Queenie(67)

THE CORGIS

Queenie

It’s more bad news, corgis



Queenie

Tom has a new girlfriend



Queenie

Turns out he thought we were over all along



Queenie

He said “When you said we should revisit things in three months, I guess I thought you meant we should see how the other is”



Queenie

????



Queenie

And I’ve just been here waiting for NOTHING while he’s been moving on



Queenie

I don’t know how much more of this I can take, you know. What next?



I slid out of bed and wedged my feet into my childhood slippers. I went over to the door and turned the doorknob almost imperceptibly slowly so as to make as little noise as possible.

“Queenie? What’s wrong?” my grandmother shouted, and I jumped out of my skin.

“Nothing, I’m just going for a wee,” I whispered, creeping along the hallway.

“Mind the stairs,” she shouted.

“I’m going in the opposite direction to the stairs!” I whispered.

“But it’s dark,” she replied. I wonder how much sleep my granddad gets on average? I sat on the toilet, feeling for the toilet paper in the dark.

“Do you feel better?” My grandmother turned the light on. I squinted and covered my eyes.

“I don’t know, it’s the middle of the night. Go back to sleep, Grandma!”

“Do you think I sleep, with all of you to worry about? I don’t think I’ve put my head on the pillow and slept a full night since 1950.”

I got back into bed, my grandmother shuffling downstairs to get me some water. She came back up and put a glass on the bedside table.

“Move over.” She climbed in next to me and I turned to face her, putting my head on her chest. She wasn’t as plump as she used to be. She felt smaller, frail, underneath the weight of my head, so I lifted it and hovered it slightly above, letting my neck take the strain.

“You think I can’t take your weight? I carried you when you were a baby, and I could carry you now. Try to sleep, Queenie.”





chapter


TWENTY


THE CORGIS

Kyazike

What do you mean, he’s got a girlfriend?



Queenie

I mean I went back to our old flat and he was there with his new girlfriend, he was topless, she’s so small she was drowning in nothing but one of his T-shirts



Queenie

And he literally said the words “Anna is my girlfriend” to me



Kyazike

Excuse me? How has he already got a whole girlfriend with official labels? It ain’t been that long?



Darcy

Oh, Queenie, I’m so sorry xxxx



Darcy

Why didn’t he tell you before you went there and found out?



Queenie

I’ve been trying to recall our last conversation? I’m sure it wasn’t clear that we’d broken up? I’m SURE of it



Queenie

What if I just heard what I wanted to?



Kyazike

Nah, he should have made it clear, fam. BUT at least this means you haven’t been cheating on him these last few months



Queenie

I mean, I guess? Thanks, Kyazike



Kyazike

What’s she like? She a mzungu?



Darcy

Sorry Kyazike; I looked that up on Urban Dictionary but it’s not there . . .



Kyazike

LOL, mzungu is my language. It means white girl



Darcy

Thanks! I should have been able to figure that one out



Queenie

Course it’s a white girl. But we knew it was going to be, didn’t we



Kyazike

Fam. We knew





* * *



As Darcy and I stood in the kitchen, the fridge beeped angrily, louder than ever, and the neon light flickered dramatically.

“I looked her up on the way home,” I said, showing Darcy pictures of “Anna” on my phone. “I knew I recognized her. Look, she works in his office.” I navigated the girl’s profile, showing Darcy bits of information I’d seen so much that I’d memorized. “I fucking told him he needed a white girlfriend. Just never thought he’d get one WHEN WE WERE ON A BREAK.”

“I’ve just had a thought. Do you think that they were—” Darcy said, her hand flying up to her mouth.

“If you’re going to suggest that they were seeing each other before we broke up, then please don’t.” I swallowed down rising dread. “I think you know that I can’t handle that in my current state.”

“Well, at least if that were the case, I guess it would mean that you could start properly hating him. And hating someone is a vital stage when it comes to getting over them.” Seriously, there was nothing Darcy couldn’t find a solution for.

“Whatever,” I said, putting my phone away. I’d looked at enough pictures of Anna to paint her from memory. “I need to suppress that for now. Got a meeting with Chuck.” I left the kitchen and went over to Chuck’s desk, feeling very managerial when I asked him to show me his progress.