The Desperate Wife’s Survival Plan

by Alison Sherlock

  As Charley stared at the customers in horror, a man elbowed his way through the crowd to stand in front of them.

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he roared.

  The whole shop came to a halt to stare at the man in the white coat which was emblazoned with the name ‘Wayne’.

  ‘My ice-cream van has stood on this green all summer,’ he shouted. ‘You can’t just start selling ice-cream now. It’s not right, stealing all my customers.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ said the woman who had returned the toffee ice-cream. ‘Her stuff tastes foul.’

  ‘I think it’s the power cuts,’ said Charley, trying to maintain some semblance of control.

  ‘Wayne’s Whippy is just outside,’ the man shouted. ‘And there’s nothing wrong with my ice-cream.’

  ‘We want our money back,’ came a shout from near the door.

  ‘Yeah,’ came another voice. ‘Me too.’

  Charley looked at her aunt. But Peggy was too busy staring wide-eyed at a woman with elaborate glasses who was scribbling on to a notepad nearby.

  ‘She’s the food critic from the local paper,’ hissed Aunty Peggy.

  Charley closed her eyes at the horror unfolding in the shop. This was a disaster.

  Chapter Forty-six

  JULIE AND CAROLINE did the best they could, rallying around Charley with hugs and tissues to mop up her tears. Her parents told her that it would be okay, that she should soldier on and get past the catastrophic opening of the shop.

  But Charley liked her own plan better. Get up, clean, come home and get drunk. Repeat as necessary.

  Monday morning arrived and she went to work as normal, keeping her head down and cleaning like a demon at each house. Then she went home and consumed most of her daily calories via a bottle of wine. But it didn’t blot out the bad memories of the previous Saturday. Nor did it help her sleep.

  At Mrs Smith’s house on Tuesday morning, she cleaned the house, avoiding Mike whenever he appeared to be heading near her. She just knew he would be waiting to laugh at her like everyone else in the village was probably doing.

  Towards the end of the morning, Charley was vacuuming the hall carpet when the post thudded through the mailbox. She picked up the many envelopes, glancing briefly at the headline in the local newspaper which had arrived at the same time.

  It wasn’t until she was placing the post on the kitchen table that the words in the headline sank in.

  ‘Dairy Disaster! Cones at Dawn!’

  Charley stared at the article which had exaggerated all the problems from the grand opening, including the ‘mouldy ice-cream’. It made very upsetting reading. The words swam in front of her eyes as she spotted the sub-heading, ‘How Not to Run a Business!’

  ‘Hi,’ said Mike.

  Charley gave a start as she hadn’t even heard him come in at the back door.

  ‘Look,’ he carried on, ‘you haven’t got time to be standing around reading the paper. Shouldn’t you be out shopping for handbags or something?’

  Charley slowly lifted her head until she locked eyes with him. The wide smile he had been wearing quickly faded as he saw her expression.

  ‘Can we have the discussion about how useless and spoilt I am another day?’ she said, her voice breaking. ‘Okay? Any day but this one, all right?’

  She turned her back to him, not wanting him to see the tears that had begun to roll down her cheeks. But her feet wouldn’t move, couldn’t take her away from the tell-tale sound of the newspaper rustling as Mike picked it up to read the story.

  She didn’t know how long she stood there, letting the humiliation wash over her. But it gave her time to brace herself for the inevitable sarcasm about her business skills that he would no doubt throw at her.

  But no scathing words came, just a large hand touching her shoulder and, turning her round before she found herself crushed against his chest in a hug. She tried to resist but Mike’s strong arms held her tight until she finally let go and began to sob.

  He held on to her for many minutes until finally she was spent and could cry no more. Mike released her then before reaching out and tearing off a piece of kitchen paper which he held out for her.

  ‘Thank you,’ she managed to mumble before wiping her eyes.

  ‘Sit down,’ he told her in a gentle tone, watching her as she sank on to one of the fancy bar stools. Then he sat down next to her. ‘What happened?’

