‘No,’ Karen replied quickly. If the police came, they would have too many questions. They would want to know who Michael was; they would blame this on his wife, probably even pay her a visit. Everything would be ruined. Besides, she knew who was responsible for this, and it had nothing to do with her lover and everything to do with her. She could hear those very same words on a loop in her mind – ‘I kept waiting for a phone call or for her to turn up, to say “I know what you’re doing. I know what you’ve done.”’ This was about someone else’s lover. This was Jessica.
13
Eleanor
‘Wow, this place looks great! I mean, not that it doesn’t usually, but …’ Bea let her sentence trail off and Eleanor smiled and waved a hand.
‘It’s okay. I know that the redistribution of toys and general crap hasn’t been my strong point lately, but – drumroll, please …’ She paused for maximum effect, and Bea drummed her hands on the glass coffee table. ‘I got a cleaner! And please stop that now, you’re getting fingerprints on my nice clean glass.’
‘Oooh, did you win the lottery?’
‘It’s not as expensive as you might think,’ Eleanor replied, handing Bea her green tea and placing Karen’s coffee on a coaster. Get her, she was even using coasters again these days! It was amazing how having the house clean encouraged her to keep it that way – suddenly chucking a few things in the washing machine and rinsing off the breakfast dishes didn’t seem like climbing a mountain. ‘And anyway, I switched my energy providers and cancelled Netflix and my gym membership – oh don’t look like that, Karen, I wasn’t using it anyway – and saved myself nearly sixty quid a month. That pretty much pays for her to do a couple of hours a week. You wouldn’t believe what she can get done with no kids to look after. Well, okay, you two probably would believe it.’ Eleanor wondered for a second why she felt like she had to justify how she was spending her own money. ‘She’s a bloody lifesaver.’
‘So what have you been doing with all your new-found free time?’ Karen asked. Was it Eleanor’s imagination, or was her voice a shade cooler than it had been earlier? Surely someone who could do exactly as she pleased the whole time didn’t begrudge her a few hours a week?
‘I, um …’ What was wrong with her? She’d been steeped in desperation to tell her friends about her new venture – after all, they were the ones who had encouraged her to take back something for herself. So why did she suddenly feel as though her tongue had been pasted to the bottom of her mouth? ‘I took your advice,’ she said, putting extra emphasis on your, as if trying to remind them that what she was about to say was their idea. ‘So whilst Noah was napping and Lesley was ironing, I was putting together a plan. A business plan, I suppose. I’m thinking of going freelance.’
In the silence that followed, Eleanor realised why she’d felt so nervous about saying out loud what it was she’d been doing since their last meeting. She’d thought about little else ever since the idea had taken root in her mind and spread like ivy, obscuring everything that had seemed so important the previous week, yet she’d not actually told anyone about it. She hadn’t even said anything else to Adam after his disparaging remarks about having her hands full already. Maybe her hands wouldn’t be so full if he lifted a finger every now and then. If it were that easy to start your own business, she could imagine him saying, everyone would do it. You’ve done very well at work, but do you really think you have what it takes to get a whole marketing business off the ground? And where are you proposing we find the start-up costs?
‘That’s fantastic.’ At least Bea sounded enthusiastic, even as she reached for her mobile phone, probably to check on more interesting people. Karen had stayed oddly silent, and Eleanor wondered what was wrong with her today.
‘What does Adam think about it all?’ When her friend finally spoke, her words were tinged with an inexplicable hostility. ‘His wife the entrepreneur, and this lifesaving cleaner?’
Eleanor’s throat constricted, desperate not to allow the words she really wanted to say to spill out unguarded. What is your problem