In a Lifetime by Ariadne Wayne

Author:Ariadne Wayne [Wayne, Ariadne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780994120847
Publisher: Wendy Smith
Published: 2015-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

SAM WAS due home around six, and I’d volunteered to help Ella. Normally, she would have refused, running around after the two of us and making sure everything was to her perfect standards.

Maybe it was because she was so down, but she’d accepted, and I stood at the kitchen bench, peeling potatoes.

“Ella, about before …” I said, tipping the chopping board up to drop the potatoes into the steamer.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t want it to screw things up between us.”

She sighed, wiping the bench down with a clean sponge. “Everything’s so screwed up right now. I just want things to be the way they used to be.”

“I know.”

Ella walked away, back into the living room, and I followed her, watching as she picked up the discarded tissues. She’d stopped crying, but her eyes were so tired. She looked up at the clock. It was now a little after six, and she frowned.

“We might as well eat. I’m not sure what time Sam will be home,” she said.

“He can’t be that far away.”

She gathered the remaining tissues and walked back into the kitchen, dropping them into the rubbish bin. I fished my mobile out of my pocket and dialled Sam.

It rang a couple of times before going to voicemail.

“I’ll just get us some food, Matt. He can have his whenever he gets home.” Her tone was flat, disappointed, but she was calm, as if she’d accepted this a hundred times before.

“He knows I’m coming for dinner, doesn’t he?”

“I told him. Maybe he forgot.” She shrugged, turning to the oven. I grabbed the dinner plates out of the cupboard they lived in, and placing three on the bench, I smiled as she lifted the roasting dish with the crumbed chicken pieces out.

“That smells amazing. I miss your cooking.”

She shrugged. “It’s nothing special.”

“Everything you do is special.”

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop themI hadn’t meant to say anything to make her uncomfortable. She was, I could see it, as her eyes widened for a moment before she turned her head away from me.

“You can’t say things like that,” she said.

She worked in silence, placing the chicken, potatoes and peas on the plates, handing me one without a word.

I trailed behind her, back to the dining table. The quiet was unnerving in a house that used to have a lot of noise and laughter. This was my fault. I never should have said the words, never should have told her what was in my heart.

A few minutes passed, but it seemed like an eternity in the silence. Ella jumped as the front door opened, Sam shoving it shut behind him.

“Hey, babe. Matt, what are you doing here?”

He drew closer to the table, leaning over Ella to kiss her cheek. She screwed up her face, turning her head away. The overpowering smell of beer filled my nostrils.

“You two invited me for dinner. Remember?”

He frowned, his eyebrows dipping as he obviously tried to rack his brain. “Oh. Sorry. I went for a couple of drinks after work.

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