The Other Woman(20)

‘Sorry about that,’ Adam said, grabbing my hand as we made our way down the dimly lit lane.

Relief flooded through me. So I wasn’t going mad. He’d noticed it too.

‘I know it’s not ideal, but it is her house,’ he went on.

I stopped stock-still in the middle of the road and turned to face him. ‘That’s all you’re apologizing for?’ I asked.

‘What? I know it’s a pain, but it’s only for one night, and we’ll get up and go early tomorrow. I want to get you back to my place.’ He came towards me, and his lips brushed mine, but I stiffened and turned my head away.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ he said, his tone changing.

‘You don’t get it, do you?’ I said, louder than I’d intended. ‘You’re completely blind to it.’

‘What are you talking about? Blind to what?’

I tutted and almost laughed. ‘You go around in your cosy little world, not letting anything bother you, but guess what? Life’s not like that. And all the time you’ve got your head stuck in a little hole, shutting all the sound out, I’m out here taking all the shit.’

‘Is this for real?’ he asked, about to turn back to the house.

‘Can you not see what’s going on here?’ I cried. ‘What she’s trying to do?’

‘Who? What?’

‘I told your mother that I’d have a little tea and she’s forced a full Christmas dinner on me, and I also told her that I’d be staying over, and she assured me that was all right. I would never have come had I known . . .’

‘Had you known what?’ he asked, his nostrils flaring ever so slightly. ‘In our house, tea means dinner. And are you absolutely sure she agreed to letting you stay with me? Because she’s only allowed one girl to do that, and we’d been together for two years. We’ve only been together, what? Two months?’

His words felt like a physical blow to my chest. ‘It’s three, actually,’ I snapped.

He flung his arms in the air and, exasperated, turned around to walk back up the lane.

Had she asked me if I was staying? Had I told her I was? I know I definitely didn’t tell her I would be staying in a hotel, but could she have assumed that was what I meant? I couldn’t think straight anymore.

Adam was still walking away, and I rolled fast-forward in my mind to see him crashing back into Pammie’s house with little me trailing behind him twenty seconds later. I couldn’t let that happen.

I cried then, real tears of frustration. God, listen to me. What was I doing? Making a defenceless old woman out to be some kind of maternal monster. It was crazy. I was crazy.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, and he stopped, turned around and walked back towards where I stood, a snivelling mess in the middle of the road.

‘What’s wrong, Em?’ He put his arms around me, pulling me towards him. I could feel the warmth of his breath on the top of my head as my chest heaved up and down.

‘It’s fine. I’m fine,’ I said half-heartedly. ‘I don’t know where that came from.’

‘You worried about going back to work?’ he asked gently.

I nodded. ‘Yeah, I think the stress must be getting to me,’ I lied.

I wanted to tell him what had really upset me. I didn’t want there to be any secrets between us, but what was I supposed to say? ‘I think there’s a chance your mother could be a vindictive witch?’ It sounded ridiculous, and what proof did I have to back the theory up? Her selective memory and a penchant for over-feeding people? No, any opinion I had on his mother, that she was deranged or otherwise, would have to remain unsaid for the time being.





8

I’d intended to stay out of Pammie’s way for a while, just to give me time to calm down and re-evaluate her odd behaviour. After all, I was sure that was all it was, just a mother looking out for her son. If I stayed on that line of thought, I could begin to understand it. But three weeks after Christmas, two days before my birthday, she called Adam to ask if she could take us both out to celebrate.

I tried everything to get out of it, but I was beginning to run out of excuses. ‘I’ve got to arrange something with Pippa and Seb,’ I told Adam. ‘And the office said they wanted to take me out.’

‘You can go out with them anytime,’ Adam said sternly. ‘Mum wants to treat us.’

‘Treating us’ meant going to a restaurant of her choice, in her home town – Sevenoaks. So even though it was my birthday, we were still having to do things on her terms.

‘Oh, Emily, it’s so lovely to see you,’ she gushed as she reached the table where we’d been waiting for her for over twenty minutes. Her eyes travelled up and down, as if sizing me up. ‘You look . . . well.’

She was sweetness and light whilst we ate our starter, and I was beginning to relax, but then she asked what Adam had got me for my birthday. I looked across the table at him, and he nodded, as if giving me permission to tell her.

‘Well, he’s taking me to Scotland,’ I said excitedly. I watched her face flicker between confusion and displeasure. Her mouth formed an ‘O’, but no sound came out.

‘I’ve not been up there for years,’ said Adam.

‘And I’ve never been,’ I said, chipping in.