Payday by Celia Walden

Author:Celia Walden [Walden, Celia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2021-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

ALEX

‘Don’t you dare take your shoes off! Put them back on.’ ‘Really?’

Alex was leaning against Maya’s hall wall, pushing down on the heel of her right trainer.

‘Lexie,’ said Maya, laughing, ‘we went through this last week. We’re not Swiss. Plus I just convinced my husband to get us one of those new Dyson Cyclones or whatever they’re called. Looks like a lightsaber, which I know he secretly loves, as all aged Star Wars nerds would. Now come through – we’ll have some lunch.’

When she’d walked in there the previous week, exhilarated by the risk she was taking even once assured her former boss was at work until late, her first thought had been that Jamie’s social media hadn’t done their house justice. A semidetached Victorian townhouse, the place had somehow been cleverly reconfigured into an open-plan modern family home, with minimalist furniture and edgy contemporary art lining the walls. Inside, it looked like it was worth a hell of a lot more than the £3,250,000 Zoopla had it valued at.

‘Wow. This place is gorgeous, Maya. Doesn’t feel like we’re in London, somehow?’

‘Yeah? It’s taken us ages to get it the way we want it. And now I’m already getting itchy feet and thinking of moving further out – but not too far. Richmond or Barnes, maybe.’

After lifting Elsa out of the red scarf carrier she always seemed to have slung around her neck in readiness for her daughter, Maya had set the girls down in the play gym in the far corner of the room, where the kitchen adjoined a trellised conservatory-cum-dining room. There the two girls had gurgled contentedly while their mothers had enjoyed the kind of leisurely afternoon Alex had started to think she’d never be allowed again.

Today, instead of seating her at the kitchen table, Maya led Alex out to the conservatory that looked out onto their garden. In between the two cascading magnolia trees at either end of the lawn stood a swing set and slide: not the ugly plastic kind you found in public playgrounds but a retro, hand-painted wooden set Jamie would have painstakingly put together himself.

The overhead sun was streaming through the glass onto the broad beech table and a heady scent of orchids and baked wood filled the room.

‘I’d spend all day in here if I could, but at this time of year the kids find it too hot.’

‘Oh Maya, it’s amazing. Christel’s at nursery?’

‘Yes. Our nanny’s picking her up. Which means I don’t have to drive, and we can have a glass of rosé.’

‘Great.’ Alex smiled. Only the fantasy she’d been living ever since she’d arrived at Bumps & Babies that morning had just imploded. Because a memory was drifting back: of a cheerful-faced Filipina dropping Christel off with her father at the office at the end of the day, months back. Alex was heavily pregnant at the time, and the two women had had a conversation. What it had been about and whether it had been long enough for her to place Alex today, she didn’t know.

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