Strictly Love by Julia Williams

morning and seemed very bad-tempered about it. Katie had been up since five with the baby, and had decided, once Molly had finally gone back to sleep, that she might as well get the lounge cleaned while she was up. Therewould be precious little time later once the full onslaught of the day hit. But she hadn't factored in Charlie's bad temper, or thought very much about the fact that their bedroom was above the lounge.
    ‘Sorry,’ said Katie, feeling simultaneous twinges of guilt and resentment – her rejoinders of
if you were here more
,
if you helped out more
, were immediately cancelled out by,
who would pay for the house?
One of her mum's tricks had been to nag and nag and nag at her dad. Katie had always sworn she would never do that.
    ‘Do you want a coffee before you go?’ Katie asked, going for placation.
    Charlie glanced at his watch.
    ‘It's okay, the taxi will be here in a minute. I'll grab one at the airport.’
    ‘Have you said goodbye to the boys?’
    ‘They're still asleep.’ Charlie was fiddling with a fridge magnet that bore the legend:
Hysteria is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with my womb
. He seemed very restless for some reason, and fidgety. Katie was feeling more than a little irritated. His evident annoyance at her cleaning had stopped her doing it, but now he wouldn't even sit down and talk to her. It was almost as though he couldn't look her in the eye.
    ‘You got ants in your pants?’ Katie enquired.
    ‘Why would you say that?’ Charlie looked like a startled rabbit caught in headlights.
    ‘Because you've been pacing up and down the kitchen for the last five minutes. Are you sure you don't want a coffee?’
    ‘Have I?’ Charlie said. ‘Sorry. I'm a bit distracted. What with this deal and everything.’
    ‘Of course,’ said Katie. It was understandable that he should be feeling wound up. She went over and gave him a hug. ‘It will be all right,’ she said.
    ‘I don't deserve you,’ he replied, kissing her lightly on the cheek.
    Charlie continued to wander restlessly round the kitchen, picking up bits of paper and idly sifting through them, clicking a pen off and on incessantly. It was almost as if he was trying to work himself up to say something to her.
    ‘This is hopeless,’ he burst out suddenly. ‘Katie, there's something I need to tell you –’
    A beep from the front of the house indicated the taxi had arrived.
    Katie looked at Charlie expectantly. There was a look of raw pain in his eyes, and he was trembling.
    ‘Charlie, whatever's wrong?’ she asked, genuinely worried now.
    ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Nothing. I'm just wound up about this deal. Taxi's here, I'd better go.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Katie. ‘Well, if you're sure you're okay?’
    ‘I'm fine,’ he said, ‘I'll see you on Sunday.’
    ‘Be good,’ she said, going to kiss him on the lips.
    ‘When aren't I?’ It was said lightly, but she detected a faint look of strain in his eyes, and he turned away from her so her lips brushed his cheek instead. There was definitely something wrong. She felt sure of it. She watched him go off in the cab with a heavy heart. He looked lost and lonely sitting there. And she had the oddest feeling that nothing she could do was going to help him.
    ‘So when's she coming then?’ Rob was lounging on the sofa laughing like crazy as Mark frantically tried to remove all evidence of his children from the lounge.
    ‘In about ten minutes,’ said Mark. ‘So could you please pass me the Sims game, which I know is hiding under your cushion, because that's Beth's favourite place to lose it.’
    Rob whistled as he sat up and felt behind him, dragging out a plastic computer game and handing it to Mark.
    ‘You're really not going to tell her about the kids?’
    ‘You were the one who said I shouldn't,’ said Mark.
    ‘I know, but … it's going to be a bit hard to hide them from her if this
cosy DVD
thing becomes regular.’
    ‘You didn't hear her going on about children. If