‘Yes, when I’m babysitting. You know that your mum and I are teachers. Actually, I’m a student teacher – but do you understand what that means – that we’re work colleagues?’ Jake wasn’t sure he was explaining himself very well.
‘And you’re my friend.’
‘That’s right,’ Jake said triumphantly.
‘Just like Annabelle and her special friend.’
‘Who is Annabelle’s special friend?’ asked Jake.
‘Her daddy.’
Jake heard Faye sigh heavily. She closed her eyes, slowly shaking her head from side to side.
Jake put his fork down. ‘Natty, do you think I’m your daddy?’
‘Of course you are.’ Natty laughed. ‘What a silly question.’ She turned to Faye. ‘May I leave the table now?’
‘Huh?’ Faye opened her eyes.
‘Mummy, I’m leaving the table now,’ she said in a sing-song voice, and slid the chair away from the table. She gave Jake a kiss on the cheek and ran up the stairs.
‘Don’t forget to clean your teeth,’ Faye called after her in a deadpan voice. ‘I hope you haven’t forgotten your trip today.’
‘Oh, no.’
Natty wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten all about her trip today. Jake had forgotten about it too, probably because it was Saturday, and it wasn’t a school trip. Natty was in a swimming club.
‘Do I have to go?’
Faye shouted back, ‘Yes. Your bag is all packed, remember?’
‘Will Jake be here when I get back?’
Jake had just lost his appetite. He slid his plate along the table and stole a glance at Faye. Things had just got complicated. And Jake had Monday to look forward to, being cooped up in a classroom with someone who was going to be very cheesed off indeed.
It was the end-of-term assessment for his teacher training course. Faye was his mentor and would be sitting in on his lessons for the entire day, taking notes. It was important that he passed these assessments. But if he didn’t sort things out with Natty, having his mentor in a foul mood would not bode well for the next week at work. Even though Faye was extremely professional, and all this wasn’t really his fault, he knew they both sensed that things between them had crossed a line. He was afraid it would mean the end of his babysitting role for good.
Ten minutes later, the kitchen was cleared – in silence – and Natty was struggling into her coat.
Outside, the minibus had turned up to collect her. The drivertooted.
Jake and Faye stood side by side at the front door as Natty skipped down the steps and along the pathway to the waiting bus.
Halfway down the path, Natty skidded to a stop, as though she had forgotten something. She turned around and waved. Faye and Jake waved back. She stood looking at them for a brief moment, a grin erupting on her little face, then turned and ran to the bus.
Jake and Faye exchanged glances. Faye’s was distinctly cool. She picked up her summer jacket from the coat hook behind the front door. She was off out. She didn’t say where, Jake noticed.
Although Jake wanted to take a shower himself, and put on a clean set of clothes, he didn’t want to go home just yet and stare at four blank walls – quite literally. He had lived in his new place for months, and yet he’d barely even unpacked his boxes, let alone hung a picture from his extensive collection of art. In fact, in the spirit of doing something charitable – he was thinking of Eleanor and all those good causes she used to belong to – he was planning to hand them all to Sotheby’s, auction them off to the highest bidder, and then give the money away.
He didn’t see the point of hanging them on the walls. The place wasn’t a home. All he had brought was one sofa, a large TV screen, which was standing on the floor, and a large double bed. There was a clothes rack on wheels in the bedroom that the previous tenants had left behind, along with some hangers.
Jake thought that perhaps if he’d bought himself a house, instead of renting, there would have been the impetus to turn the house into a home, put his own stamp on it, and actually unpack all his boxes. But he hadn’t. He suspected that even if he had bought a place, it would have made little difference. It wasn’t the furniture, or the things hung on the walls, that made a house into a home for Jake. It was the people – the family. If you werelucky.
That didn’t mean that someone who was single couldn’t have a proper home, but for Jake personally, no matter where he lived, there would always be something – someone – missing. He’d discovered after losing Eleanor that it had helped tremendously to change his career and sever ties with the Ross Corporation, but when he went home at night, after work, it had made little difference that he had moved out of the top-floor flat in the Ross Corporation building.
The only room that was fully furnished, and had pictures on the wall, and cupboards and drawers overflowing with stuff, feeling lived-in and occupied, was the spare bedroom he’d set up for the times he’d looked after Natty at his place.
He thought of Faye as he trudged out of the door. She was in a rented house too. She’d moved around. But she’d made hers a home. She also had Natty, and a meaning to her life outside of work. Jake turned around and looked at Faye standing at the door. He couldn’t, wouldn’t lose them, even if it was just babysitting.
