The Desperate Wife’s Survival Plan (23 page)

‘I’m hoping for a discount when I come in next Saturday.’ He gave her a small smile.
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

Charley blew out a long sigh. ‘Can you whip up a batch of rum and raisin ice-cream for me? In fact, I need to replace most of the stock so any flavour would do.’

‘No can do, I’m afraid.’ Mike stood up. ‘But I can make you a coffee, if you want.’

She watched him as he made the drinks. Of all the people to show her true emotions to, she would have put Mike
last on the list. But he hadn’t judged her, hadn’t mocked her. Just listened and advised.

She thanked him as he handed her a coffee. ‘You can be quite nice, you know.’

‘You sound surprised,’ he replied, with a wink.

Charley gave him a small smile.

Keep it quiet though, will you?’ he said, over his shoulder as he headed out of the back door. ‘It’ll ruin my reputation.’

FEELING A TINY
bit brighter after Mike’s encouraging words, Charley let her hair down from its ponytail on the way home and allowed the warm breeze to waft through the car. With the music on, she even managed to sing along to the lyrics.

But as she drove into the car park for the flats, her voice caught in her throat. Steve was leaning against the bonnet of a car, his arms
folded in front of him. She just about managed to pull into a parking space without crashing the Mini.

Her legs shaking, she slowly stepped out of the car. He looked good, thought Charley. Really, really good.

‘Hi, babe,’ her husband said, breaking into his trademark cheeky grin.

‘Hi,’ she managed to croak in reply.

But the grin was swiftly replaced with laughter as he took in her appearance.
‘Blimey! Was your hair always this curly? You look a fright.’

Her hands shot up to her head, knowing that the combination of wild curls and an open window would automatically ramp up the volume tenfold. She quickly tucked it back into a ponytail, feeling both embarrassed and cross.

‘What do you want?’ she snapped.

‘Saw your photo in the paper,’ said Steve. ‘Didn’t know you were starting up
a new business.’

‘I wasn’t,’ said Charley, with a sigh. ‘I was just trying to make a bit of money during the summer.’

‘Still, you could have told me. I felt like an idiot when everyone started talking about it.’

She frowned. ‘What does it have to do with you? We’re getting a divorce, aren’t we?’

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Just thought you would keep me up to date. Anyway, I see you had a
bit of a nightmare.’

‘That’s an understatement.’

‘Look, take it from me. You’re always going to get teething problems with any new business.’

This was the last thing she needed. Charley wanted to shout and scream at him but the fight had gone out of her. She was too hot and too tired to be bothered.

By now Steve was in full flow. ‘I can help, you know. I know a few people. You should be thinking
of franchising. That’s where we went wrong. Let someone else take the strain out of the renting and all that. It’s common sense.’

‘Unfortunately sense doesn’t seem to be very common around here.’ She shook her head. ‘
You’re
giving me business advice? After bankrupting us?’

‘I was a good businessman. It was the overheads that killed it.’

‘No, Steve. We killed it. With our greed. With our ridiculously
expensive lifestyle. We should have stuck to one shop. We didn’t need all the rest.’

His eyebrows shot up. ‘You’ve changed your tune.’

‘I’ve changed a lot since our marriage broke up.’ She blew out a sigh. ‘What are you doing here, Steve? I mean, be honest for once. What do you want?’

‘I wanted to help, so you could try being a little nicer to me.’

‘I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being
smarter,’ she told him. ‘What makes you think I would even accept your help? You disappear for months on end, leaving me up to my eyes in debt, then you suddenly reappear and insult my hair. For some reason, you think that I should be falling down on the floor and kissing your feet because you’re generously giving me business advice. Hah!’

He watched as she brought out the keys to the flat from
her handbag. ‘Is that it? You don’t want to hear what else I’ve got to say to you?’

Charley shook her head. ‘No. I’m tired. I need a shower. It’s been a long week. Thanks but I’ve got this far on my own.’

She managed to get through the front door and close it before she changed her mind.

CHARLEY WAS STILL
having a crisis of confidence on the Wednesday after the not-so-grand opening.

Not that she was getting much sympathy from her mother.

‘At least nobody died,’ Maureen told her when she rang.

