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‘She puts him down a lot,’ said Courtney, throwing herself heavily onto the chair which creaked in protest; she’d inherited her father’s inability to do anything unannounced and gracefully. ‘She thinks because he’s got brawn he can’t have brains as well and he really has. He reads all the time and just because he hasn’t got A-levels doesn’t mean he’s thick. His dad’s much nicer than his mum, if smellier,’ and she laughed.
‘I didn’t know you were still close to Mort.’
Courtney looked shocked by that. ‘I’ve always been friends with Mort and I always will. Why wouldn’t I be? Plus he’s really handy if you need anything mended. And before you say it, no I don’t use him. I like him. Obvs not inthatway.’
If only she did, thought Shay. If only her daughter liked nice boys like Mort and not knobheads like Dingo Shaw.
‘So, tell me about the car,’ said Shay, herding emphasis back to that.
‘I’m insured. It’s fine. It’s going into the garage tomorrow. Though I’ve had to lie and say it wasmea culpabecause Dingo wasn’t insured to drive it. Or anything for that matter, because he’s banned.’
Shay rubbed her forehead, hoping it would help her make sense of her daughter’s reasoning, but it didn’t.
‘Why would you let anyone drive your car who wasn’t insured for it? And then lying that—’
‘Chillax, Mum. If it makes you feel any better, I’m not happy about doing it. One-off, promise, pinky swear.’
‘Well thank you for that, it really helps,’ Shay replied, with no small dose of sarcasm. ‘I thought you’d treasure your car.’
‘I do,’ replied Courtney.
‘You’ve only had it a year,’ said Shay, temper bubbling now. ‘And I thought you and Dingo were already over.’
‘Well, he rang and apologised and we gave it another shot. But that’s really it this time. Anyway, Fiona doesn’t want him staying at the flat any more. Not after he kicked the TV stand and broke it. I paid for a new one, obvs because Mort couldn’t even mend it.’
Courtney’s typical disclosures were coming out like handkerchiefs from a magician’s sleeve, one awful one after the other.
‘Which brings me to ask you a favour, Mum. I’m only working part-time at the moment because the shop isn’t that busy so I could really do with a cash injection to help me. The rent’s due and I owe Fi some for last month and I lent Dingo some and seeing as the last time I saw him his nose was bleeding profusely and he told me to eff off and die, somehow I don’t think I’m going to get it back.’
‘How much?’ asked Shay with a laboured sigh. Her daughter was constantly in debt. Shay had lost count of the times that she had sat down with her in an effort to organise her finances, and paid off her overdraft behind Bruce’s back, only for Courtney to dig her head in the sand and the whole cycle to begin again. It was beyond frustrating.
‘Six hundred if you have it,’ said Courtney with an expression of pain. ‘I’m really sorry. I will get it back to you, somehow.’
Her daughter usually did pay her debts off, if only in dribs and drabs, earning her one brownie point out of a possible five hundred.
Shay picked up her phone, went into her online banking and pinged it across.
‘Thanks, Mum,’ said Courtney, leaping out of her chairto give her mother a hug of gratitude. ‘I really appreciate it. It’s a shit job. No one ever comes into the shop so it’s really boring but I’m on the lookout for something better. Totally hate being skint and unchallenged.’
‘Why are you working in these dead-end jobs with crap pay, Court? I want more for you than this.’ She was a bright girl, brilliant with computers, clever at the written word and ballsy enough to sell bottled water to fish.
Courtney made a face. ‘I don’t know what I want to do with my life yet, Mum. Nothing’s jumping out at me. You’re worrying about it more than I am.’
‘Well do your best to try and sort yourself out, Court,’ said Shay. ‘And stay away from Dingo. Fiona really shouldn’t have to put up with things like that… and you should not be in a relationship where you’re raising hands to each other.’
Quiet, sensible Fiona, Shay secretly hoped, would be a steadying influence on her daughter and knowing that Courtney would be sharing a flat with her made it bearable that she’d left home. Dingo, however, was a curse of an individual, rough, rude, no redeeming features that she could pinpoint, plus he reminded her too much of a boy called Glynn Duffy she’d known once.
Now Courtney had her money, she was off. Outside, on the pavement, she looked around.
‘Is it in the garage then?’ she asked her mum. ‘He’s not taking it to work I presume.’
Shay hadn’t the slightest clue what she was on about. ‘What?’
‘Your new car.’
‘What?’
‘I saw Dad driving it last week down the Parkway. I blasted the horn but he didn’t notice me. Brand new black Audi.’
