Did The Earth Move? (7 page)

And maybe because it was dark, maybe because she was hurt, most likely because the best part of three bottles of wine had been emptied, Eve suddenly heard herself telling Jen something she had barely even let herself think.

'I think I want to give things another go with Joseph,' she said.

'What!!!'
was Jen's response. 'What? With Richard frigging Branson the Second! Eve . . . Hello? I'm taking your wine glass away now.'

'Jen, don't.' Eve was hugely irritated by her confession.

'When did this happen?' Jen asked.

'It hasn't. Nothing's happened. I'm just going to tell him and see what he thinks.'

'Oh Eve!' Jen gave an exasperated sigh. 'He's got another girlfriend, in case you hadn't noticed. He lives in Manchester .. . he's moved on. All you're going to get is a great big, humiliating no.'

'Well, maybe that would help,' Eve said. 'No matter what I do, I can't stop wondering "what if?"'

'Oh pet.' Jen moved her chair closer, to put an arm round Eve. 'What's brought this on? I thought you were much better.'

'I'm not,' Eve said, recognizing the crack in her voice which meant she was going to have to try very hard not to cry. 'I've been sleeping with the vet and it's just not the same.'

'Of course it's not the same,' Jen soothed her, holding back the desperate urge to ask
'What?
Where? When?' and other related questions.

'But it doesn't
mean
anything.' Eve was squeezing away tears now. 'It always meant something with Joseph, even from the very first night.'

Jen just patted and soothed.

'I can't go forward until I know for sure that I can't go back,' Eve told her.

'It's OK.' Jen rubbed her arm. 'But you can't just blurt this out to him, not without some sort of
sign
that he's interested.'

'Anna said she found a photo of me in the glove compartment of his car.' Now that Eve was saying this aloud, it sounded pathetic.

'Anna is an interested party,' Jen reminded her. 'Do you really think you should be listening to everything she says?'

'You're right . . . but the last few times I've seen him ... I don't know, something seems to be changing. We've been really nice to each other and he wants to spend more time with Robbie – and he's planning to take Anna with him on a trip to Germany because he's investigating
environmentally friendly
business ideas.'

She wanted to say: Doesn't that sound a bit more like the old Joseph ...
my
Joseph? But the look on Jen's face was putting her off.

'Oh God, Jen,' she sighed, 'you're probably right. This is all ridiculous. You shouldn't let me drink this amount of wine.'

Eve found a scrap of tissue in the pocket of her jeans and dried her eyes. She blew her nose and smiled apologetically. 'I'd better take the plates in,' she said.

Jen managed to look sympathetic and stay quiet for about five seconds before she blurted out: 'I can't
believe
you didn't tell me about the vet!'

'Are you going out?' Anna was in Eve's bedroom watching her carefully apply a somewhat dried-out lipstick she'd found at the back of her underwear drawer.

'No.' She tried to sound offhand.

'But you're all dressed up, you look really nice.' This was true. She was in a dress, for starters, which was highly, highly unusual. It was a shimmery, satiny, grey-black, ladies-who-lunch kind of dress, which she'd bought for some special event, so long ago she couldn't remember what it was. She was even wearing little glittery earrings
and
stockings
and
high heels
and
perfume. How had she expected Anna not to notice or ask awkward questions? Oh, this was all too obvious.

She pulled off the shoes and stockings and put on beaded flip-flops instead. She tried on a little black cardy over the dress.

'Where are you going?' Anna was sitting on the bed, all packed up, dressed and ready to go off for the weekend with Joseph.

Because it was Joseph's visit that was causing Eve the flurry of beautifying activity. She had intended to look casually gorgeous, to be very, very nice to him and to see if this provoked any sort of sign ... a sign that she should ask . . . suggest.. . offer that they take the first steps in getting back together again.

She wasn't going to say anything – or even really do anything – she just wanted to see if there was going to be any sort of, well. . .
sign.
She didn't know what it would be, but she felt sure she would recognize it.

'I'm not going anywhere, honey.' She was brushing her hair now, then shaking it into the 'I hope this doesn't look too brushed' thing.

'Is this for Daddy?' Little hopeful look on Anna's face.

'Don't be silly. But I am going to be nice to Daddy, like you want me to be. OK?'

'OK.' Big smile on Anna's face now. 'He's going to be nice to you too. I made him promise.'

'Good, well that's great. We'll all be friends.'

'Yes.' Anna had a lot more planned than 'friends', and look how well it was going. Her mother was in
a dress,
putting on
lipstick,
promising to be nice to him. In her estimation, they were just weeks away from being happily together again. Ha ha, Michelle.

