Sue Fortin - United States of Love

Anna grunted and began to shake her head but stopped abruptly. It hurt too much. Her barely intelligible response to Zoe reminded her of Luke. Hell! When did she morph into her teenage son? ‘My head is killing me,’ she groaned and looked at herself in the hall mirror. ‘God, my eyes look like burn holes in a blanket.’

‘I'll put the kettle on.’

The clattering of feet on the wooden floor and the shrieking of three excited boys pierced the air.

‘Aunty Anna! Aunty Anna!’

‘Yay! We're going to the park!’

‘Can we go now?’

Anna was nearly bowled over as Jake, Alex and Henry threw themselves at her for a group hug.

‘Sshhhh! Boys! Sssshhh!’ pleaded Zoe, trying to calm them down and prise them away from their aunt. ‘You're going to wake Emily up.’ Too late. Emily didn't want to be left out of the fun and began crying. ‘Thanks a lot, boys.’

Anna looked at Zoe who was now pulling a crumpled tissue from her sleeve. She wasn't sure if Zoe was dabbing her eyes and nose because of her cold or because she was upset. This wasn't good.

‘Come on, boys,’ cajoled Anna. ‘Why don't you go in the garden for ten minutes? I'm not quite ready yet. Come on. And you, Henry. Here, I'll carry you. There we go. Come on, Jake. Alex. Let's go outside for a bit.’

Zoe looked at her gratefully before disappearing upstairs.

‘There's a cup of tea for you,’ smiled Anna as Zoe came back down carrying Emily. ‘Ooh hello, Emily darling. Did those boys wake you up? Never mind. Come here for a cuddle while mummy has a cup of tea.’ Anna took Emily before either mother or daughter could protest, and gently bobbing the child up and down, she wandered over to the window. ‘Look, can you see your brothers? There's Alex and Jake and little Henry. Aren't they having fun?’ She turned to her sister-in-law. ‘You okay, Zoe?’

‘Thanks, Anna. That's the first time someone's made a cup of tea for me in ages.’

‘Why don't I take Emily out as well? She doesn't seem too full of cold this morning. As long as you wrap her up warm the fresh air will do her good. What do you think, Emily? Want to come to the park? Mummy can have a nice, long soak in the bath, or sleep in bed, do whatever she fancies. Veg out in front of some cooking show.’

Zoe didn't even pretend to make a ‘oh, you don't have to’ or ‘it'll be too much for you’ type of protest. She didn't have the energy or the inclination, it seemed.

Having spent a good couple of hours at the park with the children then walking into town, treating them all to a McDonald's, Anna was glad to be back home. She really could do with a sleep. A boozy night, followed by an early morning and all that running around in the park had worn her out.

Any notion she had of a quiet afternoon was shattered pretty much as soon as she walked through the front door to her house. Luke jumped up from the sofa and turned to face her angrily.

‘What did you say to Dad?’ he demanded.

‘Oh, hello, Mum. How are you? Want a cup of tea? Oh, I'm fine thanks, Luke. A bit tired but I'd love a cup of tea,’ she said, annoyed at the abruptness of Luke's greeting.

‘Sorry,’ mumbled Luke. He went out to the kitchen and reappeared a couple of minutes later with a cup of tea.

‘Thank you.’ She took the cup from Luke and put it on the coffee table in front of her. ‘Now, what’s up?’

Luke flopped down into the chair by the fireplace. ‘Dad! He was supposed to be taking me out for a curry tonight and then we were coming back to watch the football.’

‘And now?’

‘He phoned to say he wasn’t coming back tonight because of you.’ Luke glanced up at Anna before reverting his gaze to the television.

‘Me? What have I done?’ What had she done to make Mark leave? She had no idea. ‘Did he say anything?’

Luke let out a sigh. ‘No, just that he thought it was best if he stayed out of your way for a bit.’

Anna could see the disappointment Luke was trying to hide behind his sullen expression. So it hadn’t taken Mark long to let Luke down. Selfish pig. And as for using her as an excuse! Right, where was her phone? She was going to phone Mark and get to the bottom of this.

He answered on the fifth ring.

‘Mark, I just wanted to check if you were coming back tonight or not? Only Luke doesn't seem to think so.’ She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

‘No, that's right. Thought I'd stay over here the night. Why, is there a problem? I didn't think I had to clear things with you these days.’ Mark's response was terse. Then, as if catching himself, he spoke more cordially. ‘I just thought I'd give you the headspace that you asked for. Give you time to think about us.’

Anna sighed, glancing at Luke before she walked into the kitchen and spoke in a quieter voice. ‘Mark, there hasn't been an “us” for a long time now.’

‘So last night was your way of getting a bit of revenge then?’ The terseness was back. ‘Giving me the green light then switching to red at the last minute. Is that your way of getting your own back at me?’

‘Do you really think I've been waiting all this time to get my own back? Besides, what happened last night could hardly be considered as like for like.’ God, now she was being drawn into an argument with him about their marriage. Hadn't they done all this a year ago?

‘Mark, please just listen to me a minute. This isn't getting us anywhere. Last night I had, well, we both had, too much to drink. I thought we could just have a nice evening out, which was at your suggestion. We were both a little worse for wear. We both knew it wasn't the right way to go. If you thought otherwise, I'm sorry.’ Damn, somehow she had ended up apologising. ‘We can't take our misunderstanding out on Luke. It's not his fault.’

‘Which is exactly why I'm giving us a bit of space,’ said Mark.

‘Perhaps you can spend some time with him tomorrow then. Give him a call later. It will cheer him up.’

‘Yeah, okay. I've got to go. Me and Gary are just on our way out. Gary says hello, by the way.’

‘Say hello back,’ said Anna, somehow feeling like the villain. ‘See you tomorrow. Do you know what time?’ Too late, Mark had hung up.

Anna leaned back against the worktop and closed her eyes. Her head was hurting again. At least tomorrow was a bank holiday so she would have a full day to recover before beginning her new job. She wanted to make sure she started off well, to impress not only Jamie but Tex also. She was going to be totally organised – her clothes, her work bag, check the directions, go over some basic building terms and procedures in case she needed to sort anything out. She wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

It was not the best start to the first day in her new job. To begin with, Mark had extended his stay in Southampton, much to her annoyance and Luke's disappointment. It was now Tuesday, and because of Mark's change of plans, she didn't have her car today to drive to Arundel. She took the train instead and walked down from the station into the town to Tarrant Street. The walk itself wouldn't have been too bad had it not been raining, and even less had the wind not been so strong it had turned her umbrella inside out.

Peering out from under the hood of her parka coat, the old United Reformed Church stood back from the row of shops lining Tarrant Street, with a paved area at the front used as outside seating for when it was a coffee shop. Today, instead of tables and chairs were three vehicles: a white transit van, a Volvo estate and a Ford Ranger pick-up style truck. The builder, the architect and Tex, she concluded.

Anna wasn't sure if she should just go straight in, whether she should knock, or try to find a side door. However, her dilemma was solved when the door opened and out stepped a man.