Part 19 (2/2)

'It's not very flattering being in bed with someone whilst he's thinking about marrying another woman,' she pouted.

'I'm not,' he protested. 'Sorry, it was tactless and insensitive of me even to mention it. Come on, what can I do to make it up to you?'

'Well, there is something,' she said with that look in her eye. Then she lay back as his head disappeared under the duvet.

Josh Parker's party was being held in the function room in the annexe part of Well Life. There was a bar there and Stevie was all too aware of how well utilized it would be by all the dads who had been dragged along. One in particular, worst luck.

Catherine had arranged to meet her outside and her welcoming smile slid further off her face the closer Stevie got.

'Christ, you look like s.h.i.+t,' said Catherine.

'Thanks,' said Stevie. 'It's not the best I've felt.'

Catherine was overcome with guilt. Maybe it would have been better for Stevie to sit in the cottage and mope or get drunk on gin until she hit oblivion. She could have taken Danny to the party for her and let Stevie pretend the day wasn't happening. She was thinking about it the previous night then got sidetracked when the kids fell victim to some nameless bug that was circulating. Well, all of them except for Gareth, which was lucky, because he was excited about the party and she wouldn't have wanted him to miss it.

Catherine linked her arm and they walked in together, and immediately Stevie voiced the, 'Oh G.o.d,' that Catherine was thinking. The function room was not only full of balloons, but party poppers were piled up in small mountains on every table. The disco music was blaring out by the dance floor and the bar was thick with dad-customers. Josh's own father, Richard, waved over with a balloon in his hand, seemingly specially prepared. He looked like it was his birthday when his eyes first locked on Stevie.

Stevie hated balloons, she hated party poppers and she hated Josh's noisy dad more than both of them put together. A legacy from her own mum and dad's shouting days, she suspected, when she had cried herself to sleep, waiting for her fragile world to be split apart. It was almost a relief when it eventually happened. At least the screaming stopped.

Matthew had never come with her to any of the parties, so she had usually been on her own amongst a sea of couples, and what was it about some men that the t.i.tle 'thirty-something single mum' was male-speak for 'easy prey'? At the first party they had ever been to, Richard Parker had leapt on Stevie's reaction to a popped balloon with a 'hilarious' tirade of many more. She had tried to laugh it off, but after two more hours of having her eardrums tormented, her nerves and her temper were in shreds. Ever since then, he had been there at every children's party squeaking balloons near her, exploding party poppers behind her, however deep she was in conversation with anyone else, however much she ignored him, until she wanted to scream at him to leave her alone. But how could she do anything but try to be a good sport? She didn't want to show Danny up or embarra.s.s herself with an over-reaction, and if Jan Parker found Stevie telling her husband to 'sod off', what would she think?

She would probably presume that Stevie was at fault, because wives never quite believed that their partners were the instigators of trouble with another female, did they? Then they would end up not talking and the bad feeling might filter down to the kids, all because some stupid idiot didn't know when to stop. Yet he would remain blameless in it all, ready to torment another day. So Stevie suffered in painful silence and hoped he would get tired of the joke but he never did, and the more beers he had, the funnier he thought it all was. Today he looked as if he had had quite a lot to drink already.

'Stand close to me,' said Catherine. 'I'll tell him to p.i.s.s off, even if you don't. No wonder his mam called him d.i.c.k!' and with that, she squashed Stevie on a corner table out of the way and went to get the first round in. Josh, Gareth and Danny were dancingthe lady entertainer was demonstrating 'The Ketchup Song'but Stevie's smile at them was quickly knocked off by a big bang in her ear. She squealed and spun around.

'Gonna get you later big time!' said Richard Parker, staggering slightly behind her and waggling his finger. His rubbery lips moved over each other as if he was chewing a toffee but couldn't quite locate it in his mouth.

'Excuse me!' said Catherine forcefully and barged him out of the way with her expertly agile mum-hip. She plonked herself down next to Stevie, handed her a drink and said, 'I bet you just love me now for forcing you here, don't you?'

