Chapter 63 Melissa
Melissa
It’s been a long, fourteen-hour shift by the time Melissa returns home from work.
It’s past six and she picked up a microwavable jacket potato and a tin of baked beans from a garage en route.
She made sure to leave the empty full-fat Coke bottle and two Twix wrappers out of Adrienne’s sight in the car’s glovebox, because Adrienne wants them both to be as physically healthy as possible before they become parents.
She has no idea the chances of motherhood are becoming more and more remote.
And the further away they recede, the more Melissa craves the comfort of junk food.
Her stomach is still rumbling as she walks up the short drive to their detached home on a modern estate.
She edges her way around the rocks and bricks that her dad excavated as he prepares to replace the stones with block paving.
She curses him as she almost trips over a mallet and spirit level he’s left close to the porch.
The house itself is a characterless copy of every other property in the neighbourhood, but it will do until they can afford something that suits their tastes better.
After willingly leaving Damon with almost all their shared belongings, everything inside this house embodies the last, and best, years of her life.
Melissa locks the front door behind her, then makes her way to the kitchen and spots Adrienne’s handbag lying on the floor. She is supposed to be working a late shift tonight. Melissa finds her sitting at the breakfast bar, an iPad lying face down on the marble-effect worktop.
Adrienne’s head doesn’t turn to meet her lips when Melissa kisses her. There’s clearly a problem.
‘What’s happened?’ she asks.
Melissa lowers herself on to a barstool, and from that angle, the lighting reflects Adrienne’s eyes. They’re pink and puffy, as if she’s been crying. Which is unusual, because it’s Melissa who’s typically the more emotional of the two.
‘Babe?’ Melissa asks. ‘Are you okay? Has someone died?’
Adrienne nods.
‘Oh my God, why didn’t you call me?’ Melissa asks, now panicked. ‘Who?’
Adrienne turns to look her girlfriend in the eye.
‘Damon, apparently,’ she says. ‘And more than once.’