Trick of the Light by Fiona McCallum

Author:Fiona McCallum [McCallum, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQ Fiction
Published: 2021-02-23T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

‘Now you’re sure you’re fine with having Boris stay?’ Steph said, with the car parked but still idling across Erica’s driveway.

‘Yes. Absolutely.’ Though Erica had the creeping sense she wasn’t sure about anything any more.

‘Okay. Great. Thanks so much.’

‘No worries.’

‘I’ll drop him off first thing in the morning. That way he won’t get stressed when he sees me getting out my suitcase.’

‘I’ll be here.’ Erica tried for a playful raised-eyebrows expression, but it was probably more like a cringe, going by what Steph said next.

‘It will be okay, Erica. Just hang in there. Anyway, it’s early days.’

‘You’ve been spending too much time with Renee,’ Erica said, trying to drag her spirits up from the floor of the car, but again failing.

‘I’m not sure I share her deep philosophical views, but she does have a point about being positive. It can’t hurt. And no one wants to spend time around a misery-guts.’

‘Point taken,’ Erica said. ‘You’re right.’

‘Sorry, that was a bit harsh. I didn’t mean to –’

‘I know. But you are right.’

She got out of the car and made her way up the path to the house, noting as she went the weeds she needed to pull, and thought that only Steph could get away with being so blunt. And probably only because they were cousins in addition to being best friends. And because Erica wouldn’t disagree with her latest criticism. Just like the proverbial one rotten apple ruining the entire bag, mood infiltrated a group and had an effect. Erica suspected she’d brought the mood down on plenty of occasions and vowed to buck up. Because, really, she was still way ahead of plenty of people. She was healthy and had a decent roof over her head. Her breath caught. Losing the house was her greatest fear, well, close to it. If she had to sell, she’d have let Stuart down, the girls. But most importantly, herself. How humiliating. She knew she shouldn’t feel like this, and that her friends would be horrified if they knew she’d worry they’d think less of her for living in something less opulent and in a suburb lower on the socio-economic ladder. And it wasn’t that she really had an issue with living somewhere else, somewhere less posh; it was the fact that having to sell would be such a neon sign of failure, and of course also risked revealing Stuart’s crashing failure as a provider. Though no one would have any issue if she just said she wanted to downsize …

Well, not today, Erica thought as she put the key in the door and went inside after waiting and waving Steph off from the verandah.

After cleaning her face of makeup, she went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Waiting for the kettle to boil, she glanced at the clock and frowned at the time being wrong. After checking it against her watch twice, she confirmed it wasn’t just running slow; it had actually stopped. Again. Damn it Stuart; you and your drawer full of stuff.

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