“Now I ain’t getting into no domestic. If you don’t mind, I’ll get paid and be on me way.” He stuck out his hand stubbornly and Daniel could see he wasn’t going to be drawn further. He paid him his two hundred quid and the man was gone. The remark left Daniel with a sense of unease, although he thought that the man must be mistaken somehow. He rejoined Will in the living room.
“Everything all right?”
Daniel was quick to smile. “All good. So, are you getting your own office now?”
As he listened to Will talk about his job, he kept an ear out for Cherry’s return. About twenty minutes later, he heard the key in the lock. The living-room door swung open. She looked tense, strained, and not pleased to see Will. Daniel jumped up to give her a kiss, which she accepted on her cheek. He turned to indicate their guest.
“Will’s got the new job.”
“Oh, right.”
“You know, Risk Engineering Manager.”
“You said.” She took a breath, knew she had to try harder. “Congratulations!”
Will raised his bottle. “Cheers!”
Daniel put his arm around her. “He came round to see if we wanted to go and celebrate with him. Fancy coming out for some dinner?”
“Um . . . I’ve got a terrible headache, but you two go and celebrate.”
Embarrassed, Will took a swig of his drink. He obviously felt he’d stumbled into some sort of lovers’ tiff.
Cherry stood there for a moment, aware of what she’d done, but unable or unwilling to make amends. She felt like she was suffocating and needed to get out of the room. “I’m just going to get changed.”
After a split second, Daniel scrambled after her and followed her to the bedroom.
“Is everything okay?”
Cherry tugged off her tights and threw them on the floor. She lay down on the bed. “Fine.”
“Your mum okay?”
“Yes, she’s good.”
She was obviously blocking him. He didn’t know how to bring up what the moving man had said, and instinctively knew it wouldn’t go down well. “It doesn’t look like everything’s okay,” he said gently.
“Honestly, everything’s fine. It’s just this headache.”
“I’ll tell Will I can’t go out. Make something up—”
“Just go,” she snapped.
There was a silence.
Cherry rolled onto her side, forced a smile. “I’m sorry, it’s just been a long day, that’s all. But you go out,” she added hurriedly, “I think I might just try and get an early night.”
Daniel went to the restaurant alone with Will, telling him something about Cherry having a migraine. It had been a bit of a halfhearted affair and he got the feeling Will was regrettingasking him to come out. Daniel had brushed off his query of whether “everything was all right back there,” and considered calling Cherry, but he thought she might be asleep. When he got back around ten-thirty, she was.
Just like now. He looked at her beautiful face once again, the eyelashes dark against her cheek, and decided a kiss might wake her. He grabbed Rufus, who’d snuck in behind him, and had a tendency to jump on the bed and lick your face. Then he crept out of the room and went to work.
* * *
Cherry woke at eighty-thirty with a nagging thought, like a fly that buzzed around the room before going quiet; then just when you’d forgotten about it, it started up again. Then it came back to her. She’d behaved stupidly the night before and she cringed as she thought of how she’d made up that lame excuse for Daniel’s friend. What was his name?Will.She’d met him a couple of times before, many months ago. He was okay, but a bit pleased with himself, a trait that irritated her. Just the same, she should have been charming; she should have gone out to dinner with them both. It had gotten awkward with Daniel and she’d tried to make amends, but all she could think about at the time was her mother, what had happened.
She suddenly curled up in a tight ball of pain and guilt.I hit my mum.It made her feel sick with guilt; but, she thought fiercely, Wendy was wrong about why she was with Daniel. She loved him. It was just good luck that he was wealthy. Good luck that she’d had a hand in, yes, but wasn’t there a famous saying that you make your own luck? Cherry cringed as she went over the events in her mind again. The thing she’d tried to hide for so long—the horrible, shameful fact that she was ashamed of her own mother—had come out, and all because Laura had been going round saying stuff, hurtful stuff, to Wendy. The anger rose up again:God, how I hate her.
There was one point last night when she’d almost broken. She’d wanted to tell Daniel everything: how she’d manipulated him by pretending she didn’t know he was alive, what she’d saidand done to Laura to teach her a lesson, and how Laurawouldn’t just leave her alone,but she knew that she couldn’t.Not ever.She’d sent him off to some restaurant and had lain in bed, wondering if he’d call before she fell asleep. At some point, he’d come back and had gotten into bed without waking her, and had done the same in reverse this morning.
