‘I can’t help it,’ Janey protested with a grin. ‘I’m just a naturally honest person.’
‘One of you must have been adopted then. You can’t be Maxine’s sister.’
‘And you can’t keep changing the subject like this.’ In order to spur him into action, she whisked his plate out of reach. ‘She’s sitting at home, waiting for you to call her back. Do it.’
‘Now who’s being bossy?’ he grumbled, pinching yet another sausage from Ella’s plate as he headed for the kitchen phone. ‘You’re far nicer to my children than you are to me.’
Janey gave him a guileless smile. ‘You pay me to be nice to your children.’
‘She’d be nicer,’ Josh told his father, ‘if she didn’t make us help with the washing up.’
Just listening to Guy’s side of the phone call was uncomfortable enough. Janey, squirming on the other woman’s behalf, decided that if she were Charlotte she would have died of embarrassment. But still it went on, Guy tactfully saying no and Charlotte – clearly not embarrassed at all – shooting one excuse after another down in flames.
‘Look, maybe another time,’ he said eventually, several toe-curling minutes later. ‘But not tonight, Charlotte. Really. I have to be in London first thing tomorrow morning and it’s been a tough few days.Yes, I know that’s what I said last week, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still true.’
More muffled protests ensued. Guy glanced across at Janey for help. She, unable to look at him, picked up the pepper mill and over-seasoned her baked tomatoes.
‘OK.’ He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘If you must know, I have to stay here tonight. It’s Janey; she’s absolutely petrified of being left alone in this house. Yes, ‘I know it sounds ridiculous but she has this thing about burglars breaking in with shotguns. We’re so isolated here, you see; ‘I only have to mention going out for the evening and she starts gibbering with fear. Charlotte, I’m sorry but you have to understand, I can’t possibly abandon her ...’
‘Thanks a lot,’ said Janey, when he returned to the table. ‘Why are all men such shameless liars?’
The first four excuses were true.’ He gave her a whatcan-you-do shrug. ‘And she didn’t believe any of them. Sometimes you have to resort to a little elaboration.’
It was certainly instructive, seeing the situation from a male point of view. Curious, she said, ‘But if you aren’t, you know ... well, interested in her, why don’t you just say so?’
Josh and Ella, evidently accustomed to such goings-on, were unfazed by the conversation.
‘He tried doing that last week,’ Josh explained kindly. ‘But all she did was cry. Then she phoned Dad back, right in the middle of Coronation Street, and cried some more.’
‘So he took the telephone off the hook,’ said Ella. ‘But that didn’t work either. She got into her car and came here, still crying. It was really mean of her,’ she added, her expression indignant. ‘It was only eight o’clock and it wasn’t even our fault, but we had to go up to bed.’
‘You see?’ protested Guy. ‘I get the blame for everything. I can’t do anything right.’
Janey, still acutely aware of the fact that she had made almost as much of an idiot of herself with Bruno, couldn’t help feeling sorry for Charlotte who was probably weeping buckets right now.
‘You must have led her on.’ She tried to look disapproving. ‘If you really don’t want to see her again, it would be far kinder to say so and put her out of her misery.’
He looked surprised. ‘Rather than let her down gently?’
‘There’s nothing worse than not knowing where you stand.’ Janey spoke with feeling. She lowered her voice, although Josh and Ella had by this time lost interest. ‘You should tell her, you know. It’ll be easier all round if you do. Even Charlotte will appreciate it in the long run.’
‘Oh hell.’ He gave a sigh of resignation. ‘I hate these emotional showdowns. This is going to be no fun at all.’
At least he wasn’t the one being dumped. Janey wondered if he’d ever been on the receiving end of a verbal ‘Dear John’. Somehow, she seriously doubted it.
‘You’ll go and see her then? Tonight?’
With reluctance, he nodded. Then grinned. ‘Only if you’re sure you can cope with being left alone in the house for an hour or so?’
‘Oh, I think I can stand it,’ said Janey bravely. ‘If any burglars turn up, I’ll just send them into Maxine’s bedroom.That should be enough to put them off looting and pillaging for life.’
By the time he got back it was almost nine-thirty. Janey had put Josh and Ella to bed and was finishing the washing up.
‘Leave that,’ said Guy, opening a bottle of wine and taking two glasses out of the cupboard.
‘Come and help me drink this. I need it.’
Was it awful?’
He ran his fingers through his dark hair and pulled a face. ‘Pretty much. Shit, I feel like such a bastard. She said she wished she’d never met me.’
‘She didn’t mean it,’ said Janey consolingly. ‘She just feels let down. Charlotte liked you more than you liked her, that’s all. And when it ends, it hurts.’
‘That’s what she said,’ mused Guy. ‘The trouble is, she blames me. But you have to get to know someone before you can decide whether or not you’re suited. By the time you realize the relationship doesn’t have a future, it’s too late. They like you, so they end up getting hurt.’ He paused, then added, ‘Hardly an earth-shattering revelation, I know. It’s just that I’ve never really discussed it with anyone before.’
‘Whereas we women discuss it all the time,’ said Janey with a grin. ‘I told you, you should have stuck at those books of Mimi’s. They’d have taught you everything you needed to know.’
‘I thought you were supposed to be having an early night,’ she protested three hours later.
This was an altogether different Janey from the one he had taken away from Bruno’s party, Guy reflected. Now, relaxed and perfectly at ease, interested in hearing what he had to say yet at the same time totally unpushy, she
