Chapter 18
GEORGIE
As soon as Georgie opened the door of her home, she heard something that made her heart soar, despite the crapstorm of a day: noise.
She’d missed this so much. For the last six months, since Kayleigh had moved to Edinburgh, she’d come home every night to deathly silence, and it had eaten away at her soul.
She’d even started going to her mother’s house on a Saturday night to watch Strictly , just so she would be around people, and noise and conversation.
Why had she not prepared for that transition?
Why was there not a public service announcement or a manual that warned that parenthood meant you raised these children, made them your whole world, gave them confidence and ambition and independence…
and then all that culminated in them buggering off and leaving you on your lonesome?
But not tonight. She could hear Grant singing along to a Taylor Swift song and Kayleigh giggling uproariously, so she knew they must be dancing.
And yes, she could hear Flynn’s voice too, but for the purposes of this little interlude of reflection, she was going to forget that she was furious with him and just remember when this very scenario of chat and music and laughter was what she used to come home to every night.
She wasn’t sure that she would ever stop missing it.
Her coat was damp from a fresh flurry of snow that had come down just as she’d come into the street, so she shrugged it off and hung it on the wooden post at the bottom of the stairs, then plonked down on the bottom step to pull her wellies off.
That done, she sat for a moment, inhaled, exhaled, summoning the wisdom she would need to deal with this in a calm, mature manner, the cunning she would require to play it right, and the strength to refrain from telling him he was an utter arse.
Only when she felt she was in possession of all three did she get up and breeze into the kitchen.
‘Well, hello family,’ she greeted them with a cheerful smile and a hug for Kayleigh, who was standing centre stage in front of the cooker wearing a beautiful but tiny silky red vest top, navy velvet cargo trousers and a pair of Jordan trainers.
‘What do you think?’ Her daughter gestured to her own outfit when Georgie released her.
Georgie took in the fashion choices. ‘I think you look stunning, I think you’ll get pneumonia in that top, and I think your generation is genius for going the trendy trainers route. When I was your age, we wore shoes that made our feet bleed in the name of defined calves.’
Grant was leaning against the worktop over at the sink, holding two glasses of what looked like wine, one of which he handed over to her. ‘I tried and failed to convert her to the joys of a nude heel. It’s a tragedy.’
‘You’re getting old, Uncle Grant. Out of touch,’ Kayleigh teased him, and Grant clutched his chest dramatically. ‘Hush your mouth, I’m thirty-four! I’m only three years older than Harry frigging Styles. Right, let’s go fix that hair before I change my mind about you being my favourite niece.’
‘I’m your only niece,’ Kayleigh pointed out, giggling again.
Grant stuck with the faux outrage. ‘Exactly.’
As the two of them headed out of the kitchen, she caught Grant’s eye and sent a telepathic thanks to him for being wonderful with her daughter, and loving her enough to be inauthentically civil to her ex-husband.
Flynn had been sitting at the kitchen table, watching them with amusement the whole time, but now, as she sat down opposite him, his gaze settled on her and a smile played on the lips she’d been sucking off his face that morning.
Urgh. That thought made her shiver more than the sub-zero temperatures and six inches of snow outside.
‘Hey,’ he murmured, watching her.
Sexy grin on? Check. Sexy eyes on? Check. Sexy voice on? Check. Still a twat? Check. Aaaargh, she was furious, but she wasn’t going to let him know that yet.
‘Hey.’ Be nice , her inner angel reminded her. Eyes on the prize. Jessie always said you found out more with honey than with… Actually, Georgie couldn’t remember the other bit, but it was something less appealing than a sugary spread.
‘Got my wallet.’ He lifted it from the table to provide proof of this fact and she had the sudden thought that maybe the whole ‘left wallet’ thing was a deliberate manipulation so that he’d have to come back tonight. Or was she just overthinking everything about him now?
‘Great. So Kayleigh said you’ve decided to come to the party tonight.’
‘Yeah. I mean, your mum was good enough to invite me, so as long as your dad doesn’t put bouncers on the door to stop me getting in, I thought it would be kind of cool to have a family night out again. Our family.’
Her dad’s distrust and general disdain for him had never been vocalised to Flynn directly, but it didn’t take a psychologist to spot it.
The reference to ‘family’ was very clearly loaded, though, so she decided to jump right in.
‘You know, I was thinking about what you were saying this morning.’
‘You were?’ He looked suitably pleased with this information.
‘I was.’ Her answer was breezy, as she was still trying her best not to give away that he was about to stroll right into an ambush of his own making.
She’d thought about how to play this the whole way home, and this was the best she could come up with at short notice.
‘But if we’re going to give it another try, then I don’t want there to be anything that could come back and bite us on the arse later.
No secrets. Nothing that could hurt us. So if there’s anything you think I should know, then I need you to tell me now and we can talk about it, move on and forget it. ’
A very slight frown of unease made two little creases appear between the sexy eyes, but he kept up the cool and easy vibe.
‘Like what?’
She shrugged, acting nonchalant. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Maybe just things like whether we’ve seen other people since we split. No details. I mean just, like, ballpark. Bullet points.’
He immediately deflected, as she’d anticipated that he would. ‘Why, have you?’
‘No.’
‘No one? Like, at all? Since we split up?’
Georgie shook her head, as if this was the most natural thing in the world. ‘No. Not even a date. I was a bit busy with the salon and being with our daughter. ’
Hopefully, despite the words, she’d managed to keep any hint of resentment or accusation out of that, because if he got defensive, then she’d never get the truth.
‘I’m also inherently lazy and terrified of dating apps, so there’s that.
