Once they’d eaten the dinner Irena had prepared, they all moved into the living room, where Frank sat on his armchair, while Evan made himself comfortable beside Irena on the sofa. Evan turned the TV on and scrolled through the channels until he found an old comedy film he wanted to watch. Frank had seen it before, and he’d enjoyed it, but he struggled to concentrate this time, because he was distracted by Evan playing up to Irena. He’d had words with him while they were out, telling him to quit leering at Irena and focus on sorting his marriage out. But his words had clearly fallen on deaf ears, because Evan was acting as if they were on a date and no one else was present.

Finally, unable to bear any more of it, Frank slammed his whisky glass down on the table and stood up.

‘I think it’s time for bed.’

‘Night,’ Evan said without looking at him.

‘I meant you, as well,’ said Frank. ‘You need to get up early so you can go home and talk to Marie.’

‘I’m not tired,’ Evan argued. ‘You go up. I’ll turn off down here when we’re finished.’

Frank gritted his teeth. Evan was a grown man, so he couldn’t order him to go to bed. And Irena was still watching the film, so he had no choice but to leave them to it.

12

Evan was up, dressed, and sitting at the kitchen table when Frank went downstairs the next morning. Hoping it was a sign that his son had taken his advice on board and intended to go home early to sort things out with Marie, his heart sank when Evan told him he’d spoken to her earlier and she’d accused him of spending the night with the girl from the pub.

‘What did you expect?’ Frank sighed, taking a seat facing him. ‘She already thought she’d caught you cheating, so she was bound to think that’s where you’d gone when you didn’t go home.’

‘She told me not to,’ Evan reminded him. ‘And you don’t know what she’s like when she gets jealous. She’d probably have tried to stab me if I’d gone back, or set the stupid dog on me.’

Sure that he was exaggerating, because, while his daughter-in-law was undoubtedly moody, he’d never witnessed her being violent in any way, Frank said, ‘So what are you going to do? Avoid going back and let her think she’s right?’

‘I don’t know.’ Evan slumped back in his seat and laced his fingers together behind his head.

‘Do you want me to talk to her?’ Frank offered. ‘She might calm down if she realizes you were here.’

‘There’s no point. She’ll only think I’ve asked you to cover for me.’