Second Chance (13 page)

‘Watch me,’ Holly says, taking an egg and separating the shell carefully with her thumbs, the egg plopping into the bowl. ‘See? Now you try.’ Daisy does the next egg perfectly, her little chest puffing up with pride.

Holly changes the radio from Radio Four – Marcus’s choice – to Radio One, and makes a strong cup of coffee for herself, opening the local paper on the counter to see if there is anything to do with the kids this weekend. Her weeks seem to zip by, she is busy flying from one thing to the next, with never enough hours in a day, but Saturdays and Sundays have started to crawl. She never thought she’d dread a weekend, but this last couple of years she has started to dread them more than anything.

They never seem to see anybody any more. Despite Holly’s – admittedly less – frequent entertaining, it is rare for them to be invited back. Perhaps it is that no one is doing dinner parties these days, for on the odd occasion their friends have a large party they always seem to be invited; but Holly has a sneaking suspicion that it may be more to do with Marcus.

Holly can’t organize the playdates she organizes during the week because weekends are family time, and Marcus isn’t usually up until lunchtime, so every
weekend morning is now spent trying to find things for the children to do. She would be perfectly happy to stay at home with them and, frankly, let them watch CITV, but at some point a fight usually breaks out – who has the remote control, who has more space on the sofa, who pinched whom – and the couple of times they have woken Marcus he has emerged in a fury.

It’s easier just to take them out, so very much easier just to find something to do out of the house. Olivia had left a message last night, saying she had her nephew for the day, and did Holly want to get together. Her sister’s kids are older than Oliver and Daisy, but they’re happy to play with younger ones occasionally, and she’d love to spend some time with Holly again. Holly calls her back, and a few minutes later the date is set, and she breathes a sigh of relief.

Because the easiest thing of all is to fill her life with distraction, with running around, with activity after activity, because if Holly ever stopped and took a breath, she might realize how lonely she is, and if she realized how lonely she is, the whole pack of cards might come tumbling down.

The park around the corner is Holly’s favourite Saturday-morning destination, especially on a crisp autumn day like today. The children can go leaf-jumping, there’s a great playground, both of them love seeing the dogs out on walks – several of whom they have come to know – and there’s a sweet little café where Holly can get a cup of tea and occasionally a croissant or a pain au chocolat as a treat.

Oliver and Daisy both love the playground, although Oliver is professing to be slightly bored with it now that he’s nearly seven, therefore nearly grown-up, and it’s really for children, but there are always other mothers for Holly to talk to, and she found most of her friends in the neighbourhood at the park.

The au pairs all congregate here during the week, sitting on park benches as their charges run around, chatting nineteen to the dozen, all of them with mobile phones in hand, texting furiously at the same time as talking. Holly has watched Frauke text, feeling very inadequate – she could never attain the same speed and ease. When Holly texts Frauke, it takes her about five minutes to bash out one sentence, and that makes her feel terribly old.

‘Yay!’ Oliver’s face lights up as they walk through the park towards the playground, and he breaks into a run, tearing in front of them as he pushes the gate open. ‘They fixed the pirate ship!’ He roars into the playground, closely followed by Daisy, both of them stumbling up the plank of a wooden pirate ship that has been cordoned off for a month while they’ve been sanding down the splinters and resealing it.

Holly sees Olivia sitting on a bench, and realizes that the only other boy in the playground must be Oscar. She walks over to Olivia, who grins widely as she finishes her phone call.

‘Gotta go,’ she says on the phone. ‘I’ll call you back later.
Holly!
’ She stands up and the two women hug. ‘God, so ridiculous how years can go by without seeing each other, and now I haven’t seen you in a couple
of weeks it feels like it’s been years! How are you?’

‘I’m great. It’s good to see you. Thank God, actually.’ Holly sticks her hands in her pockets and shivers at the November sky. ‘I thought I’d die of boredom sitting in the park again by myself, it was a complete godsend when you called.’

‘I know.’ Olivia laughs. ‘Why do you think my phone is surgically attached to my right ear?’

‘Where’s your niece?’

‘They’ve taken her to a girly birthday party. It’s all makeovers and fashion shows, and Oscar pretty much said he’d kill himself if he had to go, hence his day with me. So what’s up with Marcus, where’s he today?’

Holly looks away.

