‘No, it’s fine. I’d like to do it,’ I assure him, and smile at Sandrine as she looks relieved and turns to Ed.
‘Thank you for everything,’ she says to him. ‘You have a lovely little boy and I will miss him.’
‘He’ll miss you too,’ Ed says sincerely. ‘Thank you for all of your help, Sandrine.’ He offers her his hand, and she delicately shakes it for the briefest of moments before darting into the car and shutting the door.
Ed looks at me in disbelief, and gestures in frustration. ‘I give up. Tell me later what I’m supposed to have done, OK?’ He leans in and kisses me briefly, before whispering: ‘Do you think she’s secretly got the hots for me?’
‘No, I really don’t. I’ll be back as soon as I can, OK?’
‘No rush,’ he yawns. ‘James and I are just going to chill here. I’ll probably put him down for a nap this morning, because Mum’s offered to do lunch too, so come back when you’re ready. You’ve got your phone?’
I nod – and wave to the sitting room window, where James is being held by Sheila, his bottom lip starting to tremble. ‘Oh dear – you better go in,’ I say hastily, as James begins to lean forward behind the glass, his arms outstretched for me, and begins to cry.
I jump into the car so as not to prolong the goodbyes any further, and pull away sharply. ‘I think James just worked out that you’re leaving,’ I say to Sandrine, only to glance across and realise she’s sniffing and teary. ‘Oh no! Are you OK?’
‘Yes,’ she gulps. ‘I’m just going to miss him very much.’
She is talking about James?
God – of course she means James. Ed’s old enough to be her father. What on earth would a girl like her see in him? That again reminds me of Simon and I shift uncomfortably. When I get back, I’m going to tell Ed everything about yesterday. I should have told him last night.
‘Jessica…’ Sandrine’s voice jolts me back to the car, and I look over at her, to see her rummaging frantically through her bag. ‘I’m so sorry – but I’ve left my passport at the house.’
‘OK, no problem. We’ll go back; we’ve got just enough time, don’t worry. I’ll ring Ed and ask him to start looking for it. Do you know where you left it?’
‘No, I mean it’s at your house.’
‘Oh…’ I fall silent.
‘I’m so sorry. I hid it under my mattress to keep it safe—’
I can’t say I blame her for that.
‘But we left so quickly yesterday, I forgot I’d taken it out of my file.’ She looks at me desperately. ‘I could run in quickly? I know exactly where it is.’
I hesitate. Shouldn’t I go back to Ed’s parents’ and get him so he can go into the house for us? But by the time I’ve gone back, driven to the house, and dropped him back again, we’ll be starting to cut it fine if anything else happens. I don’t want her to miss her flight. It is broad daylight, and she’s only going to be seconds…
‘OK,’ I agree doubtfully. ‘But we’ll have to be very quick. Literally just in and out.’
* * *
As we pull up outside the house, I survey it carefully – it looks totally normal, just as we left it last night. I unlock the front door, but Sandrine pushes past me before I have a chance to tell her to wait and let me have a look first – her feet thump on the stairs as she dashes up. ‘Sandrine!’ I call up nervously.
‘It’s OK! I’ve got it!’ she shouts delightedly from her room. ‘Can I please go to the toilet, as well?’
‘Alright,’ I call back reluctantly. ‘Quick as you can though… I don’t want to be late.’ Or have to be in here any longer than we need to be… I hear the bathroom door close, and decide I’ll just open the front door right out and keep it like that while we wait. The house badly needs ventilating in any case. It smells stale, a stuffy airless heat having built up thanks to all of the locked windows and central heating. I turn round to throw it wide, only to swear violently and leap out of my skin. Natalia is stood motionless on the doorstep, right in front of me, like something out of The Shining, only clutching a huge bunch of flowers.
‘Jesus, Natalia!’ I breathe. ‘You scared the shit out of me! Where did you spring from?’
‘Can I come in?’ she smiles. ‘There are a few things I need to say to you.’
‘Um, now’s not the best time, actually.’
Her smile becomes a little more forced. ‘Please don’t be like that. It took a lot of courage for me to come here today.’
‘I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m just in a rush, that’s all.’
‘It’ll take literally five seconds.’
I glance up the stairs again. ‘Sandrine!’ I call, ‘we don’t want to miss your flight.’ Having made my point that I wasn’t lying, I turn to Natalia: ‘I honestly don’t have more than a moment right now.’
‘That’s all I need, don’t worry.’ Without waiting any further, she steps past me into the hall. ‘Firstly, can I give you these then, and tell you how sorry I am – for everything.’ She holds out the flowers, but I don’t take them. ‘I overreacted in saying our friendship was over. I know you didn’t mean for me to hear what I did, and I’m sorry I span out. Everyone bitches about everyone else – it doesn’t mean anything! We’re all grown-ups really, aren’t we? We all do and say things we don’t mean.’ She tries a relaxed shrug, but she’s so tense, it’s more of an odd jerk, or twitch.
‘Yes, we do,’ I say slowly.
She takes a deep breath. ‘Like I’ve done something I wish I hadn’t. I went through your friends list on Facebook. I found Laurel, who was listed as from Chichester, then I searched her friends list, and a “Ben” came up. I messaged him—’
I gasp. She did it before I blocked her. She actually did it.
She holds up a defensive hand. ‘But I’d really like to just move on now, and put this behind us. I’m genuinely very sorry, and I know I shouldn’t have, but I was very, very upset. You hurt me very deeply, Jess.’
My heart is thumping faster, the adrenaline kicking in as our confrontation gathers steam. ‘You think doing something like that is something you can just apologise for, and everything will be OK?’
She grits her teeth. ‘No. It wasn’t a rational response to what I’d heard you say about me. I recognise that now and hope you’ll understand that I’m having a few challenges at the moment, but that I genuinely am sorry for my overreaction. Perhaps we can go out for coffee soon, or something?’
Coffee? She really is crazy. I think about Ben walking away from here in pieces. Silently furious, but refusing to give her the satisfaction of shouting or anything she could repeat to the rest of the NCT girls, I reply icily: ‘How about I give it some thought? I’ll be in touch.’
She hesitates, but before she has a chance to say anything else, I pointedly stand to one side and hold the door for her. Realising she has been dismissed, she flushes, drops the flowers and darts out of the door, before jumping in her car and speeding off so fast her tyres squeal at the end of the road. I bend down and snatch up the bouquet that has already dropped a bright orange staining pollen on the floor, which I know, for a fact, is toxic to pets and children. Swearing under my breath, I march straight over to the black bin, hurl them in, turn around and slam back into the house. How could she? How could she?
‘Sandrine!’ I yell. ‘We’re really going to be late unless we go now.’
Ben was devastated. Natalia seriously thinks my bitching about her, and her deliberately hunting Ben down, are in any way comparable? She’s mad! She’s—
My phone goes off in my bag suddenly, interrupting my thoughts and making me jump again. I reach in and pull it out. It’s the estate agent. I almost don’t answer, but am too confused not to. They must know we exchanged yesterday? There can’t be a problem now. Not unless it’s going to be a very expensive one for our buyers.
‘Hello? Mrs Casson? I mean Davies,’ the agent corrects himself quickly when I pick up. ‘Congratulations and sorry to disturb you again, but it’s—’