‘From my ice-cream? Gee, thanks, Mum. You’ve picked me right up there.’

‘No. I mean, Mrs Courtney from Pine Oaks . . . you remember her? Collected teapots. Anyway,
I was in the hairdresser’s yesterday and it wasn’t until the dryer started to smoke that anyone realised she hadn’t moved for three hours.’

Charley stared around the bedroom but the only audience to roll her eyes at was a pile of cuddly toys.

‘Terrible shame,’ her mother carried on. ‘She’d always had such lovely hair. They said they can do something with a wig if it’s an open casket.’

Charley
had barely hung up on her phone before it rang again. This time Samantha was calling.

‘Hi,’ said Charley, in a dull tone. At least she would get a bit more sympathy from her friend.

‘I’m so angry, I could kill someone!’ shouted Samantha down the line.

Charley sighed. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘He’s only gone and booked a week away with his family for the end of the month! He’s going to be away
for my birthday.’

‘Well, it is the school holidays.’

‘So? I mean, it’s not as if I haven’t hinted heavily enough!’

Samantha ranted on and on for so long that in the end, Charley had to lie and say that her customer had just returned home.

So it was with a heavy heart that she drove to Sidney’s shop to carry on remaking her ice-cream. But the back door was unlocked when she tried it and, upon
entering, she found Caroline and Julie waiting for her.

‘Thought you might need a hand,’ said Julie.

Charley was so grateful to see them that she gave in to the misery inside and gratefully let Caroline envelop her in a hug.

‘I feel so bad,’ said Caroline, also a little teary.

‘You and your hormones,’ said Julie, nudging her in the arm.

‘It’s not that,’ cried Caroline. ‘It’s all my fault.’

‘What is?’ asked Charley.

‘The shop. It was all my idea and I should never have told you about it.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Julie, shaking her head with a smile at Charley. ‘Besides, it was my idea.’

‘But that wretched woman wrote such a shocking article in the paper.’ Caroline sniffed. ‘I’ve a good mind to sue her for slander.’

‘Take it easy,’ said Julie, drawing her over to a chair to
sit down. ‘Otherwise you’ll give yourself another headache.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Charley told her as she knelt down in front of Caroline. ‘I should have checked the ice-cream. As Mike said, it’s a lesson worth learning.’

‘Who?’ asked Julie.

‘Mike from school,’ said Charley.

Caroline wiped away a tear. ‘Our Mike? He said that?’

Charley nodded. ‘I know. Who’d have thought? A man saying the
right thing, for once.’

‘So you’re not going to give up?’ asked Julie.

Charley shook her head. ‘No way. I mean, I had hoped this would be a way of earning a bit of money to repay my parents.’

‘And who cares what that woman wrote?’ said Julie. ‘We’ll show her, eh?’

‘I’ve got just what you need,’ said Caroline, fishing around in her handbag before bringing out a small paper bag. ‘I saw it this
morning and thought of you.’

Charley opened up the bag and reached inside, bringing out a fridge magnet that read ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. She smiled and gave Caroline a hug.

‘Thanks,’ she told her. ‘I shall look at it every time I feel like giving up.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ said Julie. ‘Right. Where do we start?’

They spent a couple of hours helping Charley remake some of the ice-cream until
Julie had to get back to the puppy and Caroline had to pick Flora up from her playdate.

But the pact was made. The shop would reopen on Saturday.

Charley was praying that it couldn’t be any worse than the previous weekend.

She glanced at Caroline’s fridge magnet, smiled to herself, and began to melt more chocolate for the next flavour.

‘
WE NEVER GO
out anywhere,’ Samantha found herself blurting out one Friday night.

Richard laughed as he propped himself up on the pillows. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘It would be nice to get out of the flat once in a while. Maybe we could go out to dinner for my birthday?’

He frowned and crossed his arms across his bare chest. ‘But I’m away on your birthday, as you have
reminded me many, many times.’

‘Yes, but when you get back.’ Samantha gave him a wide smile. ‘With a large present for me, of course.’

‘You know why we can’t go out,’ he told her, reaching out to run his fingers up her arm.

