Wonder Women (7 page)

Lee remembered a game he'd loved as a child, so he dashed upstairs to get a blanket from the linen cupboard. He arranged four dining chairs into a square in the middle of the living room, and showed Zach how to drape the blanket over the chairs. They weighted it with books and put cushions into their little house. It was darker than Lee had expected, so he went to get a torch from the kitchen drawer, scooping up Imogene as he went. He and both children crawled into their secret house under the blanket. Zach thought it was fabulous, and kept dashing out to bring in more and more toys, and Imogene saw it as the perfect opportunity to crawl all over her daddy and bounce on his
tummy. They played in the house so long that it took Lee a while to work out that he was hungry and that the kids must be too. Jo had left a lunch of cold chicken and some salady bits in the fridge, and he fetched it, along with some cartons of juice and a few bread rolls, and they had a fabulous torch-lit picnic in their blanket house.

They crawled out after lunch, and Lee realised that the living room was in a state of advanced chaos. Even though the kids howled in protest, he dismantled the blanket house and hoovered up the crumbs and all the sand Zach had tracked into the house. He washed up and packed snacks, toys and a football for a trip to the park. It wasn't until two thirty that he thought to check his phone and saw he'd missed a call from Jo at lunchtime. She'd left a message raving about the course, and her voice sounded vibrant and excited. He felt a little bad that he'd been having so much fun he'd forgotten to miss her. He knew she'd already be in the afternoon sessions, so he fired off a quick text saying they were all fine and were off to the park.

It took him a while to get the kids organised: Zach needed a wee, Imi needed a nappy change and a clean top as she'd spat tomato pips all down what she had been wearing. He had to wrestle them both into their car seats and gather the necessary bags and equipment. As he drove to the park, he realised that it was the first time he'd done this all on his own with both kids. They tended to do stuff as a family at weekends, or he would sometimes do dad-and-son stuff with Zach, leaving Imogene with Jo. He felt quite proud of himself for managing as well as he had. So far so good: neither child had sustained an injury, there was no permanent
damage to the house, and nobody was screaming or crying. Zach kept up a non-stop monologue all the way to the park, telling him what they had to do and in what order. Jo had warned him not to mess with the system and he didn't, although he did put Imi on the little roundabout and whizz her round, making her shriek with absolute delight. Zach told him off for that. ‘Mummy doesn't do that,' he said prissily. ‘I know,' said Lee, winking at him. ‘It's a dad thing. Do you want a go?'

‘No, thanks,' said Zach. ‘I tried it before and it made me feel all sick and then I had my ice cream and I threw up. I'm not wasting my ice cream, especially if you're buying the proper kind in the cone with the flake in.'

‘I'm definitely buying the proper kind in the cone,' said Lee seriously. ‘But not if anyone's going to throw up.'

He took Imogene out of her seat on the roundabout. She seemed perfectly fine, not dizzy at all. He was loading her back in the pushchair, ready to head to the kiosk for ice creams when a plumpish woman with curly dark hair came hurrying over with a baby in a sling on her front, dragging a small girl by the hand. ‘You must be Zachy's daddy!' she said excitedly. ‘I'm Martha's mummy!'

Ah, this must be Jo's legendary tiresome and nameless park woman, Lee thought. Maybe he could find out her name and end the mystery once and for all.

‘Hi, I'm Lee,' he said, offering his hand to shake.

‘Of course you are! I've heard all about you!' gushed Martha's mummy. ‘Zachy and Martha are BEST friends, aren't you, darlings?'

‘No,' said Zach matter-of-factly. The woman ignored him.
Martha clearly didn't have anything to say for herself. She stood holding her mum's hand and looked at her shoes. Maybe she didn't talk, thought Lee, or maybe she'd just given up trying to get a word in. Martha's mummy was off again, asking breathily where Jo was, on such a lovely, sunny day.

‘She's on a course,' said Lee.

‘A course? How lovely! I was thinking of doing a course to become a doula, or maybe to do baby massage. What course is it?'

‘An entrepreneur's course – how to start your own business.'

