by Melissa Hill
“From day one, he made it quite clear that he doesn’t agree with the fact that Andrew’s invested in Elysium,” she told her friend. “He doesn’t agree with Andrew full stop. For some reason he just seemed to dislike him on sight and, to be honest, I’m finding it a bit of a strain. I mean, here I am, working my ass off to get everything ready for the opening, and all Josh does is spend the whole time moaning about Andrew and what he has to gain, and why doesn’t he share some of the work.”
“And do you think Andrew should?” Olivia asked. She knew that Leah was desperately looking forward to getting the store up and running, but she suspected that her friend was doing way too much on her own.
“No, of course not. I don’t want Andrew involved, Andrew doesn’t want to get involved. That’s the only reason I agreed to do this in the first place. The business is mine and Andrew is simply a silent partner. Josh can’t understand that. As much as he seems to dislike Andrew, he still thinks that he should be more involved, that he should help me more.”
“Well, maybe he does have a point. I know how difficult it must be to run everything yourself. What about giving Alan some of the load?” Leah had recently taken on a part-time assistant, a shy quiet young man called Alan who went about his work diligently, eager to learn all he could from his boss.
“Alan is just an assistant – he doesn’t really have the know-how when it comes to running a business.”
“Well, maybe he might surprise you. You should give him a chance – that’s what you’re paying him for, surely?”
“No, it would take way too long to train him to do everything.” Leah said, dismissing the idea. “There’s no point in doing that at this stage anyway. I’ll get it done quicker by myself and that’s the end of it.”
Olivia knew that sometimes Leah found it difficult to let go of the business she had built up from the very beginning, that she found it hard to assign control to anyone else. She worried now, looking at Leah’s tired and gaunt face and the determined look in her eye, that with this new store, she might be taking on way too much. Josh had every right to be concerned.
“Well, look, try not to worry about the deadline too much. Surely a week or two later won’t make too much of a difference?”
Leah sighed. “No, I don’t suppose it will, but at the same time this is the date that Andrew and I agreed. I don’t want to let him down.”
“I’m sure Andrew wouldn’t mind one way or the other. Didn’t he say that it’s yours to run whatever way you choose?”
“You’re starting to sound like Josh.”
“I know, but like me, Josh doesn’t want you running yourself into the ground over this. I can’t say I’ve had any experience with building an empire, but I know the Romans slept sometimes too.”
Leah laughed. “You’re right. I do take it way too seriously sometimes. Things will be fine, and Josh is just teed off because I don’t spend any time with him in front of the TV any more.”
“You are making some time for yourselves surely?”
“It’s very difficult.” Leah shrugged. “I’m at the workshop as often as I can, so now he’s started to do some more shifts at Homecare. You know Josh – he’s one of those people who hates sitting in on his own.”
Olivia refilled her coffee mug. “Still, you two should try and calm it down a bit, go for a weekend away or something.”
Leah laughed. “At the moment, there aren’t enough hours in the day, let alone wasting time going away for weekends. But look, things will get better once the business opens. Josh just has to bear with me for a while, that’s all.” She looked at her watch. “Anyway, I’d better leave you alone to get ready for work. Do you want me to drop Ellie over to Eva’s for you?”
Olivia was due at the work at twelve, and usually dropped Ellie off at her mother’s beforehand. “Um, no thanks, we’ve got loads of time,” she said, only too well aware of Leah’s limitations as a driver.
“Right – well, I suppose the next time I see you will be at the launch party?”
“Probably. But look, try to take it easy in the meantime, won’t you? I’m sure it’s tough for Josh too.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Leah assured her.
As she closed the door behind her friend, Olivia really hoped that they would be. Then again, she thought, going upstairs to get Ellie ready for her granny’s, she was probably just being silly worrying about them. Leah and Josh had been through much tougher times than this and hadn’t they come out of it all just fine?
23
Through her front window, Catherine watched that woman from across the green trying to bundle her child into the car.
Pathetic, she thought, so pathetic the way she kept making big eyes at Matt, fawning all over him whenever they happened to bump into one another.
Which, Catherine thought, rather worriedly, seemed to be happening a lot lately. Only the other day, when Matt should have been tucking into the gorgeous beef stew she had spent all afternoon preparing, Catherine had again caught the two of them chatting easily at that woman’s front gate.
She’d have to put a stop to that – and quickly. She didn’t want Matt getting too friendly with the neighbours, especially unattached female neighbours. They’d had that problem before, and if it weren’t for darling little Adam, she would have been none the wiser. No, there was no letting him out of her sight this time; that was for sure. She and Matt had been through too much together over the years to have it all ruined by some desperate slapper living across the way. No way.
Didn’t the woman have any shame? She shook her head in disgust as she watched her drive away. Laughing and flirting with him in full view of the green and all the while knowing that he had a family – that he had a son! The cheek of it. Catherine had a very good mind to just go over there some day soon and give the silly cow a piece of her mind. But Matt would go mad if she did that. He flew off the handle altogether over that last woman, didn’t he? No, she would simply bide her time and see what happened, and if Matt showed any sign of straying, well then she would have to do something.
