Chapter 46
MAYA
I stood in the kitchen, scooping protein powder into the smoothie maker when Hugo came in behind me. I pressed the button to blitz the ingredients together, the noise of the motor shredding through the morning calm. Once all the ingredients had been blended, I poured the shake into a glass.
‘Remember, we have the fundraiser at eight tonight,’ I reminded Hugo as I sipped my shake.
‘Oh, that’s tonight?’ he said, clearly having forgotten about it. ‘Do we have to go? Can’t we just donate the money and skip it? That’s all they want anyway.’
‘Come on,’ I cajoled, ‘you know we have to go. We have to make an effort. It’s important for Elliot that we do these things.’
‘I guess,’ he groaned, before grabbing his keys and heading out to his car without even saying goodbye.
Hugo’s contrition over the porn incident had quickly been forgotten and now he continued on like nothing had ever happened.
He was still acting the same way he always did: breezing in and out of the house like I was a paid childminder for our son and practically ignoring me whenever he was at home.
I know I wasn’t entirely blameless for the cracks in our marriage but why did he have to treat me like I was invisible?
That evening, Elliot was downstairs with the babysitter.
I had arranged for her to come a little earlier so she could occupy him and I could take my time getting ready.
I had poured myself a glass of Prosecco to start off the evening and was enjoying the process of applying my make-up and choosing the accessories to wear with my dress.
I was looking forward to the night. At least Liv would be there so I’d know somebody and it wasn’t just going to be Hugo and me sitting awkwardly on our own.
I also hoped to get to know some of the other parents.
I stepped into my dress, surprised by how easily it zipped up; since I had stopped going to the gym, I was worried about gaining weight but so far, it was staying off.
The dress had spaghetti straps studded with diamantes.
I didn’t want to look overdressed but as the theme was Hollywood glamour, it was an excuse to go all out.
I was tying the straps on my high-heeled sandals when I heard Hugo’s tyres crunch over the gravel just before eight.
I lifted the hem of my gown and headed downstairs, taking care not to trip.
I reached the bottom step just as he came through the door.
He didn’t even comment when he saw me, and my heart sank.
What would it take to get him to notice me?
‘You’d better hurry; we need to be there now. The taxi is on its way.’
Wordlessly, he headed upstairs past me to get changed.
‘You look nice, Mummy,’ Elliot said, snaking his arms around my waist when I came into the kitchen.
‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ I said.
When the taxi came, we sat in the back seat and gave the driver the address of the hotel where the event was taking place.
When we arrived at the venue, Hugo and I entered the foyer and were greeted by a waiter carrying a tray of champagne flutes.
We took one each and made our way inside.
I looked around at everyone gathered in the foyer.
Most of the women looked like they were going to a funeral.
There were a lot of black dresses and black suits and suddenly, I started to feel self-conscious in my slinky, gold, figure-hugging dress, but, No, I told myself, act confident.
A gong sounded for us to take our seats so we made our way inside. I saw a sea of white-clothed, circular tables with silver candelabras and extravagant floral centrepieces. Fairy lights had been strung across the ceiling and on the stage, a banner read:
St Fintan’s Fundraiser 2025
I spotted an easel displaying the seating plan and I was delighted when I saw that we were on the same table as Liv and Jay. Across the room, I spotted Liv standing over at the table already so we headed over to her.
‘Hey,’ I said, coming up behind her and surprising her.
She was wearing an empire-line dress with long gloves and a satin bolero jacket over it, I guessed to cover her arms. She had curled tendrils of hair to frame her face.
It looked like an outfit she had had in her wardrobe for years; it was a little dated now but she looked good.
She swung around, looking panicked. ‘Oh hi, Maya…’ she stammered. ‘Hi Hugo—’ I noticed that she was standing holding two placenames in her hands.
‘You look beautiful,’ I went on.
She began pulling at her dress self-consciously. ‘Oh, it’s very old…’
‘You’d never know. You look great,’ I enthused.
‘As do you. It’s all such a faff though, getting dressed up for these things. It’s so much easier for the men. All Jay had to do was chuck on his one suit – no worries about hair or make-up.’ She gave a nervous laugh.
‘But where’s the fun in that?’
We heard the piercing screech of feedback over the microphone before a man began speaking. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, if you could all take your seats. We’ll get started.’
‘Isn’t it great that we’re on the same table? I don’t really know anybody else here so at least we’ll have each other.’
Liv blinked hard and looked down at the ground.
I nodded to the tented placenames that she was still clutching in her hands. ‘What are you doing with those?’
‘Oh, sorry. I was just checking where we’re all sitting…
’ she said as she placed the name cards back down onto the tablecloth again.
‘We were thrilled when we saw we’re all sitting together,’ she added weakly and that was when I realised she had been about to move them but I had caught her in the act.
I loved Liv, I really did, but she was a terrible liar.