‘Goodness me!' This was clearly outside her frame of reference, so she asked no more questions, and instead went on about how important baby massage was for sensory development. Zach pulled on Lee's hand. ‘Da-ad …'

‘Do excuse me,' Lee said smoothly. ‘I promised Zach an ice cream.' As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he realised he'd made a rookie error.

‘Oooh, ice cream! What do you think, Martha? Shall we have a little treatie too?'

There would be no escape. They walked together to the kiosk, and the woman talked non-stop. Jo was absolutely right. She had no topics of conversation outside babies and children. Zach skipped ahead and ran back, jumped and did roly-polies on the grass. Martha walked sedately, holding her mother's hand. At one point, Zach came rushing back and said, ‘I'm having a whole day with my dad today. Where's your dad, Martha?'

Martha didn't get a chance to answer. Her mum giggled and said to Zach, ‘Martha's daddy's playing golf today. He
likes to play golf when the weather is nice.' She smiled at Lee. ‘You know what men are like – boys and their toys …'

Wow, Lee thought, she really did love to trot out meaningless clichés.

They got to the kiosk and got ice creams for the kids and coffees for themselves. The woman ordered a chocolate brownie. ‘They're the best brownies I've ever had!' she said, offering Lee a piece. ‘I've tried to work out what's in them and copy the recipe but mine are never quite as good. I wish I knew what the secret ingredient was!'

Lee began to realise that she prattled on much as Zach sometimes did. It wasn't like him to tune people out, but he guessed that she kept up the non-stop chatter and the clichés to mask her shyness and awkwardness, and he only had to listen to about one sentence in ten and nod if she ended a sentence with an upward inflection that suggested a question.

It was a beautiful day, and even though the company was not who he would have chosen, he was enjoying his time in the park with the kids. He looked down at Imogene, sitting forward in her pushchair and chewing on a rusk. The sun glistened on her abundant curls. When she had been born, he'd imagined that she'd be just like Zach, in a female version, but now she was nearly a year old it was apparent that she was very much her own person. Zach had always been an unrelenting, noisy bundle of energy who required constant interaction and a lot of affirmation. Imogene was much more self-contained. She could keep herself occupied alone for a remarkably long time for such a small child, and she kept up a low mutter of baby noise, as if she was talking to herself.
She was very dextrous for her age and loved to sit and play with a textured toy, or, as she was doing now, gum and crumble a piece of food. Unlike Zach, she was a good sleeper too; from the age of four months or so, she'd done a solid twelve hours a night, seven till seven. Lee felt a little tug – because of the hours he worked, he often saw her for just a few minutes a day, and in a funny way, he felt he didn't know her. She was really cool too. He unstrapped her and lifted her on to his lap. She leaned back against him and continued to gum her rusk happily, smearing some on to his sleeve.

His phone rang, and to his surprise he saw it was Jo. ‘So sorry,' he said to his companion, who had barely paused for breath. ‘Hi, love,' he said. ‘Are you done?'

‘Yes, we finished at four today because we have so much homework for tomorrow. Oh, Lee, it was amazing! I learned so much. And Louise is really incredible. She's definitely our kind of person.'

‘That's great, I can't wait to hear all about it.'

‘Listen, I'm walking to the station now. I'll text you from Waterloo, just before I get on the Tube. I forgot to get anything in for dinner for us. Can we stop at the supermarket once you've picked me up?'

‘I'll sort dinner, don't worry. You've got your homework to do.' Lee smiled. ‘See you soon. Love you.'

It wasn't till he put his phone away that he realised the woman had stopped talking at last and was staring at him. ‘You're going to get dinner? Gosh,' she said, and then, in a slightly wistful tone, ‘You speak to her so sweetly. Like you're newly-weds.'

Lee smiled. ‘Married five years, loved her for closer to fifteen. Look, lovely to chat to you, but since I've promised dinner, I'd better deliver.'

He called Zach, slipped Imogene back in her pushchair and headed off, leaving Martha's mum staring after him.

Lee knew his limits, so when Jo texted from Waterloo, he rang the local Italian and arranged to collect pizzas forty minutes later. He pulled up outside the station and Jo slipped into the passenger seat. She leaned over and kissed him on the corner of his mouth then twisted in her seat to blow kisses to both kids.

