And really, it wasn’t a problem, I’d simply call them the day before and say he couldn’t make it. Who knew? By 20 July I might have an actual, real-life plus one to bring. Which would be massively preferable to going to what must surely be Most Awkward Wedding Ever alone. If I was going to spend it trying to somehow reconnect with my mother, I could do with some back-up.
For a brief second, an image popped into my head of me in my gorgeous new shoes, nodding graciously to Zara while hanging off Mack’s arm. Her eyes bulging at how devastatingly handsome he looked in his suit. Richard speechless with envy and regret. Mum helpless to resist Mack’s MI6 interrogation techniques, revealing the whole of her family history before we get to dessert.
My phone beeped with a message:
You terminated the call before I informed you that all guests must provide a photograph for the guest book. Black and white, head and shoulders portrait, minimum resolution 300ppi. By 6 June. MM.
Great. Now all I needed to do was find a black and white, high resolution, portrait photograph of an imaginary man. I could ask the actual Mack… but I’d be willing to bet no such photograph even existed.
I found out later I would have lost that bet.
20
Later that week, I found Maddie’s head buried in a kitchen cupboard.
‘Maddie?’
She spun around, cheeks flaming, whipping her hands behind her back.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Nothing.’ Her eyes darted in every direction but mine.
‘Come on, what are you hiding?’ I stepped closer, and she bristled briefly before letting her shoulders sag in defeat. Slowly opening her hand, she revealed a cherry muffin, a banana and two chocolate biscuits.
‘You’re sneaking food?’
She nodded, miserably.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t want to say,’ she whispered, tears balancing on her eyelashes.
‘If you’re hungry, why didn’t you tell me? Sometimes when children are growing fast, they get hungry all the time. It isn’t naughty.’
‘Okay.’
‘But we need to make sure it’s good food that will fill you up and keep you healthy. Let’s put these biscuits back. If you’re still hungry after the banana and the muffin let me know.’
Peeling the paper case off the muffin, Maddie looked too miserable to eat it.
I gently propelled her to the window seat and curled up next to her before asking, ‘What’s going on?’
She shook her head, a teardrop tumbling down her cheek. ‘I don’t want to be a snitch.’
‘Okay.’ I thought about that. ‘Well, what if I guessed? That wouldn’t be snitching.’
‘Wouldn’t it?’
‘Definitely not.’
She nodded, picking crumbs off the muffin.
‘Was the food for you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you eat your lunch?’
