Episode 8
Max and Ella’s House
Menu:
Wasabi peas, edamame beans
Tuna, salmon and yellow tail sashimi
Tuna, scallop, salmon, and squid nigiri
Soft shell crab and avocado maki
Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc, NV
‘I can’t help feeling a bit bad about Clementine,’ Lucy whispered to Ella in the kitchen, as Ella poured soy sauce into bowls and dug around in the back of the drawer for chopsticks. ‘I mean all the boys are out and we’re all here, and she’s – well, wherever she is.’
‘I know,’ said Ella, ‘but I couldn’t exactly have her and Laura sitting around the kitchen table together, could I?’
‘I suppose not. Laura’s going to have to get used to it eventually though.’
‘You want to tell her that, do you?’
Lucy winced. ‘
‘Exactly. We’re just going to have to wait it out. She’ll be alright. Here, have a wasabi pea.’
‘No, they make my nose hurt.’
‘They’re meant to. Where’s Katie, anyway? Not like her to be so late.’
‘No. Well, it never used to be.’
Ella raised an eyebrow and munched on a handful of bright green peas. ‘Oho. Come on, what’s the gossip? Laura said Nancy had told her things weren’t great?’
‘Pfft, typical. Nancy never could keep her mouth shut after a couple of drinks.’
‘Anything in it though?’
Lucy bristled a little and tugged her heather coloured Brora cardigan down over the waistband of her jeans.
‘I’m sure everything’s fine. All couples go through their tricky patches, don’t they?’
Ella gazed at her, and nodded slightly. ‘Mm.’
‘Or so I’m told, anyhow!’ Lucy added, the faux jollity of her tone fooling neither of them. Lucy’s eternal singledom had stopped being funny some time ago.
*
Laura opened the door to Katie, who was standing huddled in the porch looking cold.
‘Everything ok?’ she asked as she stepped back to let Katie wipe her boots on the Union Jack doormat.
‘Why does everyone keep asking me that?’ Katie huffed.
‘Erm, you’re almost an hour late. Just wondering if you’d had a drama or something.’
‘Oh. No, no, I just left late.’ Katie’s forehead was set in a slight frown. Laura shrugged; she wasn’t going to push it.
‘Come and have a glass of wine.’ The two women headed into the kitchen where Lucy was sitting at the table flicking through a copy of a glossy interiors magazine. ‘Ella’s just settling Viking back down.’
‘God, when will that child start sleeping through? Hi Lucy…’ Katie leant over and kissed her sister-in-law’s cheek. ‘Honestly if she’d just used my Gi…’
Katie trailed off when she saw Laura’s eyes flick towards the kitchen door, and she turned to see Ella, a sleepy and sulky looking Viking in her arms.
‘Hi, Els.’
‘God, you’re not going to start banging on about that fascist woman who runs your life again, are you?’ Ella’s tone was light but there was a sudden crackle of tension in the air.
‘She does not ‘run my life’. It’s just a common sense approach that helps everything run more smoothly.’ Katie’s voice trembled. Lucy and Laura kept quiet. They had heard this discussion before.
Ella rocked Viking back and forth on her lap. ‘Well, as long as you’re happy,’ she said.
Katie stared at her, and her eyes suddenly filled up with tears.
‘I’m not happy,’ she said. ‘Of course I’m not happy. James hasn’t had a job for almost a year now and he doesn’t seem that bothered about getting one, I’ve got no career and nothing to talk about apart from stupid childcare routines that no one’s interested in and why would they be? I’ve done nothing apart from have children and you’ve all got these amazing jobs and look stunning all the time and I can’t even be happy for you I just criticise and I think James is having an affair. And I don’t even blame him.’
The three women were silent for a moment, and then Ella stood up, hitched Viking onto one hip and pulled Katie in for a hug with her free arm, and holding her while she sobbed snottily on her shoulder.
*
When Katie had stopped crying, and had been settled into the battered leather sofa with a plate of sushi and a big glass of wine, and Viking had been put back to bed, Laura took the bull by the horns.
‘Look, the rest of it we can deal with later – job stuff, you know, it’s not always that great having a high fliying career, especially when you’ve been dumped for some perfect little young thing…’
‘Or when your home life’s total chaos pretty much all of the time…’ added Ella.
‘Or when your love life consists of you and your cat watching endless Friends reruns…’ interjected Lucy.
‘Well, quite,’ Laura said. ‘But Katie, I’ve got to ask – why do you think James is having an affair?’
Katie sighed. ‘Ok. It all started last year…’