* * *

It was almost exactly 7p.m. when the doorbell rang, but still Eve felt startled. Hell! Here he was. She bounced off the sofa, mussed hair, flung off cardigan and waited for Anna to open the door and show Joseph in.

Robbie was boinging up and down on the other sofa now, chanting 'Jofus! Jofus!'

'Hi, Daddy,' Eve heard her daughter say.

'Hello, Anna. How are you? Big kiss for Daddy.'

'Oh. Hello, Michelle.'

Michelle??

Michelle! What was she doing here? Smile, Eve, they are coming into the room now. 'Hello,' she said, stretching as wide a smile as possible over her cheeks.

'Hello, Eve.' Joseph hung back in the doorway, didn't come over to give her the usual kiss on the cheek.

'This is Michelle,' he said and put an arm round the shoulder of a small, pretty, blonde girl, who looked ... well, exactly like Anna had said: groomed, made up, hair in a shiny ponytail, peachy, pouty lips, floor-length cream shearling coat. Very pretty.

'Hello, nice to meet you.' Michelle held out a hand, which when Eve took it, felt all soft and small and made hers feel like an ungainly, dried-out gardening mitt.

'I've heard lots about you,' Eve said with a smile.
Hardly any of it nice,
she didn't add.

'This is Robbie,' she introduced the toddler.

'Oh, hello, Robbie.' Michelle gave a little wave. Joseph went over to hug and tickle his son.

They all watched the playful, giggly fight.

'So, would you like a cup of tea, or glass of wine or something?' Eve suddenly remembered to ask.

'No, no. We're not going to stay,' Joseph told her. He was sitting on the sofa now with Robbie on his knee, rumpled from the toddler tussle, and he'd never looked more perfect in his life. She had to get him back – just had to.

'I wanted you to meet Michelle,' he was saying 'And erm ... we wanted to tell you that... erm ... we've decided to get engaged.'

'Engaged?!'
This came from Anna, but echoed Eve's sentiments perfectly.

'Yes, Anna,' Joseph said calmly, although it was perfectly obvious to everyone that the little girl was furious.

'Married?'
she demanded. Her face was quite white with a little pink spot on each cheek. She was looking from Michelle to Joseph and back again, challenging either of them to give her an explanation.

'Yes,' Joseph said. 'You get to be bridesmaid,' he added, in the vague hope that this would make things better. But Anna burst into tears and ran out of the room, pushing past Michelle on her way out.

Eve was left with a slightly frozen smile on her face. Bursting into tears and running out of the room was tempting, but she didn't think she should do that right now. Well, she'd wanted a sign, hadn't she? This was certainly a sign. A sign that she was completely
insane.

'Congratulations,' she managed. Joseph looked shocked, so she added: 'I think Anna will need a little time to get to grips with this, but I'm sure she'll be OK. So, when did this... happen?'

'At the weekend,' came Michelle's reply. 'I wish I could say he got down on one knee with a big ring in a box.'

Like he did for me,
Eve thought.

'But actually it was more... spontaneous than that,' Michelle added.

He proposed in bed, Eve concluded.

'Well, that's really nice. Congratulations,' Eve said again, then added: 'Joseph's always wanted to get married.' And now she wished the ground would swallow her up, because obviously that meant he'd always wanted to marry her.

Michelle was shooting him glances and had folded her arms in a fairly obviously angry kind of way.

'Let me go and see Anna,' Eve said. 'Are you sure you don't want some tea or something?'

Joseph decided he needed a glass of wine and Michelle wanted water.

'I'll get it,' he told Eve. 'You check Anna, or do you want me to do it?'

'Give us a few minutes,' she said.

She opened the door of the bedroom Anna and Robbie shared and saw Anna lying face down on her top bunk, sobbing.

Eve patted her back and finally Anna sat up and let herself be hugged. She squashed her arms round Eve's neck and buried her streaming eyes and nose in Eve's satin dress, which served her right for putting it on in the first place.

'I want Daddy to marry you,' came the fierce, fierce sobs.

'I know, darling,' she whispered.

'Why did you and Daddy have to be so awful? If you'd just been nicer to each other, you could be married now. Now he's going to marry stupid Michelle.'

'Anna, Mummy and Daddy aren't together any more. We love you, we love Robbie, but you are going to have to get used to this.'

'Well why do you keep getting my hopes up then? Both of you? With your silly games. With your photos in drawers and pyjamas in the cupboard and putting on lipstick?' She was crying quite hysterically now. Eve wasn't sure what all this referred to. But she saw now that Anna had noticed far more of the unresolved emotions flying about between her and Joseph than she had ever suspected. Maybe there had been one reconciliation too many for Anna to truly believe that they were apart. Well, had Eve even really believed it, until tonight?

Now it was well and truly over.

'How's it going?' came Joseph's whisper from the door and Eve blinked back the tears forming in her own eyes.