  ‘The power cuts,’ she said in a small voice. ‘The ice-creams had all defrosted and then refrozen so they were rancid. I had no idea . . . hadn’t tasted them beforehand.’

  ‘Well, that’s a hard way to learn that particular lesson for next time,’ he said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Charley, with a shrug. ‘There won’t be a next time.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘You saw the newspaper, didn’t you? Who the hell’s going to come into the shop after reading that article?’

  ‘Maybe not everyone reads the local paper,’ Mike told her. ‘Maybe some people want to form their own opinion and not believe some idiot reporter.’

  Charley sighed. ‘It wasn’t supposed to be a serious thing anyway. It was only going to be open for the summer.’

  ‘It’s the first of August today. There’s still a lot of summer left.’

  ‘What’s the point?’ she muttered.

  He reached out to cup her chin, bringing her face level with his. ‘The point, Charlotte Summers, is that you’ve still got time to convince everyone that you can do this.’

  ‘What if I can’t?’

  ‘You won’t know unless you try.’

  She stared into his dark eyes for a beat. ‘Since when did you start being nice to me?’

  ‘I’m hoping for a discount when I come in next Saturday.’ He gave her a small smile. ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’

  Charley blew out a long sigh. ‘Can you whip up a batch of rum and raisin ice-cream for me? In fact, I need to replace most of the stock so any flavour would do.’

  ‘No can do, I’m afraid.’ Mike stood up. ‘But I can make you a coffee, if you want.’

  She watched him as he made the drinks. Of all the people to show her true emotions to, she would have put Mike last on the list. But he hadn’t judged her, hadn’t mocked her. Just listened and advised.

  She thanked him as he handed her a coffee. ‘You can be quite nice, you know.’

  ‘You sound surprised,’ he replied, with a wink.

  Charley gave him a small smile.

  Keep it quiet though, will you?’ he said, over his shoulder as he headed out of the back door. ‘It’ll ruin my reputation.’

  Chapter Forty-seven

  FEELING A TINY bit brighter after Mike’s encouraging words, Charley let her hair down from its ponytail on the way home and allowed the warm breeze to waft through the car. With the music on, she even managed to sing along to the lyrics.

  But as she drove into the car park for the flats, her voice caught in her throat. Steve was leaning against the bonnet of a car, his arms folded in front of him. She just about managed to pull into a parking space without crashing the Mini.

  Her legs shaking, she slowly stepped out of the car. He looked good, thought Charley. Really, really good.

  ‘Hi, babe,’ her husband said, breaking into his trademark cheeky grin.

  ‘Hi,’ she managed to croak in reply.

  But the grin was swiftly replaced with laughter as he took in her appearance. ‘Blimey! Was your hair always this curly? You look a fright.’

  Her hands shot up to her head, knowing that the combination of wild curls and an open window would automatically ramp up the volume tenfold. She quickly tucked it back into a ponytail, feeling both embarrassed and cross.

  ‘What do you want?’ she snapped.

  ‘Saw your photo in the paper,’ said Steve. ‘Didn’t know you were starting up a new business.’

  ‘I wasn’t,’ said Charley, with a sigh. ‘I was just tryi
ng to make a bit of money during the summer.’

  ‘Still, you could have told me. I felt like an idiot when everyone started talking about it.’

  She frowned. ‘What does it have to do with you? We’re getting a divorce, aren’t we?’

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Just thought you would keep me up to date. Anyway, I see you had a bit of a nightmare.’

  ‘That’s an understatement.’

  ‘Look, take it from me. You’re always going to get teething problems with any new business.’

  This was the last thing she needed. Charley wanted to shout and scream at him but the fight had gone out of her. She was too hot and too tired to be bothered.

  By now Steve was in full flow. ‘I can help, you know. I know a few people. You should be thinking of franchising. That’s where we went wrong. Let someone else take the strain out of the renting and all that. It’s common sense.’

  ‘Unfortunately sense doesn’t seem to be very common around here.’ She shook her head. ‘You’re giving me business advice? After bankrupting us?’

  ‘I was a good businessman. It was the overheads that killed it.’