‘Uh-oh. If he’s anything like my sister’s husband I’d have to guess either working or sleeping. Hmm. I’m going to go with working.’

‘Nope, lazy arse is sleeping.’ Olivia rolls her eyes as Holly shrugs. ‘Why is it that they think they work harder than anything and deserve all this time off when they have no idea what we do? Christ, if Marcus had to look after the children and run the house for a week it would be a disaster.’

‘God, I know. When my sister went to Spain with the girls for five days she came back to find mountains of laundry and nothing had been done. And when Ruby ran out of underwear, Michael just went out to Gap and bought her a ton more. Not to mention that their routine went out of the window. He was giving them tubes of Smarties every night as a bribe to get them into bed, then wondered why they spent the next two
hours thundering round the house on a sugar high.’

Holly starts laughing. ‘At least he gave them Smarties. With Marcus it would be like bloody boot camp.’ She starts doing an impression of Marcus: ‘Oliver! Get your shoes off the sofa now! Daisy! Put those cushions back. Oliver! Upstairs to your homework now! Holly! Stop breathing! Now!’ Holly sighs.

‘Oh well.’ Olivia rubs Holly’s arm, surprised at how much Holly is sharing. ‘These things are sent to try us. It’s really great to see you, you know. There’s just something about getting together with people who have always known you.’

Holly smiles. ‘I know. It’s like family.’

‘It is. And I’ve missed it. You and I ought to do lunch sometimes. Or a girls’ night out. Something just to get away from it all and remember who we really are. God knows I could do with a few laughs now and then.’

‘I’d love to,’ Holly says truthfully and Olivia’s face lights up with inspiration.

‘What are you doing tonight?’ Olivia says. ‘Not a girls’ night, but why don’t you and Marcus come over for supper? I always feel horrible about not doing anything on a Saturday night.’

‘No babysitter,’ Holly says. ‘Frauke’s going to Brighton for the weekend. But we’re not doing anything, and anyway, you’re the single girl, we ought to be cooking for you. Why don’t you come over to us?’

‘Are you sure? I feel like I’ve just invited myself.’

‘Well, you have. But that’s okay. We weren’t doing anything anyway. It will be lovely.’

‘I’m supposed to be dropping Oscar back at Jenny’s at five. Unless you want to do it with kids.’ Olivia looks over at where Oscar and Oliver are bonding on the top of the ship, barricading it so Daisy can’t get up, and as Daisy starts to wail, Holly looks back at Olivia with a wry smile.

‘Oh I think definitely without,’ she says.

Daisy stumbles over, her face dissolving in tears. ‘The boys are being mean to me,’ she says as Holly pulls her onto her lap and makes a face at Olivia.

‘Yes,’ Olivia concurs. ‘Definitely without.’

By the time they get back home – three pains au chocolat, two hot chocolates, and one cup of tea later – Marcus is sitting at the kitchen table with a cafetière full of coffee, classical music wafting softly from the speakers in the wall and the papers spread out in front of him.

‘Hello, my darling children.’ He smiles, putting the paper down and opening his arms wide for his giggling, excited children to run into. ‘I’ve missed you this week. Oh my goodness, Daisy, have you grown two inches since Tuesday?’

‘No!’ She giggles. ‘Maybe just one inch.’

‘Well, you look much much taller. And Oliver, where did those muscles come from?’ He squeezes Oliver’s spindly little forearm gently.

‘I’ve been practising my push-ups,’ Oliver says proudly. ‘And I’m very good at gym at school. My gym teacher says I’m the best in class.’

‘Well, that is good news, isn’t it? I can tell!’ And
Marcus looks over the children’s heads at Holly and winks at her, and Holly can’t help but smile.

At times like these, when Marcus is loving, and kind, and gentle, Holly knows that it will be fine. That she didn’t make a wrong decision, that perhaps it is possible that she will spend the rest of her life with him. There are things missing, undoubtedly, but perhaps what they have is enough.

How could she possibly split up their family when he has the capacity to be such a good father? Yes, he is mostly an absent father, but nothing lasts for ever and, perhaps, as the children get older, he will realize how important it is to be around for them, to leave work early to get to the children’s shows at school or the PTA evenings or just home to put them to bed.

