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11
Gus’s Monday morning had started early as usual and he was looking forward to a full day at the practice. He was expecting his first patients today and he had a good feeling that this would be the beginning of a client base he could steadily build on. What he hadn’t expected today was a knock at the front door of his house before he’d even left for the day, announcing his ex-wife’s arrival.
He opened the door to find Julie standing on the other side. ‘What are you doing here?’ He had one hand on the door frame, another on his hip, already sensing this wouldn’t go well.
‘Charming. May I come in?’ Dressed in skinny jeans and a beige linen top, overly big glasses on top of her head despite the sun hiding behind the clouds and not making any attempt to peek out, she didn’t wait for a response and came in, regardless of whether she was invited or not.
‘This is nice, cosy. Did you buy?’ she asked when he closed the door behind her.
‘It’s rented. I told you that.’
‘So you’re going to move again?’
‘Not areas, but we’ll move when we buy.’ Obviously. ‘It takes time finding the right home,’ he justified. He’d never been like her, moving from place to place without hesitation.
‘Coffee?’ he asked. He should at least make her feel a bit welcome, even though this was classic Julie, turning up whenever she felt like it. And at least if he made her a drink, they’d be in the kitchen and she might stop inspecting his home. She’d already peeked around the door to the right, which was the lounge, and then the one to the left of the hallway, which was the study. All of them still had boxes in them, whether empty, half-empty, or ready to be collapsed and got rid of.
‘Please.’ She followed him into the kitchen.
Gus would rather not alert Abigail to her mum’s presence just yet because getting her out of the door in the mornings was hard enough. Back in the Peak District, she’d always gone to say good morning to Denby so had been up way before most schoolkids, but here she didn’t have that incentive, with Denby being a bit further from her front door.
He made her a mug of coffee – black, a splash of milk, one and a half sugars. ‘You do know Abigail has school today, right?’
‘I’m not stupid, Gus.’ She was leaning against the bench so she could see out of the window to the side of the house.
‘She’ll have to go in.’ That got her attention. ‘It’s school, it’s the law.’ He might have kept Abigail at home on the odd occasion after the accident but only because she was so fragile and he was too. But this move was about normality for them both as well as change, which meant their daughter doing the same as the other kids. And that meant no extra time off unless it was absolutely necessary. Besides, if he let it go once, Julie would do it time and time again.
‘I thought it would be a lovely surprise, me turning up. I thought we might walk to a local café and spend the day together.’
This was typical of Julie, who tended to do things on her own schedule rather than factoring in anyone else’s.
She sat down and clonked her cup in front of her to make a point. ‘It’s almost the summer holidays, they won’t be doing much at school apart from watching movies or playing games, I bet.’
‘It doesn’t matter. She has another couple of weeks, and I’d like her to be more settled in school so that she knows kids her own age for the holidays.’
‘Is she making friends?’
He lost the edge in his voice. ‘She is, actually, faster than I thought possible.’ As much as Julie was absent and inconsiderate a lot of the time, Gus had never doubted her love for their daughter. The problem was that her guilt over the accident had driven her first to almost fall apart, unable to pick up the pieces, and then to overcompensate by showering Abigail with expensive gifts when all the kid really wanted and needed was her mother’s time.
‘I don’t see why she can’t spend the day with me and go in every other day after today.’ She tapped her long, nude-painted fingernails against her cup.
The edge in his voice was back already. ‘For the reasons I just said. That’s why.’
She responded to his firmer tone with a harrumph. ‘All right, I get it. The answer is no.’
‘Maybe a bit of planning on your part wouldn’t go amiss.’
She opened her mouth to answer back but their conversation was stopped short with a shriek of delight from Abigail, who came tearing down the hallway upon hearing her mother’s voice. ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ She ran into her arms.
‘I’m here to see you.’ She put her hands on either side of Abigail’s face and kissed the tip of her nose. ‘I’m sorry I missed our last weekend together.’ She took out a gift from her bag, wrapped in shiny blue paper.
‘That’s okay.’
It wasn’t. But Gus turned away to make Abigail some toast with strawberry jam. Better that than keep looking at his ex-wife. It was unbelievable how she could keep doing this – let Abigail down, upset her, and then pick up as though it was no big deal. Well, it was a big deal to Abigail, she just didn’t show it. The kid was just grateful her mum turned up and she forgot everything when a shiny present came her way.
‘What is it?’ Abigail cried, tearing at the wrapping paper, with Julie holding an arm around her waist. Gus almost wished one of Abigail’s enthusiastic elbows would see its way to slipping and smack Julie in the face, but he knew that wasn’t very kind of him. He kept picturing it, though.
‘I love it!’ Abigail threw her arms around her mum all over again. She turned the turquoise cardigan around to show Gus. It looked expensive, designer, and Abigail put it on to model for both of them.
