The Body Lies by Jo Baker

Author:Jo Baker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2019-06-12T23:00:00+00:00

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In the ladies’ loo in Euston, I left Sammy in his buggy outside the cubicle, kept his little foot and the pushchair wheel in sight under the door. I made him sing to me the whole time too, so that we both knew that he was safe and wasn’t being stolen.

By the time we got back to the flat, he had fallen asleep. The fried-chicken eaters stood up to let us pass, and I bumped him up over the threshold and lifted him out and left the pushchair in the hall, and clambered up the stairs. Mark closed his laptop and got up, and I put the boy in his father’s arms, and slid my backpack off my shoulders, and lifted up the neckline of my top to peer in at the red marks where the bag straps had pressed and chafed. Mark carried Sam through to the bedroom, then came back and put his arms around me. I closed my eyes, and smelt the familiar smell of him and leaned against the familiar flesh and breathed there.

“I missed you,” I said.

“I missed you too.”

We just stood there, arms around each other, my head resting on his shoulder. I could feel his heartbeat. I could smell him; coffee and school and skin and a faint remainder of the morning’s cologne.

“Sorry I couldn’t come and meet you,” Mark said.

“Don’t be daft.”

“You must be tired.”

“Shattered.”

“Sam seems to have settled anyway,” Mark said. “So that’s good.”

He let go of me, and went through to the kitchen, and started to open a bottle of wine.

“We’ll have to get him up later and put him on the loo,” I said. “And get his PJs on.”

“Okay, no problem; I’ll do that. You hungry?”

“Always.”

“We’ll have to order something, sorry. Mad time at work.”

“It always is, coming up to Christmas.”

“Shall we get a Chinese? Or Indian? Pizza?”

“So long as it’s not fried chicken,” I said, “I don’t mind.”

He handed me a glass of wine. I took the faintest sip and set it aside, and went to fill a glass at the sink instead.

“Thirsty,” I said.

He asked about work and I waved the topic away: I said it was all too boring and annoying, and I really wanted to think about something else. What’s going on at school? Mark recounted the tale of a controversial promotion to the Senior Management that had the staffroom in disarray. He could see the sense in it, thought the woman—Amy, did I remember Amy?—Oh yes, Amy; a little wince at the awkward memory—would do an excellent job, but he could see that it was upsetting for those she had just leapfrogged.

I went back into the sitting room and sank down on the sofa. He gathered up takeaway menus and followed me, dropping down beside me. I rubbed at my arms. He handed me the menus, then reached down and scooped up my feet, so that they lay across his knees.

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