Everything that could have gone wrong so far this morning, had done. There was no milk left for their cereal, the iron wouldn’t heat up so she’d had to dig out her least creased blouse to wear to work – and her wheelie bin hadn’t been emptied.
‘Bugger,’ she muttered, as she slammed the lid back down. She knew the binmen had been, because she’d heard the lorry grinding and whining its way slowly past the house at the crack of dawn. One of the guys was a whistler: every Thursday he treated local residents to his rendition of eighties hits. This morning he had been murdering Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) as he came through Eve’s gate. She had shoved her head under the pillow, prepared to put up with the whistling since he was doing her a favour and removing her rubbish. Although apparently now, he hadn’t even done that.
The neighbour over the road waved as she came down the path to collect her bin.
‘I wouldn’t bother,’ called Eve. ‘They haven’t emptied them!’
The woman lifted up the lid and peered inside her bin. ‘They’ve done mine!’ she said, as she turned and began to pull it back towards the house. ‘Have a nice day.’
Eve’s mouth dropped open and she glared at her own bin.
She was shattered this morning. She hadn’t been sleeping well recently, and last night had been worse than usual. She’d woken several times and, on each occasion, found her mind alert and racing through different scenarios involving Ben. Maybe he wouldn’t get the Glasgow promotion – or the whole office relocation wouldn’t come off. Or maybe Lou would decide she was happily settled in Bristol and didn’t want to uproot Keira and start all over again in a strange city? None of those things were likely; Eve knew she was clutching at straws.
She hadn’t spoken to Ben about the move since their initial conversation, mostly because it was easier to stick her head in the sand and pretend it wasn’t happening. But that didn’t stop her overactive imagination conjuring up a future for them all in which her son was living hundreds of miles away, and she was rattling around on her own in this empty house, missing major milestones and gradually becoming a minor part of his life.
She hadn’t spoken to Daniel about what might happen either, although Ben and Lou may have talked about it when he was with them. But she couldn’t bear the possibility that, if she asked him about the move, he’d tell her he wanted to go and live with Daddy.
Ben was right, Daniel adored Keira and always came back buzzing with excitement at the things they’d done together. Being at Ben’s was fun: there was a PlayStation 5 console and a huge telly with a Netflix account. Ben took him to football matches and in the summer they’d gone kayaking. Even if they just went out for a pizza or to spend time at the park, there were four of them: a proper family.
Here, it was just her and Daniel. However hard she tried, she couldn’t make her little boy’s life as exciting or as busy as when he was with his father.
She kicked the wheelie bin. ‘Bloody thing.’
‘Talking to yourself again?’ Jake was lifting his bike out through the front door. He was wearing a lime-green cycling helmet with red go-faster stripes, and tufts of his hair were sticking through the holes in the sides. She couldn’t remember seeing him wear this helmet before; it must be new. He looked a bit ridiculous. Why would anyone in their right mind buy such a weird thing?
‘The dustmen haven’t emptied my bin,’ she said.
‘What did you put in it?’
‘Rubbish. What do you usually put in a bin?’
‘Of course, but have you contaminated it?’
Eve wasn’t in the mood for this. ‘What does that mean? I’ve just put my rubbish in black bin liners, put the bin liners inside my wheelie bin and left the sodding thing out on the pavement to be emptied. Which hasn’t happened. I’ll have to ring the council and complain.’
Jake balanced his bike against the fence and walked over to her. He lifted up the lid of her bin, looked inside and nodded sagely. ‘That’s what I thought. Contaminated. You’ve put some biodegradable material in here.’
He was pointing at the handful of weeds which Eve had thrown into the top of the bin last night. She’d been dragging it down to the kerb and had pulled the weeds out of the path on her way past, opening the lid of the bin and putting them in as she went, pleased with herself for doing two jobs at once.
‘But that’s rubbish too?’ she said.
‘Nope.’ Jake shook his head. ‘It’s classed as biodegradable, so it shouldn’t go to landfill, which means the binmen are within their rights to refuse to empty this.’
