The Right Time (7 page)

Once she was home she had rounded up the children and organised their baths. Then she'd rinsed the prawns and put them in a nice bowl, and spooned some cocktail sauce into a dish, and laid it all out on the coffee table in the good lounge room, where the kids wouldn't bother Craig. Then she'd called him in from
the backyard where he'd fled with a beer as soon as she'd arrived home.

He walked up to the back door and held it open. ‘What?'

Evie held up one of the special beers. ‘Why don't you go and watch the sports roundup in the good lounge room?'

‘S'not on yet,' he said, glancing at his watch. ‘It's just news now.'

‘Then go and play your Wii for a while,' she said, coming towards him and handing him the beer. ‘I left a treat in there for you.'

He looked at the bottle. ‘Sweet. What's all this in aid of?' he said before taking a long swig.

Evie hadn't told him about Ellen and Tim yet. She would, later, once the kids were in bed. She realised she was a little apprehensive about telling him, she didn't want to put ideas into his head. That was silly probably. But she couldn't help it.

‘Well, I got to have a special day out,' she said, ‘while you've been stuck minding the kids. So I wanted to do something special for you.'

He shrugged. ‘Mum was here.'

‘Still . . .'

‘Yeah,' he said, throwing an arm around her shoulders. ‘Sometimes she's more of a hindrance. Yackedy yacking in my ear all day long.'

Evie smiled up at him. ‘Then you go in and relax now,' she said, propelling him into the hall. ‘And I'll get on with dinner.'

She heard him whoop a few moments later. ‘Prawns! Bloody unreal, hun.'

She prepared their meal while the kids ate their fish fingers and chips, and after they were finished she sent them in – ‘
Quietly!
' – to say goodnight to their father. And then she marched them off to bed.

‘Why did Daddy got pornth and we didn't?' Cody asked. He was her baby, though at four, not so much a baby any more. But he was so adorable, Evie could just eat him up.

‘You don't like prawns, remember, sweetheart?' Evie said.

‘But I do!' cried Jayden as he made a running dive for his bed.

‘Jayden, please settle down.' Evie seemed to spend her life telling Jayden to settle down. She tried to recall if he'd ever been
sweet like Cody, but when he was four she only remembered chasing him around shopping centres, out of trees, down off fences.

‘You have to be quiet now,' she said, trying to be stern. ‘Daddy needs a break, he's been looking after you all day.'

‘No he hasn't,' Tayla refuted, appearing in the doorway. ‘Nanna looked after us. Dad said he had to go see a man about a dog.'

‘Are we getting a dog?' Jayden whooped.

‘I don't think so, honey,' Evie said vaguely.

‘He was gone for hours and hours,' Tayla added, gazing accusingly at her mother, her arms crossed. Evie was a little intimidated by her daughter, and she was only ten years old. Heaven forbid when she hit her teens.

‘We're getting a dog! We're getting a dog!' Jayden chanted, bouncing on his knees on the mattress.

Cody clapped his hands. ‘Are we really getting a dog, Mummy?'

‘It's just an expression,' she said.

‘What kind of dog isth that?'

‘Can we please forget about the dog right now? I don't know anything about it, you'll have to ask your father tomorrow,' she said, passing the buck to where it belonged. ‘Now, listen up, we're going to have a competition.'

‘Can I win the compition, Mummy?' Cody asked wide-eyed.

‘No way, you stupid dumbhead!' Jayden taunted.

‘Am not.'

‘Are too. You're only four. You can't win a competition 'gainst us!'

‘Can't I win, Mummy?'

‘You can all win,' Evie reassured him.

‘Then it's not a competition, Mother,' said Tayla, leaning against the doorjamb with a dramatic sigh.

‘It is, but you have to work together, like a team,' she said, thinking on her feet. ‘It's not like
Australian Idol
or
MasterChef
, this is more like . . . soccer. Like your team has to work together at soccer, Jayden.'

‘I hate soccer,' Tayla curled her lip in disgust.

‘I'm not asking you to actually play soccer,' said Evie. ‘Only that everyone has to work together or no one gets a prize.'
Tayla's eyes narrowed. ‘What's the prize?'

