The Birds and the Bees(31)

‘Don't remind me.' The prospect of that part of Adam MacLean's so-called  ‘plan' was starting to make her feel ill. For a start, they would look  the world's most ridiculous couple, and what would they talk about? His  experiences in Barlinnie? The best way to garrotte someone? She despised  people like him – pathetic bullies who used their size and looks to  intimidate. The fact that she could join forces with someone who  actually deserved to be deserted by his partner spoke volumes of her  desperation to get Matthew back, and as soon as she had, she hoped Jo  and Adam MacLean would disappear back to hell.

The two women filled their mouths with the spaghetti and the waiter  picked that moment to pop back to make sure everything was all right, to  which they both nodded vigorously and made primeval noises.

‘They teach them that at waiter school,' said Stevie after she had  swallowed. ‘To wait until everyone has their mouths stocked before  asking it. They love it. It's a perk of the job.'

Catherine laughed. It was good to hear Stevie make a joke.

‘It's actually perfect, you moving across the road,' Catherine said.  ‘Old Thunder Thighs is right, you know. It will confuse them both.  They'll be on constant red alert waiting for something to happen. He's  quite a clued-up bloke, isn't he?'                       
       
           



       

‘Yes, well, we'll see,' said Stevie, who had yet to be totally  convinced. She was sure she would be in for just as many nasty surprises  from MacLean.

‘So when's the next attack?'

‘I don't know,' said Stevie. ‘I think the idea was to wait and see what  the fall-out from stage one was. Sort of a softly, softly approach.'

‘It's like Mission Impossible,' said Catherine.

Stevie nodded, knowing what Catherine meant, but her words did sound a  depressing, prophetic note. She really was starting to wonder if  fighting back was just going to make everything so much worse.



Matthew went into the house, forgot the box was there and tripped right  over it, which only added to his mood of annoyance. Not that opening the  box did anything to take those feelings away.

‘What are those?' said Jo, looking over his shoulder as he unpeeled  layers of tissue around some very pretty, be-ribboned stationery. It was  funny to see his name there still together with Stevie's. It felt like  years ago since they had been together choosing the paper and the  lettering and the picture on the covers, when, in real time, it had been  less than three months.

‘Order of services and an invoice for … HOW MUCH?'

Jo eased it out of his hand.

‘You aren't going to like this but hear me out,' she said calmly. ‘This  bill is in Stevie's name. You need to take it across the road now and  let her deal with it.'

‘I'd feel a bit rotten doing that,' said Matthew with a stab of guilt,  not saying that it had been he who picked such an ornate and expensive  design.

‘As I say, hear me out,' admonished Jo softly. ‘The reason you need to  do what I say is that if you are nice and offer to pay for these, Stevie  will misread your actions and see hope where there is none. You have to  be cruel to be kind here, Matt. You need to be hard with her. Go across  the road and insist she pays for these. Don't play her game, for all  our sakes – especially Stevie's, darling. Just give her the box and come  straight back. Don't let her use it as an excuse to engage you. You  won't be doing her any favours in the long run. Trust me. We don't want  her to be hurt any more than she is already, do we?'

‘Yes okay,' said Matthew, before any of his more honourable thoughts  questioned Jo's logic. He hoisted the box up, marched across to the  cottage, and rapped loudly on the door.

When Stevie saw Matthew approach, she put two and two together to make a  very accurate four. She straightened her back and opened the door,  half-closing it behind her so Danny wouldn't see or hear. The  straight-backed, unthreatening sight of her stole a hundred knots of  wind from his sails. She looked so together, and her stiff body language  was not saying to him, ‘How nice to see you, I'm so glad you called.'

‘These arrived for you,' he said, thrusting them forwards.

‘The order of services, I presume. Yes, the printer said they were on  their way,' she replied, without making any attempt to take them from  him.

‘Well, here you are.' He rattled the box at her, but her hands stayed by her sides.

‘You could have saved yourself a trip and just put them in the bin,' she  said flatly. ‘I have as much use for them as you do, Matthew.'

‘There's … er … an invoice.'

Despite her attempt at indifference, Stevie found herself unable to  disguise the flare of contempt in her eyes, which hit him at point-blank  range and stirred up something within him that didn't make him feel  very good about himself. He deflected it back, attack being the best  form of defence, etc, and surprisingly found he didn't need to fake his  annoyance.

‘Why are you here, Stevie?'

She could have been glib and explained that the birds and the bees  visited her mother and father one day, but decided to play it straight.

‘You wanted me out, quickly, and this house was available.'

‘But why here? Why this street?'

‘Matthew,' she began calmly, without surface emotion, even though she  was bubbling inside with a cocktail of anger and frustration with base  flavours of hurt and despair, ‘this was the only house I could get that  was near to Danny's school. You didn't exactly give me the luxury of  time to shop around, did you? Besides, you have made it perfectly clear  that you have another life now, and so have I – one that you're not part  of any more. I am a free agent too now, remember, and can live where I  like.'

She whipped the invoice from the top of the box.

‘My wheelie bin's full so I'll deal with this and you deal with those.  Please let's keep this civilized, Matthew. Thank you for bringing the  bill.'                       
       
           



       

And with that, Stevie slowly but firmly shut the door in his face.



Matthew hadn't been expecting that. He felt as if he had been slapped,  even though she hadn't been aggressive or shouted or tried to use the  parcel as a way to keep him there, as he had been led to believe by Jo  that she would. There was no pleading, no trying to win him back. It has  to be a double bluff, he thought. Then again, she was acting  ‘indifference' awfully well . Too well, actually. If he didn't know  Stevie so intimately, he would have thought she really meant what she  had just said. She couldn't have forgotten him that quickly really,  could she?

He was well aware that Jo was staring at his progress through the window  opposite as he walked back over with the box, so he was jolly glad  Stevie had taken the invoice. He was, after all, thinking of her  emotional welfare in the long run. So why then did he feel like an  absolute shit?



Stevie patted her heart and wondered how she could have spoken so coolly  with the acrobatics it had been doing simultaneously in her chest. She  had not a clue how she had held it together, but she had and she was  proud of herself. Any weakness, any show of hurt, would have proved all  his suspicions right but she had given him none. Her little victory did  not stop her feeling inordinately sad, though. How could she and Matthew  be such strangers to each other, when less than three weeks ago they  had made love in the bed he now shared with another woman? She started  to think about the details of that last time, how he had been mentally  in another place whilst his body had been beside her, although he had  put it down to being tired and she'd had no reason to disbelieve him.  She had even given him a long massage to ease him to sleep. With the  clear eye of hindsight, she realized that it wasn't an act of love after  all but a red herring shag to put her off the scent that he was about  to go on holiday with another woman. The thought opened the catch to a  big box of hurt that sprang its lid and filled up her heart to  bursting-point. He had cared for her once – very much, she knew – so where  had those feelings gone? Why hadn't she felt him slipping away?

She supposed she had better let Adam MacLean know; they had agreed to  keep each other up to speed, after all. She checked on Danny and then  dialled his number.

‘Hlloooadmcln,' he said.

‘Hello, it's Stevie Honeywell,' she said.

‘How can I help you?' he said brusquely.

‘Just an update. Matthew came over with a parcel for me and asked what I was doing in the cottage.'