It’s not a moral thing. If Ryan Gosling had shown up on my doorstep, then I totally would have. ’
His shoulders dropped just a tad, but it was enough to show that she’d put him at ease again.
Time to go in with, ‘What about you? And please be honest, because I can take it. Like I said, I just want to clear the decks so we both know there are no secrets.’
He took a swig of his beer before he answered. ‘Look, I have seen a few people. Like I said, it’s been three years since we split, Georgie. Two years since the divorce. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.’
‘No, no – I don’t either. This isn’t a blame game here, and I promise there are no right or wrong answers.
’ She waited for a bolt of lightning to strike her down for the obvious lie there, but when it didn’t come, she carried on.
‘So when you say you’ve “seen” people – do you mean dates, or actual relationships? ’
Headlights. Rabbit.
‘Dates. Yeah, like a few dates, but that’s it.’
‘So no one long term, no one serious?’
Argh, this was so difficult. She wanted to blurt out that she knew about Monica, that the game was up, and she had all the facts at her disposal, but she’d promised that she wouldn’t tell him about his girlfriend’s visit, so that option was off the table.
‘No, nothing like that. I think I always hoped on some level that we’d get back together, so I haven’t been interested in anything that could get in the way of that.’
Oh, he was good. If she hadn’t known he was lying through his teeth, she might be believing this. Today’s lesson is being brought to you courtesy of the word, ‘gullible’.
One last question for the prosecution. ‘And you’re not seeing anyone right now?’
He leaned forward, elbows on the table, ‘No. Georgie, do you think I’d be sitting here if I was seeing someone?’
Yes. Yes, I absolutely would . But she said that on the inside.
On the outside, she went with, ‘I guess not. I mean, that would be a pretty underhand thing to do. You hear about guys like that, that play a couple of women along at the same time. Total shitbags. I had a client the other day whose ex-husband was trying to get her back while still shagging his secretary.’
His Adam’s apple moved as she said that and there was a definite squirm in his chair, but she carried on in a light conversational tone, as if just relaying a story.
‘I mean, what kind of guy would do that? If I found out that someone was trying to get back in my bed and have me commit my future to him while he was sleeping with someone else, well, I’d…’
She paused, watched him squirm a little more as he asked, ‘You’d what?’
‘Well, first, I’d probably dip his willy in disinfectant while he was asleep, but after that I think I’d be done with him because he’s just not a decent guy.
If he truly cared about me, he’d take care of his stuff first, before even suggesting any kind of reconciliation.
’ She leaned forward, warm smile still in place. ‘Anyway, I’m glad that’s not you.’
Another squirm.
‘And I’m glad we had this conversation, because if I found out later you’d been seeing someone and lied to me, I think it would wreck any chance we had of friendship, never mind a relationship.’ She let that hang, before dismissing it. ‘Anyway, glad you’re not.’
‘No.’ Was it her imagination or was he now sweating slightly and checking the location of the exits?
‘But also…’ she went on.
‘Yes?’ Definitely sweating.
‘Would you mind if we didn’t do the party together tonight? I just think it could be confusing for Kayleigh. I don’t want her to get her hopes up that we’ll get back together until we definitely know for sure that’s what we want.’
He sat back in the chair. ‘And you don’t know yet?’ His whole energy and demeanour had changed since she’d sat down, and she couldn’t tell if he was relieved or perturbed by her request.
She pretended to mull his question over for a few seconds.
‘I think we need to take more time. You know, I haven’t told you this, but I feel I need to be completely honest with you too.
’ Time to go in with the cut-off switch, the one thing that she knew would send him racing to the hills.
It was a complete lie, but the only thing she could think of that would unequivocally end his hopes of skipping off into the sunset together.
‘I’ve begun to realise that I’d like more children. ’
‘You what?’ The horror on his face was almost comical and made her warm up even more to the story.
‘Yes, at least one more. Maybe two. Now that Kayleigh has moved out, I feel like there’s a void that I want to fill. I’m only thirty-eight. Some women are just starting their families at my age.’
His wide eyes and raised eyebrows screamed pure panic. ‘Georgie, I definitely don’t want more children. No way. I feel like we’ve just hit a time in our lives where we have no commitments and it’s just for us. We can do anything, go anywhere… ’
Shag multiple women and lie to them, she added, but again, only on the inside.
‘But that’s the thing, I don’t want that. I want to be home, with another couple of little ones running around. I’m sorry if that doesn’t align with how you see your future, but it’s a deal-breaker for me.’
‘Then I’m so sorry, Georgie, but I guess it won’t work.’ To his credit, his sad face was fairly impressive.
‘No, I guess it won’t. Good thing we realised now, before either of us had our hearts torn out again.
’ This wasn’t the time to point out that the only people who’d had their hearts decimated when he left last time was her and Kayleigh.
He was too busy stocking up on SPF10 for his jolly to Thailand.
‘Or before I fall pregnant again and then we’re right back in it. ’
He visibly paled at that thought. ‘Absolutely. And you’re right, I probably shouldn’t come tonight.’ His relief was almost palpable. ‘Listen, I’ll go.’ He got up from his chair. ‘I’ll tell Kayleigh that I’ve got a…’
‘Work emergency?’ she suggested.
He missed the irony. ‘Yeah, a work emergency.’ He leaned down, kissed her cheek. ‘I’ll, erm, see you… soon.’
He was out of the door before she even had a chance to reply to that.
Only after he’d gone did she notice, with a wry chuckle, that this time he’d remembered his wallet.
The second thing she noticed was that her relief had shoved her fury to one side.
Deep down, she knew that she’d never wanted him back and Monica had done her the biggest favour by removing the option. Lucky escape.
Dilemma number one of the day sorted. Now she just had to deal with the other one.