Chapter 3
3
A few weeks later, Fleur was sitting in the deli with a cup of coffee in front of her, scrolling on her phone, wondering if it was possible to get one-day shipping on Amazon Prime for a bookbinding tool that she really didn’t need but wanted to try. As she stared at the listing, she looked at the one-click button and felt very tempted to give it a go, then reminded herself that she already had hundreds of bookbinding tools. The temptation to do the one-day shipping and have the tool arrive that afternoon was so good she could almost taste it. As she pondered, and nibbled on a piece of chocolate-covered peanut brittle and took a sip of her tea, she reasoned that adding a few more things to her basket would mean she’d kill a few birds with one stone, so in theory it was a good deal. Just as she was finishing off the order realising she had completely failed at resisting she looked up to see Patrick walk in. He smiled, waved, and then stopped to chat with Alice for a bit before ordering a coffee and coming over to sit down.
‘How are you?’ he asked, putting his cup down on the table and pulling out a chair.
‘Yeah, good. How was the job? How did it go? Did everything work out okay in the end?’
‘Yeah, really good. The team is there and ready to go and there weren’t any problems which is a miracle but I won’t hold my breath. I love it when it goes smoothly…’
Fleur nodded. ‘That’s great. You can relax now.’
‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ Patrick took a sip of his coffee. ‘How’s Lucy? Any news about the baby or anything?’
‘No, no, nothing.’
‘Oh, okay, excellent. No news is good news…’
‘Ben sent me a message to ask if I could contribute to paying for that dance festival she’s doing in Manchester.’
‘You’re kidding me, aren’t you?’ Patrick looked up sharply.
‘I know.’
Patrick sighed. ‘I thought he was the one who encouraged her to do it. He’s pathetic.’
‘That’s a bit steep.’
‘I’m just imitating him.’ Patrick didn’t sound happy.
Fleur was well aware that Ben was not Patrick’s favourite person. She tried to steer the conversation away, but he moved it right back to Ben.
‘He seems to think that because he’s moved house and is having a baby you have a bottomless pit of money to pay for things now. Grr, he really gets my goat. Making you pay for the festival when he was the one who kept on about it.’
Fleur wrapped her hands around her coffee and watched the steam curl upwards. ‘You’re not going to let this go, are you?’
Patrick scoffed, leaning back in his chair. ‘I’m just trying to give you the other side of it. Would you, if it were me? If the situation was reversed?’
Fleur considered for a second. ‘Probably not.’
‘And he’s closer now which makes it more irritating.’ Patrick took another sip of coffee. ‘It just annoys me. It was bad enough before but now he’s moved what twenty minutes from Lovely it’s worse. Of all the places he could’ve gone.’
Fleur raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s a free country.’
‘Oh, don’t give me that.’ Patrick shook his head. ‘Anyway…’
Fleur didn’t argue. She might not have been as vocal about it, but she had thought it was odd when Ben had announced he was relocating so close but had tried to let it go. ‘Whatever.’
Patrick shook his head and tutted. ‘I bumped into them. They were in Lovely last weekend.’
Fleur stilled. ‘What? You didn’t mention that.’
‘Didn’t want to make a thing of it.’
‘And yet here we are.’
Patrick gave her a look. ‘They were meeting Lucy.’
Fleur softened. ‘That’s right.’
‘I need to rein myself in. I just hate the way he acts like he’s Father of the Year. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me picking up those vibes and being unreasonable. You should’ve seen Lucy; she was all over the place.’
Fleur’s chest tightened. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, she looked like she didn’t know whether to be happy or what about the baby and stuff. She was trying so hard to be excited, but you could see it all over her face how she wasn’t sure deep down. Ben just lapped it up. That’s what annoys me the most.’
Fleur swallowed, looking down at her coffee. ‘Did she say anything to you after?’
Patrick hesitated. ‘Nope.’
Fleur sighed. ‘I’m surprised you thought she looked like that. She’s been fine about the baby with me. I just hope that when the baby comes it's a positive outcome for Lucy.’
‘So do I.’ Patrick’s jaw tightened. ‘And now that Ben and Sarah are living so close, it’s going to be right in her face whether she likes it or not.’
Fleur sighed and looked out the window. She couldn’t be doing with any further issues with Lucy. She’d had a gutful of them and, to be frank, she was a bit sick to the back teeth of it. ‘I’m crossing my fingers that it will all work out well.’
You could but live in hope.