‘Hello, lovelies! I missed you! Did you have a lovely day?' Then she sniffed rapturously.' ‘Is that garlic bread I smell?'

‘Garlic bread, that salad you like and two pizzas to share.'

‘Ah, nobody orders takeaway like you do, sweetie.'

‘Who needs that
Masterchef
? Masterdial, that's me.'

‘I'm starving. I was too excited to eat much lunch.'

‘So it was good?'

‘Amazing. I've just got so much to do tonight. Today was all presentations: lectures on various aspects of business. Tax, set-up costs and so on, but it was all general, not specific to each person's business plan or anything. Tomorrow, there'll be all sorts of experts on hand and we all get one-to-ones with each of them, so I need to prepare all my questions so I can get the best out of each session.'

‘Sounds like this course was real value for money.'

‘When you think what I might have ended up with … Louise is amazing. And she has small kids of her own, so I know she understands what it takes to juggle a family and work. And she's funny. I think you'd like her.'

‘I haven't heard you talk like that about someone for ages.'

‘It's ages since I met someone I liked so much. You know what it's like … I hardly see the old lot because none of them have kids, and the people I meet at toddler groups and at the nursery gates … well, I don't think having children the same age is necessarily the basis for a meaningful relationship.'

‘Speaking of which, I met nameless mumsy woman – Martha's mum – in the park. We had coffee.'

‘Oh, my poor darling. Are you all right? Bored almost to death, I suppose.'

‘She's not scintillating company, is she? But I couldn't shake the feeling that she seems … I don't know … sad.'

‘Sad? She's always very “bubbly” with me. She's exactly the kind of woman who would describe herself as bubbly.'

‘Maybe you're right,' said Lee as he pulled up outside the house. ‘Anyway, I don't want to talk about her. I want to hear all about your day.'

‘I'll tell you everything,' said Jo, jumping out and unstrapping Imogene from her car seat to give her a hug. But first … pizza!'

In the end, Lee went off to bed alone. Jo had started scribbling notes before she'd even finished eating. She took a brief break to bath the kids and get them into bed, and then sat straight down at the computer. He brought her a cup of tea, and then another, but by eleven, he was yawning.

‘You go up,' Jo said, absently patting him on the leg as he stood beside her chair. ‘I won't be long.'

He glanced at the clock when she finally slipped into bed beside him. It was after one. He could feel her lying very still
beside him, but she seemed almost to vibrate, her brain was working so rapidly. He knew she was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling in the dark, and the ideas were tumbling fast. He put a tentative hand on her shoulder, and in one rapid movement, she turned into his arms and kissed him hard, running her hands up under his T-shirt. He was surprised at her passion, but more than happy to respond.

Afterwards, they lay side by side holding hands. ‘Well, if this is what business does for you, I approve,' said Lee.

‘Sorry I woke you.'

‘Don't be sorry. You can wake me for that any time. But seriously, it's great to see you so fired up.'

‘I think it could work, you know. I do. There are a million things I have to sort out, and a million obstacles. But if we can get past all those things … find the right premises, the right stock … I think it could be amazing.'

‘I think so too.'

‘Do you? Do you really?' She turned on her side and looked at him. It was dark, but he could see her eyes shining. ‘Because it's going to be a hell of a thing, Lee. Balancing the shop and the kids, setting everything up. I'm going to need a lot of help.'

‘And I'm here to help you. I'll do anything for you, my love. You know that.'

‘You know, from anyone else, that would be a line. But I believe you. Now turn over.'

Lee turned on his side and Jo spooned around his back, holding him close, and they fell asleep breathing in unison.

The next morning, Jo wanted to leave early, so she walked down to the Tube station, leaving Lee and the kids lounging
in pyjamas, eating Sunday-treat sugary cereal and watching a Disney film. It was a misty grey day, not raining yet, but looking like it might. Lee felt wonderfully decadent and lazy, sprawled on the sofa with Zach curled in the crook of his arm, and Imogene sat at his feet chewing on a giant jigsaw piece. They weren't due at his parents' till twelve, so he had plenty of time.