Page 89 of Be More Octopus

'I hope so. It's not as if I broke into his phone. It was just there in front of me. I'll offer to help with lunch. Hopefully, we can talk then.'

But Jack wasn't in the mood for talking when Em went over to the main house later that morning, far from it.

'What are you doing here?' was the only greeting she got when she walked into the kitchen. No good morning. No pleasantries at all. He was still pissed off then.

'I work here!'

'Not on Sundays.'

'I thought you might like some help with preparing lunch.'

'As you can see, I've got it all in hand. I don't need your assistance, thanks. I've got Mark to help me.'

'I just need to pop out,' said Mark, drying his hands on a towel and looking like he wanted to be anywhere else but here.

'Can't it wait? We're on a tight schedule.' Mark was getting the full force of Jack's foul mood too.

Mark exchanged a wtf look with Em.

She saw a pile of veg waiting to be prepped. 'I could peel the spuds. Even I can manage that,' she said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

'One - I'm not convinced you could do that without screwing up. And two - I said I didn't want you here. Just leave us to it.'

'And fuck you too!' Em muttered under her breath as she marched out of the kitchen.

'Pardon?' Jack said.

'You heard.' She slammed the door. Jack 1, Em nil. She needed to work on her composure.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

The afternoon started with pouring rain with an occasional clap of thunder. The weather matched the mood in Nancy's dining room perfectly.

Em had suggested to Lucy that they skip lunch altogether and go for a drive somewhere instead. But Lucy seemed keen to stick to the original plan. 'You never know. Jack might have mellowed after taking it out on beating the Yorkshire pudding mix.'

But Jack hadn't mellowed. He looked like he would have to make enough Yorkshire pudding batter to feed a small army before he could be remotely decent to Em, though he was treating everyone else with some form of civility.

'What time is your flight, Mark?' Nancy was trying to keep the conversation going as they tucked into their mains.

'Take off is 7.35 this evening. Lucy's dropping me off at the airport on the way home.'

'We thought we'd head off after we've finished lunch,' Lucy said. 'The traffic might be bad this evening, with the rain and the end of the school holidays.'

'That's very kind of you, Lucy. That will save Jack a trip to Bristol and back.' Nancy sounded pleased. 'The weather forecast says it's going to dry up by six. You won't have to miss your usual Sunday evening walk with Em, Jack.'

Nancy stared pointedly at Jack, waiting for his reaction.

'I won't be walking with Em. I've got other plans for this evening.'

'Oh, really?' Nancy sounded surprised. 'You're turning into quite the party animal. That will be three nights in a row. Mark's a bad influence. Doing anything exciting?'

'Hopefully. I'm meeting someone.' Jack glared at Em.

'Daisy, by any chance?' Em asked.

'Yes, actually. You can read the details on my phone if you like.'

Unnecessarily bitchy. It was a good job Nancy had a big dining table. Otherwise, Em would've been tempted to kick him, but after this morning's argument, she didn't want to let him get a rise out of her again. She counted to ten in her head.