Her hands shook as she went into the kitchen and opened the cupboard. Why did he have to do this, she thought, taking out the ironing board. Why did he have to go looking for someone else – was she not enough for him? Did she not look as good, if not better than that witch from across the road? Catherine had got one really good look at her one day while passing in the car. She and her little girl were out in the front garden, and yes, her eyes were a wide, deep blue and she was very striking. But there was no glamour, no character – and she was a good two stone heavier for goodness’ sake!
Catherine ran a self-conscious hand over her own flat stomach and tiny waist. Surely all those hours at the gym, not to mention the hours at the hairdresser touching up her highlights meant something!
But then, a lot of the time, Matt didn’t even notice her hair or her slim figure or her salon tan. No, he was too busy organising his next business venture or fussing over Adam. If it weren’t for Adam, Catherine wondered if he would bother with her at all. If it weren’t for Adam, he might be long gone, gone off into the arms of some plump, boring, ordinary woman, a woman who could never give him what Catherine did.
She wrinkled up her nose. Her name was Olivia, apparently. Matt had mentioned that one day after Catherine had once again interrupted one of their little ‘chats’.
“She’s a lovely woman,” he’d said. “Very friendly but a little bit shy too, I think. And her little daughter is just so cute – the resemblance is amazing actually.”
Every word had cut Catherine to the quick and immediately she hated Olivia –
Olivia with her cute daughter and her big blue eyes and her bright smile. Olivia, who was obviously single and obviously desperate for a man – any man, to brighten up her boring lonely domestic routine.
Catherine knew all about boring and domestic routines – sometimes she wondered why on earth she’d ever given up her full-time job and agr
eed to spend all day doing housework and looking after Adam. But she didn’t have to think too long about the answer. She did it to support Matt, and they both knew it wouldn’t do for Adam to be looked after by some stranger, and being fed yellow-pack fish fingers every day for dinner. It wouldn’t be fair on the child.
So, despite how bored she sometimes felt, Catherine was still glad she decided to do it. Still, at times like this, she wondered if Matt really appreciated the sacrifice she’d made. He’d given her a lot of support certainly, and a move away from Dublin had been his suggestion – and mostly paid for by his wages – but still, it was hard not to be bored.
Then again Catherine thought, reminding herself that the move to this village had inadvertently put him in contact with that woman, being bored and stuck at home didn’t give anyone an excuse to go off chasing other women’s men, did it? Catherine wouldn’t dream of doing something like that – no, she had enough respect for herself and indeed for Adam.
She sighed. At times she wondered why on earth she bothered staying faithful to Matt, let alone minding Adam in order to support him in his career. It’s not as though she had any shortage of attention – she was always getting wolf-whistles and admiring glances when she was out and about.
She knew she had always been attractive; she had worked hard to ensure she stayed attractive, and it was quite satisfying to find that she still had the power to make men go weak at the knees. Catherine smiled as a thought entered her mind. Like that very attractive guy she’d noticed checking her out the week before at the café. The sexy George Clooney lookalike - Conor Dempsey was his name - they had got chatting and apparently he owned a graphic design company based in the village called Octagon.
Well she decided, thoughts of Matt’s ‘friendship’ with their unglamorous neighbour propelling her into action, maybe she might just take a trip down to the Heartbreak Café and do some more flirting. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, she decided, going upstairs to choose an eye-catching and suitably flirtatious outfit, something that would make Mr Graphic Design pay close attention.
Twenty minutes later, Catherine stood in front of the mirror and assessed her over-the-top but unmistakably sexy appearance. Matt was away this weekend, so this was the ideal opportunity to put her plan into action.
She smiled. By the time she was finished with him, neighbourly relations would be last thing on Matt Sheridan’s mind.
24
The following morning at 7am, Olivia was sitting in her kitchen nursing a mug of hot coffee and wishing that the caffeine-jolt would hurry up and do its job. She hated early mornings, had always hated them, and there was nothing she’d like more than to go back to bed and curl up under the warm duvet.
But there was little chance of that this morning. She’d brought home a few hours’ worth of paperwork from the centre yesterday, and although the work wasn’t terribly urgent, she wanted to get a good head start on it before Ellie got up in a couple of hours’ time. It wasn’t practical to be going through patient files when her daughter was around – dangerous because her attention needed to be elsewhere, and difficult because Ellie in true toddler fashion made the very most of the fact that her mother’s attention was elsewhere. Olivia had learned in the early days that when Ellie was quiet, it was usually because she was up to no good.
She went into the living-room, sat down by the window at the sideboard that doubled as ‘her desk’ and switched on her laptop, wishing that she had done the sensible thing and let it warm up while she was getting breakfast.
The computer, which Olivia was convinced was running on the slowest, crudest operating system imaginable – probably based on Bill Gates original Windows doodlings – took absolutely forever to get going. She gazed unseeingly out the window while she waited, her eyes tired and watering.
Olivia wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting there when a small movement across the green caught her eye. Oh no, it was someone coming out of the Sheridan house again, she thought, guiltily averting her eyes. Anyone would think it was her intention to spy on the new family, and what if Matt himself noticed her light on across the way, and saw her sitting at the window, apparently spying on him on his way to work?
