Just My Luck(67)

‘No.’ Emily’s phone buzzed. A smile spread across her face. Most likely the message was from Ridley. ‘I’ll be in my room.’ Emily stood up quickly and rushed out of the kitchen.

Lexi and Jake watched the film in silence for about twenty minutes. Normally Lexi was the sort of person who gave a running commentary when watching films at home; she only just managed to suppress this urge when they were at the cinema because she feared being shushed. She liked to guess at how the plot might turn out or she would ask, ‘What’s she been in before? It’s bugging me.’ Tonight she couldn’t concentrate on the plot.

Jake pressed pause and said, ‘Well, as I’m not needed to be a taxi driver for the kids tonight, I’m going to have a beer. Do you want a glass of wine?’

‘Maybe later. Actually, I’ve just remembered I need to nip out.’

‘Out? Where? Why?’ Jake looked put out that their quiet night in was threatened.

‘I said I’d drop off a book at Diane Roper’s. It will only take me five minutes in the car.’

‘You’re going now? On a Saturday night?’

‘She needs to read it for book club on Tuesday. I promised I’d get it to her today and I forgot all about it. Sorry. Look, watch the film without me. I won’t be long, and I’ll just catch up.’ Lexi stood up, hunted out her car keys and headed to the front door.

‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ asked Jake.

‘Like what?’

‘The book.’ He looked questioning, unconvinced.

‘Oh, oh yes.’ Lexi ran upstairs and grabbed a book from the towering pile besides her bed. She took the top one without even checking its title.

Lexi drove along the narrow, winding country roads that she knew so well, a route she had taken hundreds – maybe thousands – of times before. She knew every twist and bump. She was headed towards Great Chester, the smart village where Jennifer and Carla both lived. A village she and Jake had never been able to afford to buy in, it was often featured in articles about Britain’s most beautiful places to live. She wasn’t planning on stopping, she just needed to drive by. To check. Of course, Jennifer wouldn’t be lying to her. Of course, she was at Fred’s sister’s, just as she’d said. But Lexi couldn’t stop herself. She had to see the closed-up house, still and quiet. She wanted to be reassured by the fact that there would only be one car on the drive; Jennifer and Fred had two, but they preferred to use his for long journeys.

She had been planning on driving past at a sedate speed, just taking time enough to ascertain that her friend was indeed away, as claimed. However, she immediately saw that both cars were parked on the drive, the downstairs windows were wide open and Ridley’s bike was propped up against the fence, advertising a confidence in the sleepy, safe, practically crime-free habitat. Lexi gasped, shocked that her fear had been justified, disappointed to be proven right. She stopped her car right in front of Jennifer’s home, suddenly bolshie and provocative, she almost wanted to be seen now. She wanted her so-called friends to know she had caught them out in their lie. It was still light, and she could easily see into the house and right through to the back garden. There, she could see Jennifer and Fred. She was sitting at the table; he was pacing about.

Lexi parked up and got out of the car. She was not going to take this lying down. Not after fifteen years of friendship. She was going to confront Jennifer and ask her why she had lied. If it was because she was cosying up with the Pearsons and she and Jake were being left out in the cold, then she would rather know. She might even decide to put a bomb under that relationship and light the bloody fuse. She could.

She decided to go straight around the back of the house into the garden. Catch them by surprise and not give them a moment to come up with some bullshit excuse as to why they weren’t driving to Birmingham to see Fred’s sister.

She walked up the back path. The moment she dipped into shadow, she regretted leaving the house in such a hurry. She should have picked up a cardigan. The sun was losing its power, and in the shadows the solid chill was the victor. Earlier today the breeze had caressed, now it nipped. Suddenly she lost her confidence in the idea of intruding when she heard Fred yell something or other, she couldn’t quite make out what, but he sounded seriously het up. Jennifer hissed something back at him, her tone too low to catch. Ah, a domestic. That’s why Jennifer had pulled out of the evening’s arrangements. Nothing insidious, just a row. Lexi felt relieved. And then instantly she felt mean for being relieved. She didn’t like to think of her friends rowing. An insect buzzed past her ear and she instinctively ducked away from it, then froze, not wanting her movements to draw attention, although they were unlikely to notice her as they were deeply embroiled in their drama. It was not like Jennifer and Fred to fight. Carla and Patrick yes, they were volatile, caustic. Jennifer and Fred had a much calmer, civilized relationship. Some might go as far as to say that their relationship was so civilized it was borderline dull. A partnership, an economically based partnership. Jennifer had a good life being married to Fred but not a passionate one.

‘You are fucking him,’ yelled Fred. ‘Just admit it!’ He sounded drunk. His words were slurred but loud, insistent. What was he talking about? ‘You. Are. Fucking him. Just admit it.’ This was embarrassing. What could Fred be thinking? Jennifer wasn’t having an affair. She’d have told Lexi. How had Fred come to believe something so out there?