OK? You seem—’
‘Sorry, I… it’s just that it used to happen all the time in London.’Phew!Pleased that something plausible had come out of her mouth Lisa decided to change tack. ‘Any more coffee in the pot?’
With Felicity heading for the kitchen to sort the coffee, Lisa turned her attention to Melissa. As much as she hated the idea, she knew that Melissa was morelikely to be Felicity’s confidant if she needed someone to talk to than she was. They clearly spent a good deal of time together.
‘So Flick and Pete, they’re happy, right?’
Melissa lifted a snoozing Bella on to her shoulder. ‘I think so, why do you ask?’
‘I don’t know, it’s just…’ She didn’t have anything to finish the sentence with, other than mentioning the text. Lisaknew it would hardly make sense to say Felicity and Pete seemed really happy together when she had spent the evening with them. Then she remembered there was whatever Flick had tried to tell her, whatever she had tried to reveal to her as she had drifted off to sleep the night of shoulder-blade-gate. She wondered if Melissa might know what it was. ‘It’s just Flick mentioned their issues.’ The words,not being entirely true, felt disloyal as they came out of her mouth, but the look on Melissa’s face seemed to suggest recognition of something.
