‘Hello. Can I help you?’ A lady’s voice, confident with the slightest hint of an accent, cut through the line. I didn’t speak. My stomach knotted, and for a second or two I thought I might throw up. The kettle whistled in the kitchen. It was last year’s present to ourselves on a Christmas Eve shopping expedition when there was still the expectation that we might one day cohabit.

‘Who is it?’ I could hear Mitch’s voice in the background.

‘I’m not sure, there’s no one on the other end.’

Perhaps it was Trisha, popping by to pick up her chain, but I didn’t recognise the voice. The line crackled but she did sometimes pop in at weekends for a coffee.

I hung up and rang straight back. I couldn’t help myself. This time there was no answer. It was only 11am.

9

Arthur

It wasn’t really Ted’s fault but I couldn’t help the resentment I felt towards him.

Firstly, if he hadn’t started dating my mum, I wouldn’t have met Amber and the illusion of happy families might never have arisen. I do admit, however, that as a ‘sales pitch’ it did have appeal; Ted and my mum, me and Amber. I got a new father and Amber got a new mother. On this point though, I suspect that my gain of Ted as a new family addition might well have outweighed Amber’s gain.

Although my mother thrust me towards Amber as someone she thought would be controllable and immensely suitable, Amber was quick to pick up on the problems. She said my mother was overpowering and Amber soon got fed up with the interfering.

Ted, on the other hand, never seemed overly enthusiastic in support of our relationship and I soon wondered if his fatherly concern might have overshadowed Amber’s genuine affection for me and perhaps gone some way in encouraging her to rethink.

I was low in spirits as I set off for Ted’s house. It was three days after the fateful evening with Amber. I was going on my own, now we were no longer an item. No one knew I was living directly opposite Amber’s new pied-à-terre, bought and paid for by her father. I had to learn the bus routes from the pharmacy where I worked in Golders Green as my car was theoretically off the road.

I couldn’t risk parking it near the flat as Amber might put two and two together and get an even number. I certainly didn’t want her knowing I’d moved in across the road from her. I found a cheap lock-up garage behind the pharmacy where I decided to leave it until time had passed and Amber and I were rightly back together.