On any other morning, when she’d had a good night’s sleep, enough milk to put on her cereal and was wearing a properly ironed blouse, Eve would have seen the funny side. But today her sense of humour had been lost in action.
‘Well, that’s just stupid. What is the point in us paying for services when they don’t provide them? Contaminated waste! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. Now I’m going to have to find the time to load all this into the car and take it to the tip. Otherwise, if I leave it, the bin will get full of maggots. That’s just brilliant.’
Jake grinned. ‘You won’t get maggots at this time of year, it’s too cold.’
‘Oh, fantastic!’ she said sarcastically. ‘Thank you so much for that one piece of good news.’
She was so angry, everything inside her head felt taut, like a stretched rubber band. This was all so unfair; she had a busy day ahead and didn’t need to add anything else onto the long overdue to-do list which was sitting on the kitchen worktop. She wanted to lash out at someone, anyone. Jake happened to be closest.
‘Where did you get that awful helmet?’ she asked, watching as he fiddled with the strap, twisting it under his chin. ‘I’ve never seen anything so naff. Even a child wouldn’t wear something like that!’
‘Is it that bad?’ He looked surprised. ‘It was on offer down at Halfords. I needed a new one and I thought it would make me stand out in the traffic.’
‘That’s true, no one could miss you in that,’ said Eve. She bit her lip. Oh God, why was she being so cruel? It was none of her business what sort of helmet Jake wore. ‘Well, as long as it does the job and keeps you safe,’ she added, trying to make her voice brighter.
‘It does that all right!’ He grinned. Either he had a very thick skin or he was deliberately ignoring her rudeness. She felt so mean.
‘Right, I must get to work. Have a nice day,’ she said, grabbing the wheelie bin and turning it round.
‘You too,’ he said. ‘Got anything planned for tonight?’
‘Oh, just the usual,’ said Eve. ‘A bowl of pasta pesto, half an hour’s vacuuming, online bill payments. I might cheer myself up later by turning on the News at Ten and finding out that the world is going to hell in a handcart.’
‘The thing is,’ he continued, ‘I’ve got a couple of tickets to see the show tonight at The Comedy Box, you know that place on North Street? I’ve been before and it’s always a good evening.’
Eve stared at him.
‘So, I just wondered if you fancied coming with me? It starts about 7pm I think, and I’m sure I could get Katie to come over and look after Daniel. It might cheer you up to get out and do something a bit different?’
Her mouth dropped open as her brain scrabbled to keep up. Shit, he was asking her out. Or was he? Maybe someone else had blown him out and he had a spare ticket. She might be getting the wrong idea – but what if he really was asking her out! Why hadn’t she realised this was what he was saying when he asked what she was doing tonight?
She frantically tried to think of an excuse, a reason she couldn’t make it. How stupid to make that remark about staying in with a bowl of pasta – that made it obvious she didn’t have any other plans. She saw something flicker across his face, and realised she was taking too long to answer, aware her own face wasn’t showing the right kind of expression.
‘Look, don’t worry about it,’ he said. ‘It was just a thought. I’ll find someone at work who wants to come.’ He turned away and walked back towards his bike, still fiddling with the strap of his garish helmet.
‘Jake!’ At last, she found her voice. ‘I’m sorry, that would have been lovely.’ She realised she still hadn’t come up with a reason why she was turning him down. Could she think of something else she had planned – which needed to be fitted around the pasta, vacuuming and television watching? Whatever she said now, it would sound as if she was lying. ‘Maybe another time? It’s very kind of you to think of me.’
He didn’t turn around, just waved as he wheeled his bike down to the road and launched himself onto it, picking up speed as he headed away between the rows of parked cars.
Eve stared after the lime-green-and-red helmet for a few seconds, then put her head in her hands. How awful: she must have seemed so rude. She hadn’t meant to knock him back; she’d just been taken by surprise. He’d looked really hurt when she didn’t say anything, as if she’d smacked him in the face. She’d clearly got it wrong – poor, kind Jake had just been offering her a night out, knowing she was unhappy and trying to cheer her up. Now she’d offended him and put them both in an awkward position.
‘Oh, Eve,’ she muttered to herself. ‘You grumpy bitch.’