Pretend (86 page)

Extract from Pretend2 (Make Believe)

“Come in,” I said as I heard the knock on my office door.

             
“Hi, am I disturbing you?” Marie asked as she peered around the door.

             
“No, come on in,” I replied in a happy tone.

             
“Great, I just wanted to check if it was still ok
for me to take off next week,
for my sister’s wedding?”

             
“Yeah, of course it is. I’ve already got it in the diary,” I said as I smiled at her.

             
“Sorry, I just keep feeling like I’m going to forget to do something and so I have to keep checking. This maid of honour role is making me nervous,” she said as we both began to chuckle.

             
“Yeah, I can imagine but you don’t have to worry, I have it all sorted for you.”

             
“Thank you so much
April
,” she said as she smiled at me.

             
“No problem.”

             
“Aren’t you supposed to be going now?” She asked as she looked down at my paper filled desk.

             
“Yes, I just wanted to check that we had all of the new health forms in,” I replied.

             
“Do we?”

             
“Almost, I’m just waiting on Mrs Baker’s form for Charlie. I gave her a call, so she should bring it in when she comes to collect him today. Will you just make sure that you put it with all of the others please?”

             
“
Yes,” she replied.

             
“Ok, well I’ll leave
you to it. Oh, did you say that
Kyle
was
picking you up today?”

             
“Yes, I’m still waiting for that car of mine to be repaired,” I said as I thought about how many problems it had been giving me lately.

             
“Ok, I’ll call you when he is here then,” she said before disappearing through the door.

             
“Thanks Marie.”

             
As I sat down at my desk, I felt a calm feeling come over me. Everything had changed so much in the eight years sin
ce the accident but they were
good change
s
.

             
Four years ago I decided to open up my own day care
centre
. I’ve always loved children and I guess that it just came naturally to
me. One thing I learnt
was that running your own business is
far from easy. I really struggled in the first year and found it so hard to compete with the day care
centre
s that were already established. It came as both a surprise and a relief when Crystal and Jess decided that they wanted to join the business two years ago. Since we began running it together we have opened up four different centres that all have an average of fifteen children that attend almost five days a week.
We officially changed the name from ‘
Reinharts
’ to ‘JCA’s Angels’ a year ago. We all run a different centre and have hired a manage
r to run
the fourth centre. We stopped breaking even two years ago and now earn a nice profit every year, I really couldn’t ask for more.

             
Life in general has been great, we’ve officially moved into our new house which is absolutely beautiful. We are hosting a house warming
party today, which is
why I need to get my head out of these papers and get a move on. I’m just-

             
“Hey, Kyle’s here,” Marie said, interrupting my thoughts.

             
“Oh, great, tell him that I’ll be out in five minutes.”

             
“Ok.”

             
I quickly gathered all of the papers on my table, packed them neatly away, picked up my purse and headed towards the door.

             
“Hey,” I said as I gave Kyle a kiss on the cheek and smiled at him.

             
“Hi,” he replied with a smile on his face.

             
It didn’t matter how many times
that
I
would
see him walking
it still put a huge smile on my face. The accident had changed so much for us all and I’m so glad that things have turned out the way that they have. I guess that everything really does happen for a reason.

             
“Right, I’ve sorted everything out, are you sure that you are ok about locking up?” I asked Marie.

             
“Honestly,
its
fine, you just get going to that house warming
party
of yours. Don’t worry about a thing, I have it all under control,” she said as a huge smile filled her face.

             
“Ok great. Don’t forget to collect Charlie’s health form,” I said.

             
“I won’t.”

             
“Bye,” I said as I watched all of the children and my staff members in their own little world.

             
“Bye,” they all sang in unison.

             
“Ready?” Kyle asked as he held the front door of the day care centre open for me.

             
“Yup,” I said before heading towards his car.

             
As I stepped into his car I was instantly greeted by the fresh smell of pine, it never failed to put a smile on my face. He had got
ten
rid of his Audi about three years ago and replaced it with a Mercedes
CLK,
it was silver and very attractive. I did try to persuade him to let me drive it a few times but that never really happened.

             
“I love the smell of this car,” I said as I smiled at him as he put the keys in the ignition.

             
“I know, that’s why I always buy these fresheners,
you’ve got me addicted to it
,” he said as he pointed at the scented tree that hung from his rear view mirror.

