Page 37 of The Woman in the Middle
A trill of laughter from Karoline. ‘I don’t know what Sunny’s been telling you, I’m just a little under the weather, nothing for you to worry about.’
‘I’ve got a violet outfit for the wedding. I hope that doesn’t clash with anyone.’
‘Sounds fabulous,’ replied Karoline. ‘You have full permission to wear whatever colour you like, Roberta. Anyway, I’ll let you carry on chatting. You take good care of yourself and I’ll see you soon, I’m sure.’
‘You’re welcome any time, dear.’ Roberta’s smile was presently the size of a crescent moon.
She waited then for a response, but none came. ‘Hello… hello?’ she called into the phone, then she shook it. ‘She’s gone. Did I press something I shouldn’t have? I haven’t broken it, have I?’ She handed it back to Sunny. ‘Well, that was short but sweet.’
But the coin had flipped, because her mother might have been temporarily charmed but Shay’s senses had pricked up. What was going on there? Why was Sunny lying to his fiancée that coming here had been a last-minute decision? And why did it feel somehow that visiting his family would be such a big deal?
Sunny finished off his cake and his coffee but he didn’t seem at ease however much he tried to give the impression he was; micro gestures gave him away, another pull on his ear, a tapping foot. That phone call had unnerved him andit wasn’t an over-active imagination telling Shay that, as Bruce would have scoffed.
Roberta’s old grandmother clock chimed the hour and Sunny seized on that as a sign to go. ‘I’d better get back, it was just a flying visit to check in. Thanks for the cake, it was delicious. My favourite.’
‘I knew it was your favourite,’ said Roberta with an emphatic wag of her finger. She was delighted she’d half-remembered that.
Sunny bent to give his gran a hug then.
‘Aww,’ said Roberta, not letting him go. ‘I could have sat and talked to you all day. Come and see me again soon, Sunny. You don’t know how long I’ve got left.’
‘Oh, stop that, Mum,’ said Shay with a reproving chuckle.
‘Those… idiots next door will kill me off, I tell you,’ Roberta shook her fist at the party wall.
‘I promise I will, Gran.’
‘Come on, I’ll see you out,’ said Shay.
She walked with him to his car, took his arm, savoured the feel of him. The temptation to inundate him with questions was almost too much. Then he headed her off at the pass.
‘Before you say anything, Mum, because I know how your mind works, we’re just having a rough patch. It’ll pass. Karoline’s got too much time on her hands, being at home and she was cheated on by her last boyfriend, so she has a few trust issues.’
‘I see,’ replied Shay, not liking the sound of this at all. She couldn’t stop herself asking the question that came out of her mouth next, even though she could hear Bruce’s voice in her mind trying to censure her for it.
‘Should you be getting married if you haven’t sorted those trust issues out, love?’
‘My fault. I haven’t helped by taking the morning off work and not telling her. She’ll have read all sorts of things into that.’ He smiled ruefully at his own stupidity.
‘Why didn’t you just tell her, then?’
He shrugged, shook his head as if it was a deeper matter he didn’t want to get into, then he put his arms around his mother.
‘See you soon, Mum.’ He held on to her just a smidgeon more than a goodbye length, she noted.
‘You know you can talk to me about anything,’ said Shay, when he had let her go.
‘Course I do, and I would,’ he replied. And she knew that, once again, he was lying.
Roberta was still twittering about Sunny’s visit that evening when Shay called around to make her dinner. Not only that, but Courtney had rung and asked if she could bob over and see her that week; also her outfit had arrived from Dagmara’s catalogue and it fitted her like Cinderella’s slipper apparently, though Shay wasn’t allowed to see it until the big day. In short, Roberta’s spirits were sky-high for a nice change. Shay wished her own spirits were as lofty, because seeing Sunny had troubled her. And who could she talk to about it? Les still hadn’t responded to her text message from the weekend, so was obviously off grid and she felt as if there was a fence between her and Bruce. Nor could she work out if he was just being rude or was putting up a wall of bluster to hide behind because he was sinking into an abyss. Depression took many forms, she knew that and she needed to know what was really happening in his brain so she could help, and for that he had to let her in.
‘I meant to tell you,’ she said at dinner that night. Overdone lasagne, because Bruce was very late home and Shay hoped the heavy snow of Parmesan cheese disguised the burnt bits. ‘When Courtney came over, she said she saw you in a brand new Audi driving in Sheffield.’
Bruce momentarily stopped eating and looked up.
‘Is she mad? No, don’t answer that, she’s barmy – and blind.’
‘She seemed convinced it was you.’ Shay smiled. Once upon a time he’d have made a joke about it, said that the surprise was spoiled because he’d bought it as a gift for her and was giving it a test drive. Now, he just carried on eating, stabbing his fork into the pasta as if he was stabbing it into whatever was irking him and chewing like a bolshy teenager chewed gum.