‘Well, the prize is . . .' She hadn't thought that far. ‘That tomorrow I'll take you to McDonald's for lunch.'

‘Yay!' Jayden and Cody chorused.

‘I hate McDonald's,' said Tayla.

‘You didn't hate it when we had it last week,' Evie reminded her.

‘Yes, but now I'm a vegetarian.'

Evie sighed. ‘No you're not. You're too young to be a vegetarian.'

‘Am not,' she insisted. ‘Madison's a vegetarian.'

‘Fine, if you want to be a vegetarian, you don't have to come to McDonald's with us tomorrow.'

‘Hehe, suck eggs!' said Jayden.

‘Well, obviously I can't suck eggs, Jayden,' Tayla sniffed. ‘They come from chickens. But I can have a salad, and I can have fries.'

‘Can we get on with the rules of the competition?' said Evie.

‘What do we have to do?'

‘Okay, listen carefully,' she said solemnly. ‘You all have to be especially quiet, and I mean not a peep. No one's allowed to come out of their room, not even once, not to ask for a drink or to go to the toilet or anything else, or you all lose. Remember, you're a team.'

Cody looked worried. ‘But what if I'm bery firthty, Mummy?'

‘Sweetheart, you know you're not allowed to have a drink after bedtime.'

‘But what if I get bery frytinned?'

‘It's okay, matey,' Jayden reassured him, ‘I'll be here, and I'll protect you with my laser sword.'

Funny how Jayden became the protective big brother when there was something in it for him.

But it had worked: they hadn't heard a sound from the kids all night. Evie served dinner on the coffee table so they could watch TV while they ate, which she didn't like to do normally, but Craig loved it. She even encouraged him to watch
Die Hard 2
or maybe it was 3, or 5, or 11, for all Evie knew, they all looked the same to her.

‘Craig,' she repeated tentatively. ‘I want to ask you something.'

‘Can't it wait till the ad?' he asked, not looking at her. ‘The good bit's coming up.'

He must have seen it a dozen times, but Evie bit her tongue until the ad break, and then she picked up the remote and muted the sound.

‘What are you doing?' he protested.

‘I said I wanted to ask you a question. And it's only the ads.'

He groaned. ‘Okay, but make it quick before it starts up again.'

Now Evie groaned. ‘You have seen this before, Craig.'

‘So?' he said. ‘What are we watching it for if we're not going to watch it?'

‘All right,' she said, shifting around to face him. ‘I just want to know . . .' She paused, biting her lip.

‘Spit it out, love. Clock's ticking.'

‘Well, I want to know . . . are you happy, honey?'

He frowned. ‘I will be if I can get to see the rest of this movie.'

‘Craig,' she chided.

‘Okay, I'm happy, now can we turn the sound back on?'

‘You don't understand,' she said. ‘Something happened today.'

Now she'd got his attention. He turned to face her. ‘Did you do something to the car? Did you have a prang?'

‘No!' she insisted. ‘The car's fine.'

‘You had me worried there for a minute,' he breathed out, reaching for the remote, but Evie grabbed his arm.

‘Wait, I have to tell you something, and it's important.'

He frowned. ‘You're not pregnant again, are you?'

‘Of course I'm not pregnant, Craig, I had my tubes tied, remember?'

‘Yeah, I do, so I'd be pretty bloody suspicious if you were.'

Evie frowned, that didn't even make sense. ‘Craig, the thing is, Ellen and Tim have split up.'

He looked at her blankly.

‘It's true,' she nodded. ‘They've separated. Ellen and Tim. Can you believe it?'

He shrugged. ‘So what? They had a fight and she spent the night at your mum's. They'll sort it out.'

‘No, that's not what happened. This is for real, Tim's moved out into a flat.'

‘Fuck me.'

‘Craig,' Evie admonished.

‘So bloody Tim's gone and got himself a piece of arse,' he said, shaking his head. ‘Didn't think he had it in him.'

‘No, that's not what happened either,' said Evie. ‘They just . . .' She didn't want to say it. ‘They just fell out of love. Apparently.'

Craig shrugged, his eyes wandering back to the TV. ‘Well, they have been married for, like, forever.'

‘Craig!'

‘What? It's true. And they had to get married, maybe they never really loved each other.'

