Chapter 5

      My mother calls me later that afternoon when I am toying between a bunch of lilies or a bunch of tulips in Tesco.

      ‘And I just told her that when it comes to John Joe, he will do what he wants when he wants and no one, not even her, will stop him,’ she says.

      ‘Told who?’

      ‘Vivienne!’

      I am still none the wiser. ‘Who?’

      ‘Vivienne! John Joe’s girlfriend!’

      I have no idea why my mother thinks the domesticities of my older brother and his latest squeeze hold any interest for me, but I try and keep up with her.

      ‘Right, okay,’ I mumble, checking the price tags on the flowers to help me decide. Tulips it is.

      ‘I mean, even your father says that John Joe is his own worst enemy when it comes to relationships. He can’t handle sharing his space. He can’t handle sharing a bag of bloody chips, never mind anything that might dare last longer! So I thought I did right by setting the poor girl straight. What do you think? Did I say too much?’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Did I say too much? I mean, it’s not as if I have even met her, but she called me for advice and I could barely make out her accent. I think she is French. I always try to give good impartial advice, even to the lovers of my own two children, no matter what their nationality.’

      I put the tulips back and pick up the lilies. I should probably get a basket. I fancy a browse around the clothes section for Billie.

      ‘You did the right thing, Mum,’ I reassure her, even though I have barely listened to a word she was saying. ‘Is this the girl who had his name tattooed on her chest?’

      ‘Lord no,’ she says. ‘She was last year’s model. This is the girl that his friend Clive, the country singer, introduced him to. You see, our John Joe was working on Clive’s ranch shoeing horses near Nashville for a few weeks and he met her. Poor girl. She is in for an almighty fall.’

      ‘Oh men! They are all filthy rotten lying fucking bastards,’ I say a little too loud and a passing stranger gives me a dirty look.

      ‘Exactly!’ says my mum. ‘I couldn’t have put it better myself. And speaking of men … any word from –’

      ‘No, Mum, no word from Jeff,’ I reply quickly. ‘I don’t want to … oh no!’

      I trail off. I freeze. Ah Jesus. Ah Jesus no.

      ‘Maggie?’ my mother calls. ‘Maggie, are you there?’

      Please no. Don’t do this to me. Not now. No.

      My skin goes cold. I didn’t think that could actually physically happen but every part of me tingles with angst from my very toes to my fingertips. Fizzy, prickly, pins and needles of anxiety.

      ‘I have to go, Mum. I’ve just spotted … someone I used to know. I’ll call you back.’

      I stand there, bunch of lilies in one hand and my phone in the other, in the kids’ clothes section of my local Tesco watching, as if in slow motion, as Jeff, my ‘husband’ and his fancy woman walk obliviously towards me, laughing and looking into each other’s eyes as she pushes a trolley full of fucking groceries.

      I think I am going to actually vomit as an invisible wrench clasps my whole insides. Oh God!

      She leans on the trolley and he stands behind her, playfully putting his hands on her waist as she walks along, scanning the aisles with a love-struck smile on her face.

       He used to do that to me.

      ‘Are you okay, love?’ asks a little old lady. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

      Jeff sees me.

      Our eyes lock and he raises his hand, a desperate look of guilt replacing the smug look of love from seconds before. I can’t move. I don’t want to look but like one does at a car crash I can’t help but stare and stare and then she follows his eye line and looks towards me and her face sours and she looks panicked up at him and I just want to go home. Now.

      ‘Have some lilies,’ I tell the old lady, handing her the flowers. ‘You’re right. I have seen a ghost. I have to get out of here.’

      I make it to the car before I burst into tears and huge unapologetic cries of despair empty out from my lungs.

      I hit the steering wheel.

      ‘Bastard! Seventeen fucking months! What does she have that I don’t have? What?’

      I turn the ignition. I am in no fit state to drive. I want to go to Loch Tara, far away, and lock myself in my room and hide under my duvet and hug my mum and dad and just crawl out of my own skin.

      I want to punch him. I want to punch her.

      I have no energy to punch anyone.

      A message comes through on my phone but I don’t dare look at it yet. If it is Jeff … if he has the audacity to apologise in a text message, I don’t know what I will do. I don’t want to hear from him. I want to hear from him, but I don’t want to. I don’t know what I want.

      I look at the phone. It’s not a text, but an email and it’s from Simon Harte.

      ‘Can I call you?’ is all it says.

      I put the car into reverse and speed out of the car park.

      I need a fucking glass of wine.

      I dash into my apartment block to avoid the late-afternoon April shower, kicking myself for being so upset at seeing Jeff and that giraffe-like bitch who he was all over like a rash.

      I am bigger and better than that, I say, as I climb the stairs to my front door, stomping up each step with vengefulness. How dare he? How dare he?

      I fling off my coat and throw my bag on the floor, then bend down to get my phone and contemplate messaging Simon back. I don’t know if I have the energy for Simon and Lucy Harte.