have an opinion on how to make a marriage work.’
I bite my lip for a moment, feeling shell shocked at the sudden sharp tone to her voice.
‘You don’t realise how easy you have it with Oliver.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘No money worries. No daily grind of the 9 to 5 running you down… All you had to do was pop out a baby and sit back and enjoy the cash. Anyone could make a marriage work if they had it that easy.’
Blood rushes to my cheeks and I can’t help but feel mortified. Yes, Oliver brings home a massive pay check so we don’t have to fret over bills and so forth, but that doesn’t mean our relationship is any less real than anyone else’s.
‘That’s not fair…’ I start, feeling a strong urge to defend myself. ‘We have our own share of problems just like everyone else.’
‘Yada, yada, yada.’ Mumbling under her breath, she throws back her head and refuses to look me in the eye.
I decide to try a different tact and put my bruised feelings to one side. ‘You and Randy are happy, Janie. You know you are deep down. This is just a blip, a moment of madness, an error of judgement.’
‘You aren’t around!’ Throwing her arms in the air, she lets out a sarcastic laugh and flicks back her hair. ‘You see snapshots of our lives through photographs and video calls. You live four thousand miles away, Clara! You don’t know the half of it.’
A surge of guilt runs through me and I tear my eyes away from hers. With Janie and Randy living in Texas, it’s true that we neglect Oliver’s side of the family ever so slightly. Not intentionally, of course. It’s just that having an ocean between us kind of puts a stop to a lot of family activities.
‘You must understand just how unexpected this is for us? Especially for Oliver. One minute everything is fine and you’re flying us out to America and the next you drop this on us. Talk about out of the blue.’ I wait for her to say something, but she turns away in silence. ‘I better go and find Oliver, I don’t want him to do anything stupid.’
Reaching out for the pram, she takes Noah and motions for me to leave. ‘Let me keep Noah with me. There’s no point in dragging him around on a wild goose chase.’
Planting a kiss on his head, I slip out of the booth and squeeze through the tables. The entire coffee shop is filled with happy families enjoying a much needed moment of rest from the festivities going on outside. Oh, how I envy them. Quietly enjoying their caffeine fix, they don’t have any idea how lucky they are that they don’t have Janie for a mother-in-law.
Pushing my way out onto the street, narrowly avoiding knocking over a wizard in the process, I shake my head in an attempt to clear my mind. OK. If I were a pissed off, middle aged American at Magic Metropolis, where would I go? Scanning my surroundings, I let out an exhausted sigh and decide to retrace our footsteps. My first guess is that Oliver has gone in search of Paulie, so I am either looking for a shaken up dinosaur or the sound of Oliver’s roar. In a park filled with screeching children and booming music, it makes this an almost impossible task.
Smiling at a passing witch, I accept a handful of fairy dust and throw it over my shoulder. I guess I need all the luck I can get right now, even if that luck does come in the form of arts and crafts glitter. I knew it was strange for Janie to bring us out here like this! Someone like Janie doesn’t just have a complete one eighty and suddenly decide they want to play the role of cookie cutter grandmother. I should have known that she was up to something. I should have worked out something was going on long before now.
Spotting a baseball cap that looks suspiciously like Oliver’s on a nearby bench, I run over and pick it up. He wouldn’t go very far without this. I don’t think I’ve seen him without his precious Houston Rockets cap this entire holiday. After scanning the area for what feels like
I bite my lip for a moment, feeling shell shocked at the sudden sharp tone to her voice.
‘You don’t realise how easy you have it with Oliver.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘No money worries. No daily grind of the 9 to 5 running you down… All you had to do was pop out a baby and sit back and enjoy the cash. Anyone could make a marriage work if they had it that easy.’
Blood rushes to my cheeks and I can’t help but feel mortified. Yes, Oliver brings home a massive pay check so we don’t have to fret over bills and so forth, but that doesn’t mean our relationship is any less real than anyone else’s.
‘That’s not fair…’ I start, feeling a strong urge to defend myself. ‘We have our own share of problems just like everyone else.’
‘Yada, yada, yada.’ Mumbling under her breath, she throws back her head and refuses to look me in the eye.
I decide to try a different tact and put my bruised feelings to one side. ‘You and Randy are happy, Janie. You know you are deep down. This is just a blip, a moment of madness, an error of judgement.’
‘You aren’t around!’ Throwing her arms in the air, she lets out a sarcastic laugh and flicks back her hair. ‘You see snapshots of our lives through photographs and video calls. You live four thousand miles away, Clara! You don’t know the half of it.’
A surge of guilt runs through me and I tear my eyes away from hers. With Janie and Randy living in Texas, it’s true that we neglect Oliver’s side of the family ever so slightly. Not intentionally, of course. It’s just that having an ocean between us kind of puts a stop to a lot of family activities.
‘You must understand just how unexpected this is for us? Especially for Oliver. One minute everything is fine and you’re flying us out to America and the next you drop this on us. Talk about out of the blue.’ I wait for her to say something, but she turns away in silence. ‘I better go and find Oliver, I don’t want him to do anything stupid.’
Reaching out for the pram, she takes Noah and motions for me to leave. ‘Let me keep Noah with me. There’s no point in dragging him around on a wild goose chase.’
Planting a kiss on his head, I slip out of the booth and squeeze through the tables. The entire coffee shop is filled with happy families enjoying a much needed moment of rest from the festivities going on outside. Oh, how I envy them. Quietly enjoying their caffeine fix, they don’t have any idea how lucky they are that they don’t have Janie for a mother-in-law.
Pushing my way out onto the street, narrowly avoiding knocking over a wizard in the process, I shake my head in an attempt to clear my mind. OK. If I were a pissed off, middle aged American at Magic Metropolis, where would I go? Scanning my surroundings, I let out an exhausted sigh and decide to retrace our footsteps. My first guess is that Oliver has gone in search of Paulie, so I am either looking for a shaken up dinosaur or the sound of Oliver’s roar. In a park filled with screeching children and booming music, it makes this an almost impossible task.
Smiling at a passing witch, I accept a handful of fairy dust and throw it over my shoulder. I guess I need all the luck I can get right now, even if that luck does come in the form of arts and crafts glitter. I knew it was strange for Janie to bring us out here like this! Someone like Janie doesn’t just have a complete one eighty and suddenly decide they want to play the role of cookie cutter grandmother. I should have known that she was up to something. I should have worked out something was going on long before now.
Spotting a baseball cap that looks suspiciously like Oliver’s on a nearby bench, I run over and pick it up. He wouldn’t go very far without this. I don’t think I’ve seen him without his precious Houston Rockets cap this entire holiday. After scanning the area for what feels like
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