‘I enjoy it,’ he admitted. ‘I enjoy playing now much more than I used to when I was in my twenties. It always seemed terribly dull then. But I like it now. Keeps me fit. And I’m actually quite good. I was thinking of having a few lessons. Maybe as a Christmas present?’
‘You don’t think you might be on pretty shaky ground to be talking about Christmas presents at this precise moment?’
He sighed. ‘Look, I guess I knew you wouldn’t be ecstatic, but I just thought you mightunderstandwhy…’
‘Could you not have simply asked me?’ I said, interrupting him. ‘Even if it was just to create the illusion that this is a joint decision.’
‘I thought you might say no.’
‘Well, that’s the kind of argument Layla would have come up with. When she was at primary school. Being worried someone might say no is not a good basis for a unilateral decision about finances, Joe! We should have talked about it.’
‘Look,’ he said, his face now miserable. ‘I’m sorry, okay? You’re right. I should have discussed it with you. I’ll call them and cancel it. I’ll probably have to pay the deposit, but I can cancel the direct debit at least.’
I sighed and sank onto one of the kitchen chairs. ‘No, just hang on,’ I said. ‘Let’s talk about it. Better late than never.’
He pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down. He looked wretched, to be fair.
‘Can we afford it?’ I said.
‘I think we can. We’ve got Layla’s costs covered – pretty much.’
‘As far as we know,’ I said. ‘Have you asked her how her budgeting is going?’
‘Yes. I’ve messaged her a few times to check and see if she’s running out of cash and she’s keeping an eye on her balance, she seems to be keeping on top of things.’
Well, this was another surprise. For some reason I felt like I was the one with majority control over comms with Layla but clearly there had been some daddy-daughter chat going on too. ‘And she’s managing okay on what we’re giving her in addition to the student loan?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘So, assuming we don’t have any other significant expenses coming out any time soon we have enough regular income with your salary to allow for a couple of extras, particularly when you think of it as an investment of sorts.’
‘Well, I guess it’s a good thing I had a nice first day,’ I said. ‘Out of interest, if I’d come back and said,It’s awful, I hate it and I’m handing in my notice, what would you have done?’
He lifted his palms up. ‘I don’t know. Cancelled it, I guess. I just, I had a feeling that you’d love it, working with books, being with people again. And I thought, it could be a win-win.’
We contemplated each other for a moment.
‘Okay,’ I said eventually. ‘Let’s see how it goes.’ I didn’t have the heart for a fight. ‘And hopefully, it’s only a matter of time before you’re closing multi-billion-pound deals with your golfing chums.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ he said. ‘One day, when we’re in our private jet flying out to our villa on the Amalfi Coast having paid off all of Layla’s student debt and bought her a penthouse flat in London, we’ll look back on this and laugh.’
‘Oh, how we’ll laugh,’ I said.
We spent the rest of the evening describing increasingly outlandish things we would do with our colossal fortune as we finished the bottle of Cava, and in the end it was okay – I didn’t go to bed hating my husband for wasting our money and I hope that he didn’t go to bed resentful of my initial reaction.
But, make no mistake, Iwasannoyed with him for putting a dampener on what had been a lovely first day at my new job. Really bloody annoyed.
Chapter Seventeen
‘So, your father’s out playing golf again,’ I said.
It was Sunday morning and I was FaceTiming Layla. She’d been out the evening before with a couple of people from her course and although it didn’t sound like a wild night, returning when the pubs closed because she had a bit of a sore throat, I was just excited that she’d managed to leave the flat for something other than attending lectures or buying groceries.
‘Have you forgiven him?’ Her voice was tired and a little raspy. ‘For the club membership.’
‘Hmm. Well, I suppose it’s important for him to have his hobbies,’ I said, trying to turn this back to her. ‘I mean, most sports are a good way to meet people as well as keep fit aren’t they? So, there’s a useful social aspect to it all.’
‘I thought you said that the people you’d met at the golf social were all absolutely dreadful though.’
‘I’m not sure I saiddreadful…’
