Page 59 of Loving Netta Wilde

Doogie kissed his teeth. ‘Well then get out here, wanker.’

‘I can’t. Will might come out.’

‘He’s gone to his girlfriend’s.’

Colin came outside. ‘And if you don’t mind, I’d rather you didn’t call me a wanker.’

‘Accountant wanker then.’

‘How about cutting out the wanker bit altogether? And for your information, I stopped being an accountant years ago.’

Doogie pushed a chair towards Colin with his foot. ‘Yeah, I know.’

Colin pulled the chair a bit further away and sat down, not looking entirely comfortable. All the same, he couldn’t seem to resist the sarcasm: ‘Oh I see. It was just a little joke, was it?’

Doogie turned his head towards him. Frank couldn’t see his expression but, judging by the way Colin shrank back, it was probably sinister. ‘When are you going back to your own house?’

‘Surely you’re not bored of me already?’ Colin was clearly trying to brazen it out. In Frank’s opinion, that was a mistake.

‘Mate, I’ve been bored of you since the first time I laid eyes on you.’ Ouch. Frank almost felt for Colin.

Colin flinched then tried to hide it with a sneery little laugh. ‘Kick a man when he’s down, why don’t you?’

Doogie sucked the air through his teeth again. ‘The problem with wankers like you is you see being down as an opportunity. You’ll do anything to milk every last drop of sympathy out of Netta and bleed her dry.’

‘I won’t. You’ve got me all wrong. It’s not like that.’

‘It had better not be. Because if you try to fuck her up again, I’m coming after you.’

So that was what Doogie was doing here. Word must have got to him, and he was here to protect Netta. He was doing the job Frank should have been doing, if only Frank hadn’t been behaving like a nob of the highest order. He gave Colin his hardest stare which arguably was probably nowhere near as hard as Doogie’s, but he was new to this intimidating looks business. ‘And I’ll be right beside him.’

Colin stood up and stuck his fist in the air. ‘Go, Team Netta.’ Then he hotfooted it inside, presumably in case Team Netta battered the living daylights out of him.

A few minutes later, they heard the front door slam. ‘He’ll be back. He’s got nowhere else to go,’ said Frank.

‘We need to get him back into his own place.’

‘You’re right, but I don’t know how. He seems to be happy with the current arrangement.’

‘He’s not the only one. Everybody’s getting a bit too used to the current arrangement. It’s like they’ve accepted him being here. You know what I mean?’

‘I do.’ Frank hadn’t seen it before, but now that he’d had it pointed out to him, it was obvious. Everyone was just getting on with things as if it was the most natural thing in the world to have Colin here. Including Netta and including him. And thething was, the more they got used to it, the easier it was for Colin to get inside their heads and spoil everything. And one thing was plain to see, he’d already got into Netta’s head. ‘If we’re going to change things, we need to get Netta back onside.’

‘Yeah. So I guess that means you’re going to have to apologise to her then.’

Ah. Frank hadn’t thought of that.

34

THERE WERE ALWAYS TWO SIDES TO A STORY

Shits, the pair of them. Thick as bloody thieves. Foolishly, Colin had thought he and Frank were getting along just fine. Saturday night, when they’d got drunk together, had felt like a turning point. Not that he could remember everything that was said, owing to the huge amount of alcohol he’d drunk, but he was fairly sure they’d reached an understanding. And while living with your ex-wife’s new partner, being banned from seeing your oldest child, and having to put up with snide remarks from your ex-parents-in-law wasn’t ideal, Colin was actually beginning to enjoy the camaraderie of sharing with another guy. It was almost like being back at uni. Although the guys he shared with then weren’t really the kind of people he’d wanted to spend time with. Needless to say, he’d dropped them as soon as he left Manchester. But Frank was different. He actually liked Frank. Frank would have been the kind of housemate Colin would have given good money to share with at uni. Trust Chambers to take it all away from him. Again.

He was heading for the allotments. He should be shopping to replace all the things he’d used up really but fuck that. Frankcould do his own shopping. He could take his new best mate with him. Bastards.

A retired couple who had an allotment near Ursula’s let him in. He couldn’t for the life of him remember their names, but they knew his. He wondered what else they knew about him. Had Arthur and Clyde spread the word that he was a nasty piece of work? Hah! If they wanted to see a nasty piece of work, look no further than Doogie Chambers. There was absolutely no way that man hadn’t committed GBH on some poor unfortunate sod at least once in his life. No way. Colin had never actually seen Chambers lay a finger on anyone but there’d been rumours at uni. Which was why he’d kept well clear of him. The only time he and Chambers had ever spoken was the same night that Colin spoke to Netta for the first time. Chambers had been at that party too, looking for her. He’d said one thing to Colin: ‘Don’t even try, mate. You couldn’t handle her.’ Well, look who proved you wrong, Chambers. Look who got to live the dream. For a while, anyway.

It was the worst day of his life when he found out about their affair, even though he’d already guessed she was being unfaithful to him. Like he’d said to Frank, you can spot these things. When they told him at the hospital she’d lost the baby, he actually felt gutted for her. Not that she was the most maternal woman you could hope to meet. She’d only had Liza and Will because he’d nagged her to death. He’d wanted children. He’d really, really wanted children. So when he found out about the miscarriage, he felt bad for her, and he’d been convinced he’d have taken that child on and raised it as his own. Because he loved her. He loved her so much the weight of it nearly crushed him sometimes. He’d have forgiven her. He’d have done anything to have her love him. But then she told him who the father was, and everything changed. The love was gone, at least he thought so at the time. In its place was anger. More angerthan he could deal with. It was like he’d fallen into a black hole of vengeance.

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