Page 26 of Now and Again

‘He’s just stretching me out, you twat! He does that with everyone!’ Oscar yelled, angry himself now.

As Riley watched them go back and forth, it seemed like this flat share probably wasn’t going to work out for her.

***

Riley let herself into the house and made a beeline for the stairs. She didn’t want to see anyone right now because she was heartily disappointed. That ad had seemed so promising. She’d thought she was incredibly lucky to have seen it before anyone else. Now that she knew it would have probably been taken down an hour later and she could have saved herself the drama. As she’d left, it seemed as though Daniel and Oscar were trying to work it out. The arguing had turned to tears, which turned to hugging. Riley had slunk out quietly.

Now she was back in the bosom of her father’s home. Nice, clean, yet cold. The polar opposite of the flat where Daniel and Oscar lived in messy, pokey passion. Hard to say who had it worse.

‘Riley!’ yelled Amanda, popping out of nowhere and scaring the bejesus out of her.

‘Christ, Amanda! You might want to look into a bell,’ she said, clutching her chest.

Amanda was instantly contrite. ‘Sorry, I was just wondering how you’d gotten on with that viewing?’

‘No good,’ Riley shrugged.

Amanda smiled. ‘Oh dear.’

Riley’s mouth hitched up in one corner. ‘Just so you know, your face doesn’t match up to the sentiment.’

Amanda tutted and screwed her face up. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I guess I just always wanted a house full of children. And your dad has made it clear we’re not having a second. So having you here is about as close as I’m going to get.’

Riley could have cried for Amanda. The poor mare. She’d have done anything to avoid being stuck alone with her husband. ‘Yeah, I mean… I guess I don’t have to hurry off, then. If you’re… If you don’t mind having me about?’ Riley said carefully. She didn’t really want to call Amanda out. She had a feeling that if she said anything about her dad, Amanda, happy or not, would be the first to jump to his defense. It was better to let Amanda dress it up if that’s how she wanted it.

‘Oh, great!’ Amanda said. ‘That’s… Yeah, that’ll be lovely. I mean, I know you want your space and everything but yeah, this way you can really take your time, find something perfect? So just, just don’t look too hard for somewhere, eh?’

Amanda skipped happily off, and Riley went up the stairs, wondering what the hell she’d just agreed to. She sat on the edge of her bed and pulled off her shoes. She was just starting to relax when there was a knock at the door.

‘Come in.’

Amanda’s head swooped in. ‘Sorry, me again! I forgot to say...’

‘What?’

‘You’re going to have a new roommate!’

‘Wuhh…’ Riley gaped.

‘I mean, not really,’ Amanda clarified. ‘You won’t be sharing a room, of course. She’ll be next door. Juliet, I mean. She’s moving in! Isn’t that wonderful! She’s got to move out of her old place, and I thought it might be good to have her on hand permanently.’ She smiled goofily. ‘You’ll be here and she’ll be here… Full house!’

Riley did her best to hide her shock. It wasn’t a great success.

‘I thought you’d think this was good news,’ Amanda said. ‘You know, having someone down the hall. Someone you could visit in the middle of the night.’

‘Why would I visit Juliet in the middle of the night?’ Riley asked through a slight case of dry mouth.

‘I don’t know, to chat about things. Like, I don’t, know, boys or something?’

Riley tried not to laugh. ‘Amanda… You know we’re not twelve, don’t you? I think you’ve only got about seven years on us.’

‘Yeah, I guess!’ Amanda laughed. ‘Well, anyway, thought you’d like to know.’ She left.

This day was going from weird to bad to worse to weird. Because now Riley was living with Juliet. How had she gotten here?

THEN

Riley was feeling this.

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