'I'm not coming with you,' Anna shouted from the bunk. 'I don't want to be in Manchester with you and Michelle,' and she burst into fresh sobs again.

'I'm really sorry, Anna.' Joseph took over on the back-patting while Eve carried on holding their daughter. 'I didn't know you'd feel like this.'

'I'm not coming with you,' Anna repeated. 'There isn't enough room in your car for three people' – which sounded horribly like 'There isn't enough room in your life for three people.'

Anna wouldn't be persuaded. She wouldn't even come out of her room. She didn't want to set eyes on Michelle again who, by now, had been roped into a complicated game of hide-and-seek with Robbie, which she didn't seem to be enjoying too much. 'You should probably just go,' Eve told Joseph. 'She'll be fine. Give her a phone tomorrow.'

'I hope we haven't spoiled your plans,' Joseph said at the door.

'Plans?' she asked. He gestured vaguely at her dress.

'Were you going out?'

'Oh no. No, no. A friend was dropping by later, but I'll cancel. No problem.'

A friend? he was thinking as he steered the car through the north London back roads he knew out onto the Ml. Which friend? Who had she been waiting for in a dress he recognized from way back. A dress she'd bought for some special occasion they had all been at together. What was it again?

'So? I want to know what you think?' Michelle sounded exasperated. He hadn't been listening
again
and, quite rightly, she wasn't going to like that.

'I'm sorry. I missed the last bit of that.'

Big sigh.

'Joe. I'd like to talk about our wedding. I didn't really want any bridesmaids. I mean, if it's going to be really important to Anna...' She tailed off.

'I'm sorry. I should have thought about that. What else have you got in mind?'

'How about a grown-up, romantic wedding? How about taking off somewhere really glamorous and getting married there? The South of France, Italy ... somewhere like that?'

'It would be great, but my children have to come to my wedding. Anna is having enough problems adjusting to the idea without me sneaking off to do it behind her back.'

'Anna has problems, full stop, let's just face it,' she snapped.

'Don't.'

He glanced over at her but she just stared straight ahead at the road, her mouth set in a scowl.

'Look, I'm tired.' He reached out to put a hand over hers. 'I don't really want to talk about all this right now, but we've got all weekend. And how about we go and look for a ring together tomorrow?'

She turned and smiled at him: 'Are you sure?'

'Yes, I'm very sure – about everything,' he answered and that was when he remembered... Eve's dress. She'd bought it for his parents' 30th wedding anniversary party. Scene of yet another of his rejected marriage proposals. Well if he'd wanted a sign from her that he was doing the right thing marrying Michelle, surely that was it?

He'd proposed to Eve seriously six times, light-heartedly at least a hundred times. And the closest he'd ever got to a yes was 'Ask me again really soon.'

This was better. Michelle had accepted before he'd even finished asking, which after his experiences with Eve had taken him somewhat by surprise. Michelle had wanted to talk about rings and dresses and venues and invitations almost constantly ever since. But he was finding it strangely hard to get enthusiastic about all that stuff and now he was worried about Anna.

Much later that evening, Eve tucked her daughter up in bed and stroked her forehead until her eyes finally closed. Together they had stayed up late on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket together eating the entire contents of the biscuit and cake tins and drinking hot chocolate, in Eve's case laced with a slug of brandy, while they watched comforting Friday night TV.

It was very late, so Eve was surprised when the phone rang, although not when she heard Jen's voice at the other end.

'Oh go away!' she said, exhausted at the thought of having to relay this saga to Jen.

'I'm just checking on you. I knew he was coming round tonight and I just wanted to make sure you didn't make a complete tit of yourself.'

There was a pause.

'Then again, if you did make a complete tit of yourself, I'll still be your friend, OK.'

'Jen,' Eve said with a deep sigh, 'he came round with Michelle ...'

'Oh!'

'To tell us that they're engaged. They're getting married.'

'Oh.' It sounded as if even Jen hadn't seen that one coming. 'Well, you wanted a sign,' she added.

'I know!' Eve began to laugh, 'I got a bloody great big sign all right, didn't I?'

'Are you OK?' Jen asked.

'Yeah, I'm OK. Feeling slightly stupid, I have to say. And poor old Anna's very upset.'

'Oh, the little soul.'

'What about you? Are you at work?' Eve asked.

'Yeah, I'm fine. I should go. I was just checking on you.'

'You're the best.'

'I know. Eve?'

'Yeah?'

'Phone the vet.'

'Oh for goodness bloody sake . . . you're obsessed.'

'I'm not. It's just a useful quality men have, being able to help you get over other men. They're good at that. And at taking out the bins.'

'Good night, you mad woman.'

'Night-night.'