Page 56 of One Day at a Time

Aidan’s sister suddenly seemed very uncomfortable. ‘Erm, I’m not sure.’

‘Is Kyle still seeing Demi?’

Orla felt mortified. Embarrassed. Felt her dignity crumble with every passing second.

‘I don’t think so. I haven’t seen him at the bar for a while.’

Relief flooded every nerve ending in Orla’s body. He wasn’t being unfaithful. He wasn’t lying. He really had moved on and he wanted to make a go of it. She returned to her previous optimism and self-promises. What she needed to do now was put the suspicions to bed, once and for all, and have faith that her husband had learned from his mistake and was fully invested in their family and their future.

‘When you say a while…? How long has it been?’ Clearly her mouth hadn’t caught up with her new-found resolution to move on and still had further questions.

‘Erm, since… well, since Aidan punched him out on the night of the bar’s birthday party.’

HOGMANAY

28

SHEENA

Sheena wasn’t sure how they’d managed to get through Christmas, other than there had been a lot of deep breaths and tolerance. There had been Gregor’s insistence on going for a 5k run on Christmas morning. The fact that he only ate the vegetables on his Christmas plate, because he’d announced that he was now ‘vegan-curious’. There were the sticky situations caused by a lack of consensus over what to watch on TV on Christmas night, that led to them sitting in separate rooms, both enjoying their own shows. And in the midst of all that, there hadn’t been anything more than brief incidents of mostly accidental physical touch. In other words, despite all the big promises and vows, since she’d moved back into their former marital home, they’d gone right back to the way that they’d been before she told him she was leaving the first time.

It had been an inevitable decision to come home, really, and she’d moved back in on the day after her dinner with Maddie. After spending more than thirty years with him, she owed it to Gregor, to herself, and more importantly, to their child to at least try to see if they could make it work now that their future lookedvery different from the childless years they’d seen ahead of them a few months ago. She always advised her clients against having ‘band-aid babies’ to keep their relationships together, but some had ignored her and in a few cases it had worked. Maybe it would for them too.

At least, that was what she’d hoped, but she wondered now if she’d known all along that they didn’t stand a chance. They’d agreed to stick to separate rooms because she wasn’t sleeping well and he got up every morning at 5.30a.m. to go to the gym. That, combined with being nine months pregnant, had curtailed any intimacy further than an occasional side by side TV viewing session on the couch. Even then, he either complained that she was too restless, or that his legs were cramping.

Then there was the relentless exercise. The buckets of supplements. The eating plan that ruled his day. His obsession with YouTube fitness videos. His Christmas gift of an abdominal electrical muscle stimulation belt ‘to help her ping back into shape’. She’d asked for thermal socks and a bottle of Hermès Twilly. And overriding it all, there was his… It was difficult to say it, so she only vocalised it inside her head… HIS INTENSE BORINGNESS.

Moving back in had brought an acceptance, at least on her part, that this was who he was. He might well be a decent man. A great catch. After all, he had a good job, a healthy income, he was fit, handsome and honest – but he wasn’t the man that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

‘The thing is, if I’m baring my soul, I knew it would never work, so perhaps I set us up for failure. That’s why I didn’t give up the lease on my flat,’ she’d told Chanel earlier that day, when she’d popped into the shop. Of course, it was the worst imaginable day to try to have a heart-to-heart with her best friend, because half of Glasgow was coming in and out to choose,purchase or collect their dresses for the Hogmanay celebrations later tonight.

Still, Chanel had been a willing shoulder. ‘Well, you have two choices then. Either tell him tonight, so that you both have time to adjust your expectations and make new arrangements before the baby is born, or wait until the wee one is here, share the early parenting, then make a plan to move out when you’re back on your feet.’

‘You’re like a paragon of wisdom there, my friend,’ Sheena had told her, just as someone called Rhonda, who apparently owned the hair salon next door, had torn in, looking for a last-minute frock ‘that’ll make me look like a disco ball’.

Sheena pondered Chanel’s suggested options as she walked back to the car, which was parked on a double yellow line, because she figured if there was ever a time she could play on the sympathies of a traffic warden, it was now.

She was still thinking it all through when she stopped by a supermarket for some essentials for tonight and the week ahead. Given that she was only days away from her due date, Gregor had felt the smart thing to do this evening was stay home, eat a healthy dinner and get an early night. Which was, she reflected, exactly what he wanted to do every night. Sheena wasn’t sure that she could do one more evening feeling like she was in a hostage situation in her own home.

When she got back into the car, two shopping bags deposited in the back seat, she sent a text to Maddie. Their daily messages had become a source of a smile and something to keep her mind occupied now that she was officially on maternity leave. Her last day of work had been the 21st of December. She was self-employed, so she was only entitled to the basic government maternity allowance for thirty-nine weeks. It would be a big drop in her salary, but she was fortunate that she had enough savingstucked away to subsidise it until she felt ready to work again. She hadn’t put a timeframe on it. All she cared about was enjoying every moment with her child, and savouring all the things she’d missed out on last time.

I’m going to tell Gregor tonight that I’m leaving. Again. Hope your Hogmanay is far less eventful. Sending hugs. Xx

The reply had been almost immediate, given that her newish friend had been taken into the maternity unit on Christmas Eve and was still in there. Her baby hadn’t been delivered yet, but her blood pressure was high and the doctors had admitted her so that they could closely monitor the situation.

Eeeeeeeeeek. May the force be with you. If ever we needed wine…. I’m sooooo bored (yes I realise I’m using a lot of vowels). I still haven’t told Dylan about the baby so still in the Messed-Up Mums Club. Hugs right back. Mxx

On the way back home, Sheena stopped at her rented flat, and took in one of the shopping bags. She put fresh milk and butter in the fridge, a packet of croissants in the breadbin and a couple of ready meals and some salad in the fridge. Next, she switched the heating on and put a fresh sheet and duvet on the bed. It took her twice as long as usual, because the exertion of it made her side ache and took her breath away, but she was determined to get it done. She had no idea how Gregor was going to react when she told him that the month trial hadn’t changed her mind and she wanted to go back to having separate homes, but if it got awkward and she decided to leave there and then, she didn’t want to come back here to a cold flat. Only when she felt it was warm and cosy again did she leave and drive back to herformer marital home, the side of her stomach twinging every time she stretched her foot on to the brake. She’d obviously pinched something when she was changing the bed.

By the time she got home, the twinge had graduated to an ache, so she lay down on the sofa and put on the TV, channel surfing until she found her standard guilty pleasure of the Real Housewives of One Chaos Or Another.

When Gregor came in from the gym, he was flushed in the face and soaked to the skin.

‘Did you run back in the rain?’ she asked him, and wasn’t surprised when he nodded.

‘I did. Thought I’d get a few extra miles in before our early night.’

Sheena had been planning on waiting, but something in the stupidity and self-centredness of his statement triggered an avalanche of emotions.