             
“So, tell me about your day?” He said as he kept his eyes on the road.

             
“It’
s been ok.
I haven’t really been around the kids
that
much today as there was a lot of paper work to sort out. I’ve got all but one health form back though, so that
’s
put a smile on my face,” I said as I stared at him.

             
“Let me guess, Mrs Baker’s?” He said as he chuckled to himself.

             
“Of course, that woman never brings anything in on time,” I said as I began laughing with him.

             
“Yeah, I gathered.”

             
“So, how was your day?” I asked as I glanced out of the window at an old couple
, holding hands as they crossed a side road.

             
“It was good, I wanted to talk to you about it actually,” he said as he glanced at me very quickly. He seemed to have a slightly nervous expression on his face which ca
used my stomach to drop
.

             
“
Why, what happened?” I asked as I kept my eyes fixated on him.

             
“I got the promotion,” he beamed as a smile spread across his face.

             
“Oh
my gosh
, that’
s
brilliant
! I’m so proud of you,” I said as I smiled at him. He had been working so hard these past few months to get this promotion, he truly deserved it.

             
“So, when do you start in the new position boss?” I joked as I winked at him.

             
“They want me to start on Monday,” he said in what sounded like a sad tone.

             
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I asked as I noticed that his facial expression had suddenly changed.

             
“Yes.”

             
“Ok, so why do I feel like there is s
ome sort of bad news coming
?” I asked, suspiciously.

             
“Because there is.”

             
“What?”

             
“Getting the promotion means moving away,” he mumbled as he tried to keep his eyes on the road.

             
“Moving, where?” I asked.

             
“To London,” he said as he glanced at me.

             
“London? You never mentioned anything about moving away,” I said in an annoyed voice.

             
“
I know but I wasn’t even sure that
I would get the position, I just wanted to see if I could before I told you anything,” he replied.

             
“So, you didn’t think that that might have been a vital bit of information for me to know?” I asked, angrily.

             
“April, I’m telling you now. Please don’t do this. I just wanted to discuss it with you before everyone came round tonight,” he said in a calm voice.

             
“You should have discussed it with me before Kyle. The job starts
on
Monday and you ex
pect me to just take all of this
in now?” I said as the car slowed down.

             
“I wanted to know how you felt about it,” he said in a sad tone.

             
“No, if you wanted to know how I felt then you would have told me before,” I said as I stormed out of the
car and walked up the path.

             
“April, wait.”

             
“Leave me alone,” I grunted before walking up the steps and knocking on the big, red door.

             
“Oh, hi April,” Janet said as she opened up the door with a big smile on her face.

             
“Hi Janet, are you ok?” I asked as I tried to force a smile onto my face.

             
I still couldn’t believe that Kyle hadn’t told me that the promotion meant moving to
a completely different country. D
id he not think that that was something worth discussing? I was too angry to think about it right now and this also wasn’t the time or place.

             
“I’m ok thank you, yourself?” She asked as she smiled at me.

             
“Yeah, I’m great. How was she?” I asked.

             
“Oh, yes she’s fine. I think that the
sickness
has completely gone,” she whispered behind her hand as we both chuckled.

             
“Of course,”
I said as I shook my head and laughed.

             
“Tammy, it’s time to get your things now,” she said as we entered the living room.

             
“Thanks again for this Janet,” I said as I smiled at her.

             
“It’s no problem, I enjoy having her,” she said as she smiled at Tammy.

             
“
Ohhhh
, I thought that Daddy was coming to get me?” Tammy moaned as she scrunched up her little face at me.

             
“H
ello to you too,” I said as I raised an eyebrow at her.

             
“Hi, I thought that D
addy was coming to get me,” she said as Janet and I exchanged glances before smiling at each other.

             
“He is, he’s outside waiting for you so hurry up and get your things on,” I said as I smiled down at her tiny frame.

             
“
Yayyy
!”
She beamed as she ran and picked up her small jacket off of the couch, slipped her shoes back onto her feet and ran towards me.

             
“Ok, slow down. I thought that you were
sick
,” I said as I looked down at her.

             
“Yeah, I’m feeling much better now,” she said as she stared at me with wide eyes.

             
“Oh, is that so?” I said as I chuckled to myself.