Maddy awoke to the shrill buzzing of her alarm at 7.00 the next morning. She prised herself away from Aaron and reached over to switch it off. As she lay back again, she felt the weight of Aaron’s arm land on top of her and for a moment she was tempted to stay in bed with him. She was so tired! But then she thought about the amount of work she had to get through and that was enough to get her out of bed.
She flung on her dressing gown and tiptoed out of the room. Then she woke Rebecca up and got her ready for school, leaving Aaron sleeping. She knew Rebecca would want to chat to him and risk being late for school if she found out he was in the house so she decided not to tell her.
Once she had returned from the school run she switched on her PC, grabbing the chance to start some work while Aaron was still in bed. It was 10.20 a.m. before she heard him stir and within minutes he was standing alongside her, peeping over her shoulder at the article she was writing.
‘Morning, gorgeous,’ he said.
‘Hello, sleepy head,’ said Maddy, looking up at him while she continued to type. He looked irresistible; his hair all tousled and his lovely blue eyes heavy with sleep. ‘Let me just finish typing this sentence, then I’ll go and make you a cuppa,’ she said.
He kissed the top of her head. ‘OK, thanks.’
Maddy was torn. She was in the middle of an article and would have loved to continue it while the ideas were fresh in her mind. But she also wanted to be with Aaron, who was now sitting on her sofa waiting for his cup of coffee. She quickly jotted down a few notes so that she wouldn’t lose track of where she was up to when she returned to her PC. Then she dashed through to the kitchen and made them each a drink.
When Maddy returned to the living room Aaron was tucking into a banana that he had helped himself to, while flicking through her CD collection. She put his drink down on the coffee table, near to where he had been sitting on the sofa. Then she sat on the armchair, not wanting to get too near to him and risk being further distracted from her work.
He turned round and flashed a beaming smile at her. Then he sat down and finished eating. Leaving the banana skin on the coffee table, he patted the seat next to him. ‘Come and sit here,’ he said. Then he picked up his cup of coffee and took a gulp.
‘No, it’s OK,’ said Maddy, smiling back at him. ‘I need to get back to work in a minute.’
‘Aah, right. Do you want me to go, then? I can take a hint.’
Maddy felt awful for neglecting him but she knew she had to be disciplined with herself if she was to have any chance of catching up with her work.
‘Sorry. I’d love you to stay a bit longer, but you know how it is.’
‘OK. OK. I understand.’ Then he laughed. ‘Your work is far more important than entertaining the demands of your randy young boyfriend.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t have put it quite like that,’ she said, sharing the joke.
‘It’s OK,’ he said, putting his cup back on the coffee table although it was still almost full. Then he stood up. ‘I’ll go and leave you to your work.’
Maddy resisted the temptation to tell him to stay until he had finished his drink. Instead she got up and walked out of the room with him. Inside the hallway he turned to embrace her before he opened the door to leave. She looked up at him and their lips met. As she returned his passionate kiss she could feel his hands roaming up and down her body. She quickly pulled away before she became lost to his charms once more.
A wide beaming smile lit up his handsome features. ‘You sure I can’t persuade you back to bed?’ he asked, his hand still resting on her buttocks while his finger drew tiny, tantalising circles that sent shivers right through her.
She smiled back. ‘No, cheeky! I’ve told you—’
‘I know, you’ve got work to do,’ he said, his voice imitating hers.
‘Yes, and so have you, don’t forget,’ said Maddy, smiling at him. She reached over and unlocked the catch on the door while continuing to smile. Then she said, in mock irritation, ‘Come on, pest, out.’
He held up his hands as if in surrender, ‘OK, OK. Mustn’t get on the wrong side of the hotshot journalist.’
Then he was gone and she went back to her PC, taking a moment to reflect before returning to her work. She had been right the previous night when she had called him incorrigible. But he was also irresistible! It wasn’t only his looks; it was the way he was with her, most of the time anyway. He made her feel so special, showering her with affection, bringing her little gifts, paying her compliments. And as for the sex. Wow! He was such an unselfish lover, who took the time and care to focus on her needs.
But before she could become too carried away with thoughts of Aaron, she switched her focus back to the article she had been working on. She quickly read through the notes she had written so that her mind could switch back into writing mode, then she started tapping away at the keyboard.
*
Maddy worked flat out till mid-afternoon. It was only when she had finished another article and stopped to look at the clock that she realised it was three o’clock and she still hadn’t eaten. No wonder her stomach was rumbling. She hadn’t even had a coffee break since her mid-morning one with Aaron. Thank God Andy had agreed to collect Rebecca from school and keep her till seven o’clock so that she could work later and get more done. She had felt guilty asking him at first, in view of what he was going through, but when she’d spoken to him he’d told her that his mother was over the worst and already starting to recover well.
She broke off for half an hour and grabbed herself something quick to eat. She was exhausted; it must have been around two o’clock in the morning before she’d got to sleep and then she was up at seven after already having had a heavy weekend. She grabbed herself another coffee, hoping it would keep her alert for a few more hours as she still had a lot of work to get through.
