Did My Love Life Shrink in the Wash?: An absolutely laugh-out-loud and feel-good page-turner by Kristen Bailey

Author:Kristen Bailey [Bailey, Kristen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838889722
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-01-10T18:30:00+00:00

I end up getting an Uber back to mine and it’s not a graceful re-entry to the flat as I balance Joe and bags of birthday gifts and cards but I’m grateful for the familiar space. Dumping everything on the sofa, I pull the curtains back to let in some light. I look down at the coffee table, seeing the hard hat that Will was wearing last night. Then I hear noises in the bedroom. My heart skips a beat and I unravel Joe from his car seat. He’s here. I open the bedroom door. Oh no. You’re not Will. I take on a strange ninja stance as the person in the bedroom turns around.

‘Peter?’

‘Beth.’

I have no reason to dislike Will’s brother, he’s amiable enough but he’s the straight man, the serious brother. He runs a neat line in chinos and sports jackets and he likes golf. Privately, Will mocks him as mature, old, and dull. In our bedroom, he has one of Will’s old sports holdalls and is putting some pants and socks in there. His actions mute me for a moment.

‘I thought you might be with your sisters for the rest of the day.’

‘Well, I do live here. What are you doing?’ I ask.

He studies my face, realising he’s the messenger. In medieval times, I would shoot him after he’d delivered the bad news.

‘I just thought I’d come here and pack some of Will’s things, given he’s staying with us for a while.’

‘A while?’

‘He was pretty cut up when he got to mine last night. He’s low, not himself.’

Does Peter know the full story? What he did? What was said?

‘Oh. How long do you think he’ll stay with you?’

‘A week, maybe?’

Last night, it was a few days. I stand there with Joe, who looks at me strangely. That is not the other human that I’m used to. My human doesn’t wear old man moccasins with sports socks. I watch as he takes Will’s pants out of his drawer. Don’t take those, there’s a huge hole in the back seam that will expose his arse. Kat will hate that. Kat is Pete’s wife. She’s an adult who still eats ketchup with everything and can’t eat her food if it’s all mixed together. I smile thinking of a time when Will and I were in the middle of a supermarket and he said we should get her one of those kid’s sectioned plates for Christmas. We stood in the aisle pissing ourselves over how hysterical she’d get over her peas touching her meat and I suddenly ache. Peter also takes T-shirts. That one’s too small, not that hoodie either. He’s had that since university. He only wears it around the house. He’ll need work shirts. I sit on our unmade bed, with old unwashed mugs and dozens of my hairbands dotted about the place. Lines of battered trainers sticking out from under the bed, tongues hanging out and laces all double knotted and frayed. He might also need a pair of those.

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