'It's okay, Danny's enjoying himself.'

Then Gareth threw up.

'Oh sod, I thought it was too good to be true,' said Catherine. Mothers converged onto the dance floor with tissues and dragged off little brothers and sisters who wanted to go splas.h.i.+ng in the puddle of watery vomit.

'I'll get your bag,' said Stevie, wis.h.i.+ng, and feeling really awful for doing so, that it had been Danny who had thrown up and given her the excuse to go home. Did that make her a terrible person? Probably. The murderous thoughts about Jo she had tried to keep a lid on that morning were making her feel a bit unhinged. But Danny wasn't going anywhere; he was having a ball and it would have been so unfair to take him home and upset his day too. It wasn't his fault his mum was too much of an old trout to keep a man, and what would they do instead because she didn't want to go out or do anything but curl up into a ball and sleep the day away.

'Oh Steve, I've c.o.c.ked this right up for you, haven't I?' said Catherine.

'It's not your fault, Cath,' said Stevie. 'Gareth's poorly and that's that.'

'I should never have nagged at you to come. I always think I know better than everyone else.' Wasn't it me who more or less forced her to go on that first date with Matthew when she was going to back off? thought Catherine. Eddie had been right when he accused her of interfering too much in other people's lives.

'Mummeee!' cried Gareth.

'Look, go,' said Stevie, pus.h.i.+ng her away. Catherine was dreadfully reluctant to leave her friend, today of all days, but she was trapped. Eddie was working and Kate, not 100 per cent well herself, was looking after the other kids, so there really was no alternative.

'Go!' Stevie ordered again, and so Catherine blew her an apologetic kiss and went.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Richard Parker staring over. Where was his b.l.o.o.d.y wife? She was sure that if Matthew had made a beeline for a woman every time he saw her, she would have picked up on it. Then again, this from a woman who hadn't seen what had been happening under her nose with her man and Jo. A sweep of the hall showed her that Jan was in the dining area, too busy even to look up. A balloon brushed past Stevie's head, then another landed and almost knocked her drink over, and so with her nerves stretched to breaking-point and unable to bring herself to do anything about it, Stevie endured the next hour.

Then the children conga-ed into the dining area, and after making sure Danny's plate was replete, Stevie stole off to the ladies. She just wanted to go home but there was another half an hour to go and Danny would never forgive her if she dragged him away before the party bags were ready. Her thoughts were so much on where she might go afterwards to keep herself occupied that she didn't see the figure hiding behind the corner when she emerged from the loo.

Bang.

Stevie screamed.

'Told you I'd get you!' said Richard, with eyes very glazed and holding a clutch of more balloons. He swaggered forwards a little, straying too far into her personal s.p.a.ce, pointing to her chest. 'What I find amazing though, is that you're scared of these balloons when all the time you've got those big balloons under your jumper.'

Stevie's mouth fell into a long O. She was too stunned to react and stand up for herself, but it didn't matter because seconds later it was done for her. From nowhere, big Adam MacLean appeared with a not very friendly expression on his face and he boomed so loudly into the top of Richard Parker's bald patch that it left an echo hanging in the air, 'Hey pal, are you bothering this lady?' Even Stevie blanched at the tone of his voice, which was a weapon of ma.s.s destruction in itself. She was witnessing the side of him now that she hadn't seen yet but had heard lots about, but despite it, boy was she glad to see him.

'Er...oh...er...sorry, no offence!' Mumble mumble. Richard shrank and scuttled away back into the party room and Adam let him. Contrary to what Stevie might have expected of him, he didn't grab him and mince him between his fists or do a Steven Seagal and launch him through the nearest gla.s.s window. The confrontation ended there. Then again, Adam was at work and a little worm like Richard Parker throwing balloons about obviously wasn't worth risking his job and another a.s.sault charge for. Funny, that. She didn't think they'd employ someone with a criminal record for GBH in such a posh place, and Adam had spent time inside a hard Scottish prison for violence, so Jo had told them.