She went to move out of sight, but first gave a quick glance to ensure that she hadn’t been seen.
As she did, Olivia’s mouth opened wide. This time she didn’t – she couldn’t – look away. There was Matt’s wife, barely dressed in a satin bustier-type combo that wouldn’t look out of place in an issue of FHM, wrapped around some man – some tall, blonde, younger man that definitely wasn’t Matt! What was she up to?
Well, it was pretty obvious what she was up to, Olivia thought, seeing the woman pull her beau closer for another kiss – she was cheating on poor old Matt!
But why? Why would anyone feel the need to cheat on a warm, wonderful man like Matt Sheridan? Why would any woman who was lucky enough to have a loving, devoted husband and a perfect little child – a perfect family – recklessly put it all in jeopardy for a fling with someone else?
Then Olivia berated herself. Who was she to judge? What did she know about that woman and her family? Who knows what goes on behind closed doors – isn’t that what her mother always said?
She was a fool to presume anything; for all she knew Matt and his wife might have a terrible life together and lover-boy, whoever he was, was her only means of happiness. But still, what would poor Matt think when he realised that his wife was having an affair – and worse, flaunting herself and her fancyman all around the neighbourhood.
Although it was hardly flaunting, Olivia thought now, trying to calm herself. It wasn’t as though the woman expected the mostly elderly neighbours of Cherrytree Green to be spying on her at that hour of the morning, was it? Still, it was brazen enough of her at the same time.
Seconds later, Olivia heard a car drive away, and when she looked back at the house, the wife had gone back inside.
But where was Matt? His car was in the driveway – surely she wouldn’t have been carrying on while he was asleep in another room, would she?
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, it’s none of your bloody business anyway,” Olivia said out loud, before striding purposefully towards the kitchen for a fresh caffeine fix. But this time it wasn’t to wake her up – she was fully awake now. No, this time it was to calm her down.
What should she do? She and Matt were neighbours after all – even friends to some degree – should she say something to him?
No, it wasn’t really her place, she didn’t know him that well, and she couldn’t exactly admit that she had been spying on his house, and that she knew all about him and his wife and their son and their so-called perfect life. She couldn’t do it, she wouldn’t do it, and it was absolutely none of her business. She would not be the one to tell Matt anything about his family or his wife that he might not know. She would not be the one responsible for breaking up a family because of her own selfish needs.
Not this time.
25
“Hi there,” A few days later, Olivia smiled as Matt walked across the green towards her house, little Adam by his side.
She was outside, pulling weeds and vainly trying to make the garden look at least half as presentable as the one of the green-fingered couple next door.
“Hello, yourself,” Matt warmly returned her smile, and Olivia’s heart went out to him. Such a lovely guy, happy and carefree and out for a walk with his son, and little did he know that his monstrous wife was cheating on him. Life just wasn’t fair.
“Doing a bit in the garden, I see?”
“Yes, you know yourself,” Olivia replied, removing her gloves and throwing a sideways glance at the garden next door. “Just trying to keep the place up to standard.” She stood up.
“Good for you – I’ve always hated gardening and luckily my place doesn’t need it.” Olivia didn’t have a chance to examine the state of his own garden across the way before he came through the gateway and intro
duced his son. “This is Adam, by the way. Adam, say hello to Olivia.”
The little boy looked up at her with watchful eyes but said nothing.
“Hi, Adam, nice to meet you,” she said, bending down and offering her hand, remembering how Ellie had responded to Matt when he introduced himself properly to her like that. Obviously, little Adam didn’t feel the same way.
“Want Mummy.” Adam squealed, turning away and ignoring Olivia.
Matt looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry about that. He can be a little bit wary of people he doesn’t know.”
“That’s OK – Ellie can be the same,” she said, hoping to make him feel better and trying to ignore the fact that the boy didn’t look remotely like his dad. Matt had dark hair and was lightly tanned, whereas Adam was very fair, a smattering of freckles across his cheeks, and his not-so-friendly manner suggesting to Olivia that his mum’s genes were the dominant ones.
Then horrified, a thought came unbidden into her mind. Maybe Adam wasn’t even Matt’s child. Maybe the wife had been carrying on behind his back for years and poor Matt knew nothing about it. Olivia put her gloves back on and tried to shake the horrible thought from her mind. With that, she got down on her knees and quickly resumed her weeding.
“Er … do you have something against flowers then?” Matt asked, looking curiously at her.
“No, why?” Following his gaze, Olivia looked down and realised she had been taking her frustrations with Matt’s errant wife out on her poor Busy Lizzies, the one flower that returned year after year, despite her failings as a gardener!
“Oh no, I can’t believe I did that!”
“Well, maybe we can still save them,” he said, in the manner of one of those hunky doctors on ER and inwardly, Olivia swooned. “Adam, you stay there, while Daddy helps Olivia, OK?”
With that, Matt got down on his knees alongside her, and began replanting what was left of the unfortunate flowers, the hint of an amused smile crossing his lips.