As soon as she broke off from work her mind drifted back to Aaron, who was never far from her thoughts. But this time she wasn’t thinking about how wonderful he was; she was thinking of how he’d snapped at her the previous night.
It had shocked her, especially when he had used bad language. She’d never seen him like that before, and she hoped it was a one-off. Still, at least she had let him know she wouldn’t stand for it so perhaps he wouldn’t try it on again.
For Maddy it was as if somebody had taken an artistic masterpiece and scrawled a red jagged line across one corner of it. Up until yesterday their relationship had been flawless but now it was marred. Why did he have to act like that and spoil things? Perhaps, like her, he had just been tired and overstressed. After all, he still had a lot of things to sort out.
But then, if he was so busy, why wasn’t he in a rush to leave this morning? Surely there were things he should be getting on with? Perhaps he wasn’t as self-disciplined as her when it came to work. She knew a few people like that; they took everything in their stride and then had a last-minute panic when things weren’t done. Maybe he was one of those types.
Thinking about it, she didn’t really know him that well yet.
Her eyes zoomed in on the lovely flowers he’d bought for her. Then there were the chocolates as well as all the other little gifts he’d brought, and the considerate way he’d made Rebecca feel all grown up by bringing her flowers too. Quickly dismissing the few negative thoughts, she instead thought again of everything that was good about Aaron.
Once she had taken her break, Maddy returned to work, thankful that the coffee had woken her up a bit. For a few more hours she continued to work on her PC till the insistent ringing of the phone grabbed her attention. Curious as to who it could be, she instinctively looked at the clock. She realised what time it was just as she answered the call.
*
‘I’ve brought my princesses DVD to watch, Daddy,’ said Rebecca, pulling the DVD out of her rucksack. ‘Will you watch it with me later?’
Andy wasn’t exactly thrilled at the thought of watching a princesses DVD. Maddy would usually watch that sort of thing with Rebecca. But he liked to make the most of his time with his daughter so instead of a flat-out refusal he thought he’d talk her into watching another DVD instead.
‘Didn’t you watch that one on Sunday with your mum?’ he asked, recalling the way Rebecca often chatted about how much she enjoyed watching DVDs with her mum and how the princesses one was her favourite.
‘Not all of it. Mum was busy and then she was on the phone with Clare,’ she said.
‘Really?’ he asked, knowing it wasn’t like Maddy not to spare time for her daughter. ‘What was she busy doing?’
‘Working, on her computer.’
‘Oh. On a Sunday?’
‘Yes. Mummy’s always busy working or being with Aaron.’
Andy felt a little perturbed on hearing this. He couldn’t understand why Maddy would be working on a Sunday, especially after Rebecca had already been with him most of the weekend. Then she’d also asked him to pick up Rebecca tonight so she could catch up with some work. Why was she so behind? Unless, of course, she was spending all her time with this new man.
Rebecca must have picked up on his disquiet as she said, ‘I like Aaron though. He makes Mummy laugh except when she’s working. Then she sometimes shouts at me. Aaron doesn’t shout at me. He brought me some flowers.’
‘I see,’ said Andy. ‘Well, he sounds very nice.’
His words disguised his true feelings. He was perturbed at the fact that Mandy had been shouting at Rebecca. He was also never happy when Maddy was seeing someone, but there was no way he was going to let his eight-year-old daughter know any of that. He couldn’t hide those feelings from himself though. Apart from being a little jealous at the thought of his ex-wife with someone else, he always worried about Maddy introducing new men into Rebecca’s life.
He knew he had no right to deny Maddy a chance at happiness. It was his fault the marriage had failed when all was said and done, and he would always feel guilty about the hurt he had caused Maddy. A part of him still cared about her, and he just hoped she wasn’t making a big mistake.
He looked at the clock. ‘I don’t think we’ll have much time to watch DVDs anyway, Becky. Mummy will be here any minute.’
He noted that Maddy was in fact forty minutes late, which wasn’t like her at all. Once again a feeling of disquiet niggled away at him. Sensing that something wasn’t quite right, he picked up the house phone and dialled Maddy’s number. It took a while for her to answer the phone but when she did she sounded disconnected, as though she had other things on her mind.
‘Hi, Maddy. It’s Andy. I was just wondering if you are coming to pick Becky up soon.’
‘What? Oh, bloody hell! Is that the time?’
‘Yes. It was seven we agreed, wasn’t it?’ asked Andy, even though he was pretty sure it was.
‘Yes. Yes, of course. I’m so sorry. I got so carried away with the article I was writing that I lost all track of time. I’ll be round as soon as I can.’
‘OK, see you soon,’ said Andy.
He put the phone down and tried to put all thoughts of Maddy out of his mind so he could focus on Rebecca while she was still with him. Maybe he was overreacting where Maddy was concerned. After all, her parenting skills had never given him cause for concern in the past. Perhaps she just had a lot of work on and was feeling overstressed.
He decided not to voice his concerns to Maddy when she came to collect Rebecca, knowing she would see it as a criticism. It was important to stay amicable for Rebecca’s sake, but a niggling doubt had taken root in the back of his mind and it refused to go away.