  ‘No, Steve. We killed it. With our greed. With our ridiculously expensive lifestyle. We should have stuck to one shop. We didn’t need all the rest.’

  His eyebrows shot up. ‘You’ve changed your tune.’

  ‘I’ve changed a lot since our marriage broke up.’ She blew out a sigh. ‘What are you doing here, Steve? I mean, be honest for once. What do you want?’

  ‘I wanted to help, so you could try being a little nicer to me.’

  ‘I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter,’ she told him. ‘What makes you think I would even accept your help? You disappear for months on end, leaving me up to my eyes in debt, then you suddenly reappear and insult my hair. For some reason, you think that I should be falling down on the floor and kissing your feet because you’re generously giving me business advice. Hah!’

  He watched as she brought out the keys to the flat from her handbag. ‘Is that it? You don’t want to hear what else I’ve got to say to you?’

  Charley shook her head. ‘No. I’m tired. I need a shower. It’s been a long week. Thanks but I’ve got this far on my own.’

  She managed to get through the front door and close it before she changed her mind.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  CHARLEY WAS STILL having a crisis of confidence on the Wednesday after the not-so-grand opening.

  Not that she was getting much sympathy from her mother.

  ‘At least nobody died,’ Maureen told her when she rang.

  ‘From my ice-cream? Gee, thanks, Mum. You’ve picked me right up there.’

  ‘No. I mean, Mrs Courtney from Pine Oaks . . . you remember her? Collected teapots. Anyway, I was in the hairdresser’s yesterday and it wasn’t until the dryer started to smoke that anyone realised she hadn’t moved for three hours.’

  Charley stared around the bedroom but the only audience to roll her eyes at was a pile of cuddly toys.

  ‘Terrible shame,’ her mother carried on. ‘She’d always had such lovely hair. They said they can do something with a wig if it’s an open casket.’

  Charley had barely hung up on her phone before it rang again. This time Samantha was calling.

  ‘Hi,’ said Charley, in a dull tone. At least she would get a bit more sympathy from her friend.

  ‘I’m so angry, I could kill someone!’ shouted Samantha down the line.

  Charley sighed. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘He’s only gone and booked a week away with his family for the end of the month! He’s going to be away for my birthday.’

  ‘Well, it is the school holidays.’

  ‘So? I mean, it’s not as if I haven’t hinted heavily enough!’

  Samantha ranted on and on for so long that in the end, Charley had to lie and say that her customer had just returned home.

  So it was with a heavy heart that she drove to Sidney’s shop to carry on remaking her ice-cream. But the back door was unlocked when she tried it and, upon entering, she found Caroline and Julie waiting for her.

  ‘Thought you might need a hand,’ said Julie.

  Charley was so grateful to see them that she gave in to the misery inside and gratefully let Caroline envelop her in a hug.

  ‘I feel so bad,’ said Caroline, also a little teary.

  ‘You and your hormones,’ said Julie, nudging her in the arm.

  ‘It’s not that,’ cried Caroline. ‘It’s all my fault.’

  ‘What is?’ asked Charley.

  ‘The shop. It was all my idea and I should never have told you about it.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Julie, shaking her head with a smile at Charley. ‘Besides, it was my idea.’

  ‘But that wretched woman wrote such a shocking article in the paper.’ Caroline sniffed. ‘I’ve a good mind to sue her for slander.’

  ‘Take it easy,’ said Julie, drawing her over to a chair to sit down. ‘Otherwise you’ll give yourself another headache.’

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ Charley told her as she knelt down in front of Caroline. ‘I should have checked the ice-cream. As Mike said, it’s a lesson worth learning.’

  ‘Who?’ asked Julie.

  ‘Mike from school,’ said Charley.

  Caroline wiped away a tear. ‘Our Mike? He said that?’

  Charley nodded. ‘I know. Who’d have thought? A man saying the right thing, for once.’

  ‘So you’re not going to give up?’ asked Julie.

  Charley shook her head. ‘No way. I mean, I had hoped this would be a way of earning a bit of money to repay my parents.’

