Chapter Nine
Lisa was almost twenty minutes late by the time she reached the larger out-of-town soft play. The noise was intense and the atmosphere was a stark contrast to the bed she had left with Nathan lying naked in it. While he had slept, Lisa had got up, showered, removed the empty rocky road tub and spoons from the bedroom – that had answered their need for sustenance at two o’clockin the morning – and cleared away the mess in the kitchen. The note she left told Nathan to think of her at soft play (where she intended to have a coffee with Felicity and her friend Melissa while their children played) and that she would see him later after she had walked Jack and had a chat with Winnie. She also promised to bring takeaway back, to save any mishaps over food. Leaving Nathan tocatch up on some sleep after he had recently worked two days, followed by two nights, prior to the night they had spent together, seemed only fair. He’d be off for another five days but she knew he intended to work on the renovations to the rest of the flats below his. Lisa wondered what it would be like once other tenants moved in; perhaps Sam’s presence would seem less intrusive once there wereothers.
Melissa looked up and waved as she saw Lisa scanning the room for them. Lisa weaved her way to their table, dodging scattered shoes and empty chairs with jackets hanging on the back, as well as an array of parents attempting to make the most of their time while their children played – scrolling through phones, reading, chatting or generally staring into space.
‘I guess the factit’s raining outside makes it super busy.’ Lisa took off her coat and placed it on the back of her chair before sitting down.
‘Most days are busy at soft play.’ Felicity grinned.
‘What’s the smell?’ Lisa looked around.
Melissa picked up her daughter, Bella, and sniffed. ‘Not Bella.’
Felicity looked around the room. ‘I think it’s just a wet coat and sweaty child combination.’
Lisa laughed. ‘Ah, if it had been wet dog, I’d have got it. My van frequently smells of it. It’s an occupational hazard.’ Lisa held Bella’s hand and chatted a greeting to her.
‘She was playing in the baby area, but some bigger children ran through and put her off.’ Melissa nodded her head in the direction of a table encircled by older children, who Lisa assumed must be the culprits.
‘Blessher, I can see why that would be scary.’
With a voice that seemed an octave higher, Melissa began to address Lisa and Bella at the same time, ‘So it’s Mummy’s lap and your Mr Snuggles now, isn’t it?’
‘I don’t blame you.’ Lisa looked at the soft play area: three floors of mayhem and madness as children ran in all directions, throwing themselves through squishy rollers, smashing into brightlycoloured things she wanted to describe as punch bags, but that didn’t seem right for a children’s play area, and climbing up and whizzing down slides. There was a ball pit, but that seemed to be being used as a runway between two parts of the soft play. Looking up, Lisa glimpsed Callum and Fred. They both smiled and waved before telling her to watch. Making sure she was looking, Callum spunFred while he hung on to something resembling a mini spinning door. Fred’s little head whipped round and his blond hair stood out.
‘Is he OK doing that?’
Flick glanced up at a giggling Fred. ‘He’ll be fine. He loves it here because they can all go in together.’
After enthusiastically watching three rounds of the spinning game, Lisa went on a coffee run. At the till she pondered buyingeach of the children a cookie, saw the price and decided against it. She loved Felicity’s children, but four cookies equating to what she earned on an hour’s dog walk seemed madness. She wondered how Felicity and Pete managed.
Walking back to the table with a tray containing three hot coffees, albeit in takeaway cups, felt precarious. She was glad to reach the table, sit down, hand out thedrinks and pass on the responsibility for at least two of them.
‘So what’s been going on?’
‘We’re celebrating, aren’t we, Flick?’ Melissa looked at Felicity.
‘Err, yes.’ Felicity held Melissa’s gaze and muttered something Lisa couldn’t hear before continuing. ‘I went out for a run this morning.’
‘Yes, your run,’ Melissa confirmed unnecessarily.
‘That’s great, but I thoughtyou said Pete was working today.’ Lisa held her coffee still as a crying toddler ran by.
‘Yes, but Sue offered to have the children for me.’
‘Wow, really? Pete’s mum, Sue?’
‘Yes, she’s being nice to me at the moment and so I’m taking the opportunity to get a few extra runs in.’
‘Really, that’s great. So did you speak to her the way I suggested? Perhaps she realised she was beinga cow.’
Melissa coughed.
‘Something like that,’ Felicity confirmed. ‘Anyway, she had the children and I ran up and down the prom.’
‘Wow! And how was it?’ Lisa went to take a sip of her coffee, felt the volcanic heat emanating from the sip hole, and put it back down.
‘Better. I’m still not what you’d call good. But I am gradually getting better. Of course, I went quite early soI wouldn’t see anyone I knew, and I was a massively sweaty mess in inappropriate running gear, but I did OK. I made it to the lighthouse and back, and I didn’t think I was going to die. I had Robbie on my iPod, which helped, and I was out in the fresh air, and I was me for a moment, I was just me.’