‘What a thing to say,' Evie declared. ‘They've been together for eighteen years, they definitely loved each other.'

‘Well, looks like they don't any more,' he said.

‘So are you saying you'll just fall out of love with me in a few years?' she blurted, wishing she hadn't said that out loud.

‘Ah, come on, darl,' he said, patting her knee. ‘We're not the same as them.'

‘You don't think so?' she said in a small voice.

‘Of course we're not.' He leaned over and gave her a kiss. ‘Chalk and cheese. I never did get Tim, he doesn't even like sports. Do you know I was talking about the State of Origin one time and he asked me who was playing? What a moron!' he chuckled, scratching his stomach.

Evie didn't know what that had to do with anything.

‘So,' said Craig, picking up the remote, ‘can I go back to the movie now?'

She snatched it out of his hand. ‘I'll record your damn movie!' she snapped, fumbling with the buttons.

‘Okay, okay,' said Craig, holding up his hands. ‘I thought we were finished talking. I didn't realise it was so important.'

‘Craig!' she cried. ‘Ellen is my sister! And her marriage is over! Of course it's important.'

‘All right, love,' he said, putting his arm around her. ‘No reason to get so upset.'

‘Of course it's a reason to get upset.' You moron, she said to herself.

‘I mean you don't have to get upset about us,' he said, giving her a squeeze. ‘We're good. You're my puddin', you know that.'

Evie breathed out, leaning her head on his shoulder. ‘It's just
that we never talk about us, Craig. And we should. Obviously people can fall out of love and they don't even see it coming.'

‘I don't reckon they broke up because they didn't talk,' he said. ‘I reckon Ellen probably did enough talking for the both of them.'

Evie looked up at him. ‘What do you mean by that?'

‘She's never short of an opinion, your sister.'

‘You think that's why they broke up?' She pulled a face.

‘I dunno why they broke up,' he said. ‘Whad'she tell you?'

‘Like I said, that they fell out of love.'

‘So they stopped having sex.'

‘Craig, it's not necessarily the same thing,' she insisted. ‘People might stop having sex once they fall out of love with each other.'

‘Maybe they fall out of love because they stop having sex, did you think of that?'

Was he trying to say something here? ‘Don't you think we have enough sex?'

‘Of course I don't! I'm a red-blooded male, love, I could have sex all day, every day,' he laughed, scratching his stomach again. He looked at her fraught expression. ‘Don't worry, I know we can't, with the kids and everything.'

‘Well, apart from quantity, are you happy with our sex life? Is there anything you want that you're not getting?' she asked warily. Evie had heard that anal sex was the latest thing; she hoped Craig didn't want to try that. It sounded gross.

‘Ah, nuh,' he shrugged. ‘Not really.'

Evie sat bolt upright. That didn't exactly sound reassuring. ‘What do you mean, “not really”?'

‘Nothing,' he said. ‘I mean, there are things, but I don't reckon you'd be into them.'

Oh no, he did mean anal sex. But if this was really important to him, she'd have to try it. But surely it must hurt? She wondered if there was a way to make it . . . easier. She could google it. God, what was she thinking? She couldn't even imagine what might come up if she googled ‘anal sex'.

‘What's the matter, hun?' asked Craig. ‘You look pale.'

Evie took a deep breath. She looked straight at Craig, and
then she realised she couldn't look at him while she said this. She closed her eyes and blurted, ‘Do you want it anally?'

‘What?' he exclaimed.

Evie opened her eyes, relieved to see the shock on his face.

‘You think I'm a bloody poofter?'

‘No!' she assured him quickly. ‘I've heard it's what some men like . . . with women.'

He grimaced. ‘Still pretty gay if you ask me.'

She breathed out, putting a hand to her chest. ‘Oh, I'm so relieved,' she said, collapsing against him.

He put his arm around her. ‘You funny little puddin'. Where are you getting ideas like that?'

She shrugged. ‘I don't know. I think I might have seen it on
Sex and the City
once.'

‘They showed them doing that on
Sex and the City
?'

‘No, they didn't show it,' she said. ‘They just talked about it.'

He laughed. ‘Yeah, that's all those women did on that bloody show – talk about it.'