At times like these, Holly knows why she married him. He is a good man. He may want a different lifestyle than Holly, but she is such a good chameleon that it is not a huge hardship to step into the role he expects, and surely the pay-off is worth it. He is a good husband, a good father, a good provider.

He is steady and reliable, the very opposite of her own parents. Everything about Holly’s life is safe and stable, exactly what she had grown up craving, vowing she would have when she was married and had children.

But there’s no passion, no excitement, no spark.

So what?

Doesn’t that inevitably disappear after a while anyway? And so what if it wasn’t there in the beginning? There are other things surely that make up for that…

‘Oh I met Olivia at the park,’ Holly says. ‘My old
friend from school, remember? I’ve invited her over for supper.’ A pause, as she remembers how much he dislikes impromptu invitations unless they have been issued by him, and she tenses, her shoulders stiff as she prepares herself for his disapproval, prepares to phone Olivia and call it off.

‘Is that okay?’ she asks hopefully, the strain almost audible in her voice.

‘It’s fine!’ he says cheerfully, and Holly feels her shoulders sink with relief. ‘I could do with a good evening,’ he adds. ‘Anyone else we should invite?’ This is when Marcus throws her, when he is unexpectedly generous, inclusive, warm. ‘It might be fun to have a proper dinner party. I could see if Richard and Caroline are around.’

Holly’s heart sinks. A boring old colleague of Marcus’s.

‘You’ll like her,’ Marcus says. ‘She’s a fashion journalist, very outgoing, interesting, I think.’

‘It’s just that I don’t think Olivia’s expecting a proper dinner party,’ Holly says cautiously. ‘I think more of a kitchen supper, and it’s very last minute so I doubt anyone will be around. But we could try… How about Paul and Anna as well, then, if your friend’s wife is a fashion journalist?’ Marcus looks confused.

‘My other old school friends?’ she reminds him.

‘If you haven’t seen them for twenty years, how come you suddenly want to leap back into being best friends with all these people?’

‘I don’t,’ Holly says defensively. ‘But if Caroline’s a fashion journalist, Anna runs fashionista.uk.net, so
they’ll probably have tons in common. I haven’t even met her yet – she was on a business trip so couldn’t make Tom’s memorial service – and I’d love to know what she’s like. Paul’s so easy, he gets on with everyone. They may not be able to come, but I’d love to ask them.’

‘Great idea!’ Marcus says, having read a profile of Anna just last week, and deciding on the spot that she is just the sort of person he ought to be mixing with, and Holly picks up the phone to call Paul.

By six o’clock the children are bathed, fed, and mesmerized by
The Incredibles
on the DVD player in Holly and Marcus’s bedroom. The braised lamb shank is bubbling merrily in the Le Creuset in the oven, and the tarte Tatin is cooling off next to the stove. The table in the kitchen has been set with pretty Provencal-style blue and yellow linens, and Holly has checked her email only eight times since waking up this morning.

On the eighth time of checking and finding nothing but dozens of junk emails offering to make her a fortune by investing in a Nigerian banking scam, provide her with Cialis, or enlarge her penis (this last she was tempted to forward to Marcus with a note,
I believe this was meant for you
, except she didn’t think he’d find it funny – but she used to forward them to Tom from time to time and he’d find similarly ridiculous emails on breast enlargement and natural Botox alternatives to send back to her), Holly puts her computer on standby.

I am being ridiculous, she tells herself. Of course Will isn’t going to send me an email. This isn’t dating,
for heaven’s sake. I am a married mother of two, and just because he confessed he had a crush on me over twenty years ago, it means nothing today.

God, look at me, for starters. I have boobs that practically swing around my ankles when I walk, my stomach is covered in stretch marks, and if it weren’t for my trusty tweezers I’d probably have a handlebar moustache. Of course he doesn’t fancy me. He wasn’t flirting, I was just reading too much into it, and isn’t it just like me to think I have to fancy someone just because they fancy me?

Not that he does fancy me, which is perfectly clear, because if he did he would have responded to my last email by now. I will not check this email any more. Will is lovely, but he’s Tom’s brother, which is probably what this whole thing is about. Less about Will than about having a connection to Tom. This isn’t a real feeling and I know, I absolutely know, that this will pass.

These thoughts fly around Holly’s head and, with a sigh of relief – now she understands – she turns her computer off firmly and walks downstairs to get ready for supper.