Samantha shivered at his touch but was determined to speak her mind. ‘But maybe we could go away somewhere. Far away from Grove. Where no one will know us.’

Richard leant
forward to kiss her bare shoulder. ‘I’ve got to be careful. You know why.’

‘It’s just not a very equal relationship at the minute,’ carried on Samantha. ‘I was supposed to be helping my friend tonight but I cancelled so I could see you.’

‘And didn’t I show you my appreciation?’ he murmured, pulling the sheet away from her.

‘Yes, but it’s always at the last minute. I have a life too.’

Richard
moved away from her with a heavy sigh. ‘I can’t plan on seeing you. I never know what’s going on at home.’

‘I just feel like you’re taking me for granted,’ said Samantha, after a pause.

‘For granted?’ Richard’s handsome face flushed with annoyance. ‘You knew the deal when we got together. Said you were happy with just a casual thing.’

‘Yes, but it’s got more serious, hasn’t it?’

Samantha waited
for words of reassurance. Waited for him to agree that their relationship had deepened, meant something to him.

But instead Richard swung his legs out of the bed and got up, picking up his clothes from the floor.

‘I get this at home,’ he told her, pulling on his trousers. ‘I don’t need it from you as well.’

Samantha realised she had just crossed the fine line into nagging territory, the most
dangerous of all for the mistress of a married man.

And, to her horror, he walked out of the flat.

Caroline crossed the road to the hospital car park, holding the mobile to her ear.

‘Did you find out the sex of the baby?’ asked Jeff.

‘No,’ she said, trying to find her car keys in her cavernous handbag.

‘Why not?’

Caroline was about to snap that if he had been that interested to know about
the baby then perhaps he should have taken the day off work to accompany her. But, no, work came first. And he was more stressed than ever.

‘We didn’t find out with Flora,’ she said, reaching the car. ‘I thought it would be the same this time.’

‘Right. Have you got a photo of the scan?’

‘I’ve tried to get it on my phone but it’s not very clear. Maybe it’s better that you see it when you get
home.’

Her husband sighed at the other end of the phone. ‘I suppose. Okay, I’ll try not to be late.’

Caroline hung up, thinking that tonight wouldn’t be any different. She had taken to having tea with Flora at five o’clock, especially as Jeff wasn’t coming home until nearly nine each night. He would then grumble about the hot and sweaty commute. She would nod and pretend she was interested when
all she wanted to do was sleep.

She wouldn’t tell him what the doctor had said about her blood pressure being high. It wasn’t important. She was just stressed. The summer had been so busy already.

‘Try and rest,’ the midwife had told her.

Caroline had thought of having to get Flora ready for school in a month’s time, let alone the regular washing, ironing, housework, gardening and everything
else, and just smiled at the midwife and nodded her head.

On the way home she picked up Flora from playgroup. She really wanted to get some housework done but her head was threatening to explode. She couldn’t take any painkillers so ended up lying down for an hour. She woke up with a start, feeling her heart pounding.

‘Mummy!’ said Flora who was standing next to the sofa. ‘You promised we could
do some painting.’

Caroline nodded as she struggled to sit up. She couldn’t wait for this pregnancy to be over with.

On the heath, Julie found herself in a dog walking community she’d never known existed. Some people said hello and wanted to chat. Others just nodded and walked on. Julie came to recognise which dogs were happy to play with Boris and which of the older dogs would give him a low
‘woof’ before walking on.

Occasionally she spotted Wes from far away but Julie would always abruptly turn in a different direction, to avoid having to make conversation. He unsettled her and she didn’t know why.

At home, Boris was now fully housetrained which meant Julie was less stressed about the inside of the house. The carpets remained clean and dry but she still had to watch what was left
within his reach. As his teeth came through, Boris entered a second chewing phase, which meant no abandoned shoes or socks were safe. She had already lost her last pair of flip-flops to his sharp teeth.

He needed constant vigilance and she was just too tired, what with working full-time then trying to help out Charley as much as she could. Julie felt just as guilty about the disastrous opening
as Caroline did. It was her uncle’s shop and reopening it had actually been her idea. All in all, she was tired. She hadn’t heard from Nick either for six weeks, which was setting her nerves on edge as well.