  ‘And who cares what that woman wrote?’ said Julie. ‘We’ll show her, eh?’

  ‘I’ve got just what you need,’ said Caroline, fishing around in her handbag before bringing out a small paper bag. ‘I saw it this morning and thought of you.’

  Charley opened up the bag and reached inside, bringing out a fridge magnet that read ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. She smiled and gave Caroline a hug.

  ‘Thanks,’ she told her. ‘I shall look at it every time I feel like giving up.’

  ‘That’s the spirit,’ said Julie. ‘Right. Where do we start?’

  They spent a couple of hours helping Charley remake some of the ice-cream until Julie had to get back to the puppy and Caroline had to pick Flora up from her playdate.

  But the pact was made. The shop would reopen on Saturday.

  Charley was praying that it couldn’t be any worse than the previous weekend.

  She glanced at Caroline’s fridge magnet, smiled to herself, and began to melt more chocolate for the next flavour.

  Chapter Forty-nine

  ‘WE NEVER GO out anywhere,’ Samantha found herself blurting out one Friday night.

  Richard laughed as he propped himself up on the pillows. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘It would be nice to get out of the flat once in a while. Maybe we could go out to dinner for my birthday?’

  He frowned and crossed his arms across his bare chest. ‘But I’m away on your birthday, as you have reminded me many, many times.’

  ‘Yes, but when you get back.’ Samantha gave him a wide smile. ‘With a large present for me, of course.’

  ‘You know why we can’t go out,’ he told her, reaching out to run his fingers up her arm.

  Samantha shivered at his touch but was determined to speak her mind. ‘But maybe we could go away somewhere. Far away from Grove. Where no one will know us.’

  Richard leant forward to kiss her bare shoulder. ‘I’ve got to be careful. You know why.’

  ‘It’s just not a very equal relationship at the minute,’ carried on Samantha. ‘I was supposed to be helping my friend tonight but I cancelled so I could see you.’

  ‘And didn’t I show you my appreciation?’ he murmured, pulling the sheet away from her.

  ‘Yes, but it’s always at the last min
ute. I have a life too.’

  Richard moved away from her with a heavy sigh. ‘I can’t plan on seeing you. I never know what’s going on at home.’

  ‘I just feel like you’re taking me for granted,’ said Samantha, after a pause.

  ‘For granted?’ Richard’s handsome face flushed with annoyance. ‘You knew the deal when we got together. Said you were happy with just a casual thing.’

  ‘Yes, but it’s got more serious, hasn’t it?’

  Samantha waited for words of reassurance. Waited for him to agree that their relationship had deepened, meant something to him.

  But instead Richard swung his legs out of the bed and got up, picking up his clothes from the floor.

  ‘I get this at home,’ he told her, pulling on his trousers. ‘I don’t need it from you as well.’

  Samantha realised she had just crossed the fine line into nagging territory, the most dangerous of all for the mistress of a married man.

  And, to her horror, he walked out of the flat.

  Caroline crossed the road to the hospital car park, holding the mobile to her ear.

  ‘Did you find out the sex of the baby?’ asked Jeff.

  ‘No,’ she said, trying to find her car keys in her cavernous handbag.

  ‘Why not?’

  Caroline was about to snap that if he had been that interested to know about the baby then perhaps he should have taken the day off work to accompany her. But, no, work came first. And he was more stressed than ever.

  ‘We didn’t find out with Flora,’ she said, reaching the car. ‘I thought it would be the same this time.’

  ‘Right. Have you got a photo of the scan?’

  ‘I’ve tried to get it on my phone but it’s not very clear. Maybe it’s better that you see it when you get home.’

  Her husband sighed at the other end of the phone. ‘I suppose. Okay, I’ll try not to be late.’

  Caroline hung up, thinking that tonight wouldn’t be any different. She had taken to having tea with Flora at five o’clock, especially as Jeff wasn’t coming home until nearly nine each night. He would then grumble about the hot and sweaty commute. She would nod and pretend she was interested when all she wanted to do was sleep.