‘Bloody hell!’ Vita has somehow managed to twist and push her way across the hall and is now standing next to Abi, waiting in line to shuffle out of the room. ‘Since you came to town things have got a lot more interesting!’
Abi’s stomach squirms like a bucket of eels. ‘Oh. Ha!’
Vita doesn’t smile, just looks confused. ‘Did you miss all that?’ she asks, waving towards the stage. ‘This is the most exciting thing to happen in Waverly since, well, since the Battle of Waverly in sixteen something or other …’
‘Listen, Vita, nice to see you but I’m actually going to be late for work …’
‘Your boss won’t mind if you’re late, not today.’ Vita nods towards Lotte, who is standing in a circle of parents; she’s shaking her head, appalled, at something a man is saying, the picture of wide-eyed virtue.
‘What’s your theory?’
‘Theory?’
‘About what he did.’
‘Oh, I … I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it, and I agree that it’s actually no one’s business what he does privately.’
Vita, ignoring what she just said, stares at Abi carefully like she doesn’t believe a word of it. ‘It’s obvious,’ Vita adds, ‘that it was some kind of affair, don’t you think? Otherwise, why is Rosie not here? A group of Year Ten parents reckon he’s into, like, really hardcore gay BDSM stuff, but I also heard that Mrs Croughton – the head of English – is saying he had an affair with someone he met online, a girl way too young for him – borderline legal was the implication – and it’s her parents who have exposed him, apparently …’
Vita looks to Abi, expecting her to react. Abi stares at the bald patch of the man in front, willing him to move faster, and keeps her face impassive as Vita says, ‘Well! Whatever it is, you can bet Anna won’t be able to keep it to herself for long, especially now. You coming to the cafe?’ she asks with a patronizing smile that makes Abi’s spine feel like it could crumble and collapse on itself.
‘Cafe?’
‘A group of us, including your boss, are going to have a coffee and discuss all this stuff. Anna’s coming straight from the train station and hopefully she’ll at last give in and set us all straight about what really happened!’
Abi surges forward towards the door and shakes her head. Vita’s smile widens. ‘Pity,’ she says. ‘Listen, we should sort out a play date soon, shouldn’t we? Luca would love to have Margot …’
They’re finally through the door and, without another word to Vita, Abi starts walking quicker, past the reception, dodging people. She has to get away from here, from Vita, from all of them.
Chapter 16
Eddy doesn’t want to go to the cafe. What he really wants is to go home, get into bed and hide until this whole shitty episode is over. But Anna is, as his phone keeps telling him, heading straight to The Pot, a busy cafe in the middle of town, and she needs him to come. There’s a group of them walking there now and Eddy is being bundled along like some reluctant celebrity spouse. He tried to squirm away, decided perhaps he could leave Anna untethered, let her figure out what to do with the mess she’s engineered. He’d muttered something at the end of the assembly to Vita about having to get home for a work call, when he saw something that made his heart stop. Blake was stroking the hair behind Lily’s ear, and Eddy could almost feel the electric pulse between the two of them, remembered the charge himself, the almost unbearably exciting moment as skin touches skin for the first time.
This was a complication they didn’t need. He’d been hoping that Blake would change his mind about Lily, move on to another girl, like Eddy did weekly at fifteen. But judging by their shining eyes and the private, blissful smiles, they are both very much still stuck on each other. Anna doesn’t know, of course; Blake hasn’t told her. Eddy knows this because had she known, Anna no doubt would have told everyone about Abi in a bid to keep Blake as far away as possible from both Abi and Lily.
As they walk to the cafe, Eddy pretends to listen to Lotte and Martin talking some bullshit about all of them advancing on Seb’s office together, an insurrection to demand the truth, and tries to think through how best he can protect his son – and, by extension, Lily – in all of this. If everyone knew that his new girlfriend’s mum was a sex worker who had had sex with their head teacher, Blake would at best become a laughing stock and at worst might have to change schools, which would be a disaster.
By the time he’s arrived at the cafe, Eddy knows he must protect Abi’s identity, that his son’s happiness, his fragile teenage confidence – once shattered, so hard to rebuild – depends on it.
When they arrive at The Pot, Anna is already there in her neat work suit, standing when she sees them all, her eyes sparkling, opening her arms to their little group, a strange corporate Jesus welcoming her disciples. ‘Honestly, guys, the audacity of the man! He’s got to go.’
Eddy knows they’re in for a fight.
‘It’s the arrogance that blows my mind,’ Anna says, settling down behind her large cappuccino. The group lean in closer towards her, hanging on her every word, desperate not to miss any clue she could let slip about what it is Seb’s done.
‘He’s the one who’s done this terrible thing and now he gets to come out of it like some knight in shining armour. It happens again and again. Just like Trump. It makes me so bloody mad.’
She blows the frothy top of her drink.
‘The thing is, I’m not sure it’s even ethical to let us go on speculating like this, Anna,’ Lotte says, sipping her flat white but keeping her eyes fixed on Anna. ‘I mean, it could be harmful, couldn’t it – might start to impact the kids? That’s what I’m worried about …’
‘Me too.’
‘And me.’
Others chirp because, of course, they’re all saints here.
Anna nods like she understands but Eddy recognizes the wildness in her eyes; she’s losing her grip on her plan, can feel the solidity of it slipping away. ‘You guys have to understand that the reason I’m not revealing the truth is out of respect for Rosie. You know we’re good friends. Trust me, I’m not protecting him, I’m protecting her. And their children, of course.’
Her hands shake, her coffee spills as she takes a sip; she’s full of adrenaline but she’s getting a little desperate, too, worried that the smiles surrounding her could quickly sour and curdle.
Eddy knocks the small coffee table with his knee as he stands. ‘Anna.’ She glances at him. ‘Can we go and have a quick chat outside?’
She nods, shrugging her shoulders at the others, before following Eddy out of the door.
It’s started to rain, so they’re huddled in the cafe doorway.
They turn towards each other and just as Eddy’s about to open his mouth she gets there first. ‘I know what you’re going to say, Ed, but I’m going to have to tell them what he did.’
‘Anna, you promised …’
‘No, I said if he did the right thing and resigned then I wouldn’t say anything. I never promised anything if he didn’t resign.’ She opens her hands innocently. ‘Lotte told me that a couple of people are saying that maybe I’ve made it all up, or have made it into something much bigger because I have some personal vendetta against Seb …’
‘Well, that’s ridiculous.’
‘Of course it is,’ Anna snaps, ‘but it’s also totally unfair. I’m not going to allow my integrity, our reputation, to be called into doubt because of his mess.’
Eddy feels like pointing out that they’re a family not a business, that these kinds of phrases shouldn’t apply to them, but Anna’s already turning towards the door, ready to go back inside. But Eddy hasn’t got what he needs yet – safety for Blake – so he takes her arm, turns her back to face him as he says, ‘Promise me, Anna, promise me you won’t mention Abi’s name.’