Downstairs, I find Teri standing at the kitchen worktop fiddling with the knobs on the coffee machine.
She turns around at my approach, smiling sweetly. ‘Oh, hi! How are you feeling, Kate?’
She looks fresh as a daisy. Whereas judging by my reflection in the microwave door, I look like I’ve aged a hundred years.
‘Did you sleep better after all that last night? You poor thing. That must have been one hell of a nightmare.’
I’m so tired I can barely speak. ‘Yes, fine, and you?’ She hands me a coffee.
‘I slept like a baby. Black, one sugar, right?’
I stare at the mug in her hand, vaguely wondering if she might have poisoned it.
I’m losing my mind.
‘You seem better this morning,’ I say, looking down at her ankle.
‘Yes, I am actually.’ She follows my gaze. ‘Still a bit sore, a bit sensitive, but much, much better.’ She turns back to the machine and makes another coffee.
‘Great,’ I say, cradling the mug in both hands. ‘So…I guess you can go home.’
She turns around, still smiling. ‘Wow, you really want me to go home, don’t you?’
What is it with this woman? Why does she seem so surprised every time I raise the topic? Then it occurs to me that she hasn’t paid for a single thing the whole time she’s been here. Of course, she hasn’t been out, not once, that I know of anyway, but she hasn’t offered to contribute to anything. Not even the wine she seems to enjoy so much. Meanwhile, she helps herself to my things; and she’s done it for a while, I realise now, remembering the red top in her bedroom. I bought a new hairbrush the other day, and I couldn’t find it, until I saw it in the guest bathroom, except it was no longer new. It had her hair all over it. At the timeI thought I must have left it there, but now I know. She just helps herself to my things when I’m not here. And then I pick up her towels from the bathroom floor, which I let pass. She does cook, so there is that.
‘Well, it’s not that Iwantyou to go home,’ I lie. ‘Only that there’s no reason for you to stay if your foot’s so much better. You’re probably itching to get back to your own space.’
Something flashes in her eyes. It makes a sudden shiver travel down my spine.
‘Of course,’ she says breezily, her face back to normal. ‘You’re absolutely right. There’s no reason for me to stay here any longer. And let’s face it, you wouldn’t want Max to find me here when he gets back.’
A shudder travels through me.
‘Morning!’
Holly walks in, hair still damp from the shower. She opens the fridge door and pulls out the bottle of milk.
‘Good morning, sweetie,’ Teri says. ‘How did you sleep?’
‘Okay.’
‘Kate had a terrible nightmare. Did she tell you? She didn’t wake you, did she?’
Holly looks at me. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes, absolutely fine. Just a nightmare, like Teri said.’
‘By the way, I’m going home today,’ Teri says, touching Holly’s hair.
I wish she wouldn’t do that, all this touching and calling her sweet names.
‘That’s a shame,’ Holly says.
Teri laughs and messes up her hair. ‘You’re the sweetest, you know that?’ She puts her arm around Holly’s neck and pulls her close, giving her a hug.
I am fully gritting my teeth.
‘How is your ankle?’ Holly asks, pulling a bowl from the top cupboard.
