Chapter 10
10
The honk of a car horn, followed by the knocking on my front door, let me know that Michelle had arrived right on time. As I opened the door to her, the taxi reversed away from my house and the driver shouted, ‘I’ll pick you up at ten thirty,’ through his window.
Michelle kissed both of my cheeks as she openly gawped in amazement.
‘Oh my God, Jo, this is absolutely stunning.’
‘Would you like to…’
‘Yes! I! Bloody! Would!’ she laughed as she walked into the hall. ‘If you knew me better you’d know that my favourite programmes are where you get to have a nose around people’s houses. Oh, Jo, the potential here is just limitless. Look at these flagstones on the hall floor, they’re exquisite.’
I was so pleased that she’d come in. I was feeling particularly shaky about the whole move here after the builder had been this afternoon. He and his brother seemed like a proper Bodge It and Scarper company who spent most of their time shaking their heads and sucking air in through their teeth as they walked around, mixed with the odd very loud tut and blowing out hefty puffs of air too.
Michelle’s oohs and ahhs were restoring my faith in humanity. When I told her my thoughts so far and my vision of what the place could look like, she looked at me in wonder.
‘It’s going to be fantastic, Jo. You’ve got this. And it’s a huge deal, you know. This place is enormous inside, considering it looks like a cosy little cottage from the outside.’
As we headed up to the third floor, she gasped as she looked out of the side window.
‘What are those buildings?’
‘I’ll show you properly another time but that one at the back, believe it or not, is a smallish, converted barn which has been kind of converted into a little holiday let.’
‘Wow. I’d love to have a nosy around at some point. And that other one?’
‘That one is a massive freestanding garage with huge space above. The solicitor said it has all the planning permission to make that into a living space too. Although I can barely afford the renovations in the main cottage, according to the builders that came and looked around, let alone the other buildings.’
‘Yeah, but they probably suggested selling it on, didn’t they?’
‘They did and told me to let them know if I was planning on doing that.’
‘I bet they bloody did too. The businesswoman in me is wondering why the hell you don’t do the rooms up as apartments and rent them out to long-term people. I’d rent one of them from you. The location is absolutely lush!’
While that was a great idea, I couldn’t afford to do anything so extravagant, and I didn’t think I had the energy to do anything like that. I also didn’t know how I felt about sharing my home with others. It was never meant to be that, so it would mean totally changing my mindset too. However, these were all things for me to think about at another time. Right now, I was thinking about my stomach which had just started to rumble loudly. Michelle clearly heard because she made a funny face at me, and we both laughed.
‘So I’ve booked us a table at the local pub if that’s OK.’
Her sentence stopped me in my tracks. There was only one pub in town, and it was the place that Michael and I visited each night when we were here last.
‘I knew you’d be horrified at first, Jo, but I’ve done my research and it’s been totally refurbished since the last time you were there and under new ownership too, so it won’t even feel the same to you.’
‘Gosh, are you in my head or something, Michelle?’
‘I just tried to think about how I would feel, to be honest. And hoped you would be the same.’
‘Well, you are really thoughtful and even if it hadn’t been refurbished, at some point you have to stop looking back and look forward instead, don’t you?’
‘You’re so brave, Jo. I admire you so much. I’m so glad we met.’
Today had been a bit of a shit sandwich, each side so full of lovely people and compliments, with a dollop of the builders Bodge It and Scarper in the middle.
My phone rang. It seemed to ring at all the worst moments lately. It was Melissa this time. I would answer and tell her I couldn’t speak.
I held my finger up to Michelle, signifying that I’d be one minute. We both headed downstairs as I answered.
‘Hi, Mel, how are you?’
‘Mum, I’ve just come off shift and Dad has left me a message saying that I have to call you because you are clearly having a mid-life crisis and clearly had a man staying overnight. What is going on? What’s got into you?’
This was just too much. I didn’t like the tone of her voice, nor the fact that she was so obviously siding with her father before even finding out what was going on. I was a grown woman and would not be spoken to in this way by either of my daughters or my ex-husband.
‘Melissa darling, it’s really nice of you to worry about me but I can assure you that if, and it’s a huge if, I’m ready to have a man stay overnight, I do not need either yours, your sister’s or your father’s approval. Your father, who left me for my best friend, if you’d forgotten.’
I could hear her begin to protest; however, I was on a mission and drowned out her words with mine.
‘I’m going out now, darling, with a friend, female for your information, to celebrate moving into my new house, which you have failed to even ask about. So, I don’t think that qualifies you to have an opinion on anything I do today. Let’s speak soon. Sending you lots of love, darling. Take care.’
My hands were shaking as I disconnected the call. I could imagine Melissa would be staring at the phone, wondering what was going on. I had never in all of my years spoken to her like that. I’d had my fill of this family taking me for granted.
This was the start of my new life, a new me, and it felt particularly good.
‘Come on, let’s go, Michelle. I think I need a stiff gin or three.’