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“Come on, come and sit down. You’re not making much sense. Take some deep breaths and I’ll get you a drink.”
Kate sat on Joy’s armchair and looked around the room. It was nothing like she’d expected and for a moment, Kate forgot why she was crying and took it all in. The floor was made up of enormous pieces of slate. All the walls were white, even the furniture was white. An enormous flat screen TV filled one wall, while the others were dominated by large, colourful abstract paintings of naked women.
“Here you go, dear,” said Joy handing Kate a large glass of wine.
“Your house is incredible,” sniffed Kate, managing a small smile.
Joy beamed at her. “It is rather special, isn’t it? I decorated a couple of years ago after seeing this look in a magazine. I wanted it to be as far away from an old lady look as I could get.”
“Well you’ve certainly achieved that,” said Kate, dabbing at her eyes with her cuff.
“Now what’s going on with you?”
“Everyone hates me.”
“Well, I know for a fact that’s not true. I don’t hate you for starters, and I can’t imagine why anyone else would. Who are you talking about?”
“Bob and Maddie… maybe Alex too.”
“Right, let’s start with Bob. What’s happened?”
Kate explained about her surprise trip to his house and repeated their frosty exchange. When she finished, she looked at Joy, who had her arms folded and was gazing out of the window.
“I’m sorry, dear, you need to understand Bob has a lot on his plate at the moment.”
“You’ve said that before, but no one will tell me what. All I want to do is be there for him, isn’t that what friendship is for?”
“It’s really not my place to comment on his private life. All I’ll say is that hedoesandwillneed you. He’ll come to you in his own time. And I can guarantee he’ll be hating himself for the way he spoke to you. You need to be patient, and understanding.”
“That’s what I was trying to be!”
“Yes, I know. I suspect your turning up caught him unawares. He probably felt trapped, like he’d be forced into telling you things he isn’t ready to share yet.”
“I don’t understand what you mean?”
“You will in time, dear. Now, what’s happened with your friend Maddie?”
“I don’t know. She was really weird when she came to stay and hasn’t been answering any of my calls since she went home.”
“Oh, don’t take it personally, dear. It will be all the hormones racing around her body that’s causing her to act out.”
“Hormones?”
“Yes, the early stages of pregnancy are always the worst for mood swings. I was a nightmare when I was pregnant with…”
“Wait. What? Pregnant? What are you talking about?”
Joy flushed a deep red and looked at Kate horrified. “She didn’t tell you,” she said.
“No! But she toldyou?”
“No of course not. I just thought it was obvious. You know, the mood swings, grey face, throwing up, not drinking.”
“But she was drinking!”
“Hardly. She had enough to stop any questions but I saw her tip her wine in the plant pot a couple of times.”
“But she was hungover!”
