Chapter 9 #3
Mab scrambled to her feet, belatedly trying pull down her jumper, while Den frantically tucked himself in. Finally, they stood facing each other, picking bits of undergrowth from their clothing. Their eyes met.
‘Oh, Mab, I’m so sorry. That was just the worst coincidence ever, him turning up like that.
I don’t know what got into me. It was just that the thought of you in that wet shirt was giving me such powerful dreams last night that I had to do something about it.
When you hugged me this morning I could feel your lovely warm body through your t-shirt, and I just wanted to rip your clothes off there in the street.
You’re irresistible, do you know that? Especially dripping wet. ’
Mab looked down at her feet. She had never done anything erotic in public before but then she had never felt so desirable and wanton either.
Her body still pulsed with the desire that Den had set in motion, and she longed for it to happen all over again.
Without the appearance of Edward, needless to say.
‘What will he do, Den? Will he really get in touch with the papers, do you think? Leo’ll kill us!’ Shame flooded through her, making her blush fiercely. ‘What am I saying? Of course he’ll tell them. This is just what he needs to stop us in our tracks.’
‘But you can’t stop somebody opening a business because you find them rolling around in the bushes, surely? And what did he mean about a contract? He makes it sound as if the Mafia are involved.’
Mab started to cry, bitter, shamed tears that dripped from her chin unbecomingly and made her nose run. Den stepped forward and put his arms around her, and she sobbed damply into his shirt, scrabbling in her pocket for tissues.
‘Just have a good cry, pet, my shirt’ll dry. It’s me that got you into this mess anyway, acting like a horny teenager. The least I can do is to mop up your tears.’
‘It’s not that, Den, it’s just… I’m pregnant!’ she wailed.
‘What?’
He dropped his arms and Mab sighed, moving slightly out of his reach.
Den stared at her. She longed for him to hold her again, and to tell her that everything would be fine, but she didn’t feel that she deserved the comfort of a cuddle.
Shame washed over her as she thought, for the first time, about her own influence on the baby growing inside her.
So far, Mab had managed to distance herself from the idea of the baby as a real-live person.
She had planned to incubate it for Edward and Beattie, hand it over – her mother had promised to help with the details – and get on with her life, with a handsome expenses cheque to start her off in a new flat and to pay for her book to be published.
‘But Mab, does Leo know about this?’ Den’s expression wasn’t hard to read. Disgust drew a deep line between his eyes that Mab had never seen before.
‘No, I was going to come clean to him yesterday, but the time didn’t seem right. Even Jess doesn’t know yet.’
‘You’ll need to tell them as soon as we get back.
It’s not fair to go into partnership with him and keep a secret like that.
When were you planning to spill the beans?
Or were you just going to wear bigger and bigger clothes and blame the chips?
’ He was angry now, and Mab flinched as she saw the disgust on his face.
‘I’ll tell them as soon as I get a chance to see them alone, honestly, Den.’ In her pocket, her phone started to vibrate and ring at the same time. She fished it out and looked at the screen, as the word ‘Leo’ lit up ominously. Oh dear. All this, and now a hungry crowd of men to pacify too.
* * *
Later, at the flat, the episode in the shrubbery began to take on a dream-like quality, as Den threw himself into being the life and soul of the party, telling corny jokes, teasing Josh about the girl he’d left behind in Newcastle, and flirting shamelessly with Sophie as he tried to tempt her to eat a chip.
It was bewildering, and if it wasn’t for the tell-tale stubble rash on her cheek and a persistent throbbing whenever she sat down, Mab would have started to think she’d imagined the whole thing.
Den was refusing to even look at her, and Mab’s embarrassment grew by the minute.
What had she been thinking of? Fancying the pants off Leo, and then getting hot and heavy with his brother, whilst carrying a third man’s child, having entered into an agreement purely for money?
She felt as if she was having some sort of epiphany, but two and a half months too late.
Had Pete’s desertion unhinged her so much that she’d lost all human decency? How had she ended up in this mess?
At last it was time for bed, and Leo and Sophie took themselves off to their four-poster haven with much smugness and entwining of arms as they left the others to sleep where they could find space.
Mab had appropriated the second-largest bedroom and glanced through the open doorway just in time to see the look on Den’s face as Leo patted Sophie’s pert little bottom.
So Den didn’t like the two of them being together?
Was it because he thought Sophie was totally wrong for his brother?
If so, Mab couldn’t help agreeing with Den.
Sophie would never stand the hustle and bustle of starting a new business.
How were they going to keep her amused? They’d have to have a special grown-up crèche just for her, with a constant supply of glossy magazines, a rainbow selection of nail polishes, a fridge full of Diet Coke and vegetarian sushi, and back-to-back episodes of Love Island on the TV.
* * *
Sunday dawned much too early for most of the inhabitants of the bookshop.
The floor was covered with slumbering bodies as Mab picked her way from her bedroom to the bathroom.
She had slept badly again, with more feverish visions of muscle-bound, naked men haunting her sleep, and a feeling of impending doom making her jittery and unsettled.
She thought back to the previous evening, and the riotous dinner.
As the evening wore on with no word from next door, Mab and Den had, by unspoken agreement, kept quiet about their meeting with Edward.
As they hauled home a huge bag of fish and chips, they had avoiding looking at each other, and Mab thought Den was probably wishing he had never offered to help with his new scheme.
What could have got into him? Mab knew she could look good when she was making an effort, but no one had ever been overcome with passion to the extent of dragging her into the undergrowth before, especially not when she was covered in cobwebs and dirt.
She flinched at the memory, and tried not to remember Den’s hands.
The thought of his gentle but forceful fingers made her head for the shower again; she felt much better after a quick icy blast of water and was glad that Leo had made blitzing the bathroom a priority.
It was spotlessly clean, and the radiator was turned up full blast; she towelled herself dry, trying to think pure thoughts.
It was time to confess to Leo and to face whatever he would decide to do when he knew the situation.
Dressed in dungarees and a yellow t-shirt, with her hair loosely scooped up on top of her head, Mab felt more positive.
She put on a pair of the disposable gloves she’d bought in bulk after reading somewhere that pregnant women should avoid touching cat litter at all costs, and quickly emptied Maurice’s litter tray into a bin bag.
Her stomach lurched at the stench that rose from it before she’d refilled it with clean litter from a sack in the corner of her room.
Washing the disgusting tray could wait until there were fewer people around to turn up their noses.
Maurice was still hiding under a chest of drawers, very unimpressed with his new home, a small black shadow in the very corner of the room.
He had ventured out only for food and essential visits to his tray, for which Mab was grateful.
Creeping back to the kitchen, Mab’s heart sank as she saw the full extent of the mess.
Screwed up chip wrappers, empty brown ale bottles and dirty mugs covered the work surfaces, and the sink was full of greasy water and pots too.
She sighed and made her way back to the bathroom to wash her hands after disposing of the gloves and the contents of the litter tray.
Hopefully Maurice would soon feel like exploring the back garden.
The smell in her room last night had been horrendous.
She was just debating whether to wake up the sleepers or get to work in the kitchen when her mobile once began to vibrate in her pocket and Jess’s frantic voice put all thoughts of washing up right out of her head.