'Thank you,' she said, relief was.h.i.+ng over her like a warm shower.

'Don't get excited, I wid have done it for anyone,' he said in his usual gruff and dismissive way. 'What were you doing out here alone with him anyway?'

Why is this my fault? thought Stevie. Her head suddenly flooded with voices: her mother saying 'No wonder he b.u.g.g.e.red off!' and Mick's mother screaming at her, 'If you'd been more of a wife, he'd still be alive!' and pictures of the way Adam MacLean always looked at and spoke to her as if she was to blame for Jo leaving him. She wanted to scream aloud, 'I'm not to blame for this, I'm not!' Then she thought of waiting outside the headmaster's office, being accused of climbing high trees and pinching apples, and it was then that Stevie's last remaining nerve snapped, and it appeared that it was the one holding the lid down on her tear supply because they moved at Exocet missile speed up to her eyeb.a.l.l.s. And, like an Exocet missile, there wasn't a d.a.m.n thing she could do to stop them.

'I only went to the loo. Please, Adam,' she said, without the customary pause before his name, 'not today.' She wiped at her eyes with the flat of her hands; they were dripping out water like a pair of taps with faulty washers. 'I don't care if you fight me for the rest of your life, but please, please, I beg you, not today.' Her throat failed on the last word and she turned away before she could make any more of a fool of herself in front of him, and melted back into the party room, grateful that it was so dark inside.

When the party was at last over, Stevie and Danny went down to Blockbusters and got out the Crocodile Dundee trilogy and a big bag of popcorn. They transformed the lounge of Humbleby Cottage into a cinema, closing the blinds and diverting the sound through the surround speakers. Then they snuggled up on the sofa with the popcorn and Cola. Really, it was a lovely hot day and it was a shame to be inside, but today, Stevie didn't want to see the suns.h.i.+ne. She didn't want to know that she would have been outside the church bathed in it now, having her photographs taken, laughing and being beautiful and throwing her bouquet. Neither did she want to think that tomorrow she and MacLean were going to tail the faithless exes in a hired anonymous car, like Starsky and Hutch, in a bid to win them back. Who was she kidding? Matthew and Jo hadn't taken their bait, it was useless. A tsunami of despair engulfed her and dragged away her last remaining hope with its ma.s.sive ebb.

'Are you okay, Mummy?' asked Danny, holding up a nub of popcorn near her lips.

'I'm fine, love. I think I'm just getting a bit of a cold,' she sniffed.

'You've got cry all over your cheek.' Danny's little hand came out to wipe away the escaping tears that threatened to flow so fast that she would be dissolved by them. It would have been so easy to collapse into them but she didn't want her little boy to see her as a weak, blubbering mess when she was supposed to be the strong one. Sometimes it was so hard to keep it together, though. Sometimes she just wanted to let go, surrender her power to someone else who would look after her, deal with things and make everything all right. But that was a luxury she was not afforded, so, with a monumental effort she managed to rein her tears in, just as there was a knock on the door. Oh no, no, no! She didn't want to see anyone. Maybe she could pretend she wasn't in. Boom boom boom. Whoever it was knocked again more insistently, and there was only one person who did knock like that. And she didn't want to see him more than she didn't want to see anyone else.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!.

He'd break the d.a.m.n door down if he carried on, the loud insensitive swine.

'Stay there, pet, I'll be back in a minute,' Stevie said, closing the lounge door behind her before opening the outside one. If it was who she thought it was, Danny must not see him under any circ.u.mstances. Unfortunately for her, it was.

Adam MacLean was standing there on the doorstep in his smart work clothes: a white s.h.i.+rt and a blue tie with a WL motif on it.

'h.e.l.looo,' he said, sounding quite contrite for him. Jeez, she looks terrible, he thought.

'h.e.l.lo,' she said coldly, the bloodshot s.h.i.+ning eyes betraying her air of composure.

<script>