After the One by Cass Lester (e book reader free .TXT) 📕

‘Pam?’ queried Angie.

‘Yes.’

‘As in your former mother-in-law, Pam?’

‘Yes.’

‘Blimey, Charley! How did that happen!’

Charley lowered her voice and shut the kitchen door to prevent Pam overhearing her. ‘I know! Look, I don’t want to give too much away – it’s her business. But she’s… well, she’s definitely staying for a bit. And, bless her cotton Marks and Spencer’s trainer socks, she’s insisting on paying me rent.’ For the first time in weeks, Charley felt the heavy burden of money worries shift a little, if not actually lift entirely.

‘Fantastic!’

‘Yes, isn’t it—’ she paused.

‘Except?’

Except that… ‘Well, I know I was thinking of a lodger, but I wasn’t thinking of my mother-in-law!’

Angie laughed. ‘Look on the bright side, it could be a whole lot worse – it could be your mother.’

Charley groaned out loud, then down the line she heard Eliot urgently trying to get Angie’s attention.

‘Mum… MUM… MUUUM!’ he bawled.

‘Hang on, Charley… Sweetheart, I’m on the phone, just wait half a second.’

‘But Finn’s done a poo in my shoe!’ wailed Eliot.

Oh, how gross! thought Charley.

‘Oh Finn! Not again!’ Angie moaned.

Again? thought Charley. Poor Eliot!

Hurriedly, Angie came back on the line, ‘Charley, I’ve gotta go!’

‘No shit!’ quipped Charley.

‘Oh, ha bloody ha.’

Chapter Nine

In her frantic haste to pack before Geoff could get home Pam had left her pyjamas behind, amongst other things and, since there was absolutely no way on earth she was going back for them, she’d have to nip into Bristol and buy some. There was every danger she might run into someone she knew, someone who, in all innocence, would inevitably ask how Geoff was, and then she’d have to open the Pandora’s box of explaining she’d left him, and she just wasn’t ready for that. Resisting the urge to ask Charley if she could borrow a pair of dark glasses and a big floppy sun hat (not that Charley possessed such a thing), she did the next best thing and asked her to go with her. ‘I need back-up,’ she begged.

By the time they’d found somewhere to park and Pam had bought some nightwear and a few other just-left-your-husband-in-a-flaming-hurry essentials, it was lunchtime. Not wanting to risk exposure by sitting anywhere she could be seen from the street, Pam headed for the sanctuary of the upstairs cafe in the Bristol Guild shop in Park Street, with Charley following in her wake. The cafe was already packed with shoppers surrounded by designer carrier bags, and young mums with buggies. They’d just sat down with their lunches still on their trays when Pam’s phone rang. Glancing down at the caller number, she rejected the call.

‘It was Geoff,’ she explained to Charley, who nodded understandingly, but said nothing. Four seconds later Geoff rang again. Pam rejected the call again, then, when he rang a third time, she turned the sound off and left the phone on the table, face up, fielding calls. Pam was just congratulating herself for dealing with things rather well, when Charley’s phone rang. Charley dug it out of her pocket and held it up to show the caller number to Pam.

‘It’s Geoff! Don’t answer it!’ panicked Pam.

Charley declined the call. ‘He must be wondering where you are. Do you want me to text him, just to let him know you’re safe?’

‘No,’ said Pam, decisively slicing a chunk off her quiche.

For the next ten minutes or thereabouts Pam’s phone was dead and they concentrated on their lunches, but then the screen lit up.

‘Him again?’ asked Charley.

Pam glanced at the number. ‘No, it’s Zee. Geoff’s probably calling everyone to see where I am.’

‘Does she know you’re staying with me?’ Pam shook her head. ‘She’ll be worried about you. Maybe just give her a quick call now?’

Waving a hand to indicate the crowded cafe Pam said, ‘What from here? No, I’ll call her later.’

Pam lost count of the number of times her phone lit up during the rest of their lunch. She studiously ignored it, but then the texts started pinging in.

‘Oh, for crying out loud,’ she muttered and, snatching up her phone, shoved it into her handbag.

‘Pam, you can’t just disappear without telling anyone,’ Charley pointed out reasonably. ‘If nothing else, just text someone and let them know you’re okay.’

Reluctantly conceding that Charley had a point, and sighing heavily, Pam quickly sent a text to Zee: Staying with my daughter-in-law. Don’t worry!

She toyed with adding Don’t tell Geoff, but somehow it seemed ridiculously childish. In the end, she just added I’m fine. Catch up soon. Px and clicked SEND.

The only other message she replied to was Luke’s. He’d texted:

Where are you? Are you okay?

In the interests of keeping things simple and not worrying him, she was economical with the truth and typed Yes. I’m fine. Having lunch with Charley. Lots of love. Then she made a mental note to call him later, in private, and explain… as best she could.

An enormous bouquet of flowers sat at the bottom of Charley’s steps when they got back to the flat, with a card stuck onto the cellophane that read:

Please forgive me,

Geoff

Pam glanced at the note briefly then, to Charley’s astonishment, she swept up the flowers, stormed straight back up the steps, dumped them in the dustbin and slammed the lid shut. Wordlessly, Charley watched her stomp back down the steps and into the flat, openly seething. Not two minutes later, when they’d barely had time to get inside and deposit Pam’s shopping in her room, the doorbell rang. They say fools rush in where angels fear to tread – well, apparently so do unfaithful husbands, but then perhaps they’re the same thing, Charley thought as she opened the door.

‘Geoff!’ cried Charley, in a voice she hoped would be loud enough to carry through to Pam in the kitchen. Then she stood at the doorway, not really knowing what to do. She’d always got on well with her father-in-law, and she was caught out by the anger now simmering inside her. Nevertheless, she couldn’t just leave him standing