Page 25 of The In-Laws

‘There’s a lovely chicken casserole in the oven for you. Your dad will be home soon and he’ll sort it out.’ God bless ready meals, Katie thought. She’d never have got out of here tonight without them. She turned her focus back to the mirror. She had very little time to make herself look good for the gig.

She topped up her glass of wine. The alcohol gave her that lovely tingling feeling, right down to her toes. Bliss.

‘I got an A in my essay, Mum,’ Lucy announced.

‘Wow! You’re such a clever girl, Lucy. I was rubbish at English, so you must get that gene from your granny.’ Katie was proud of herself for saying something nice about Nancy. It was hard at times to compliment the old boot. She knew that Nancy had never approved of her because she wasn’t ‘good enough’ for Jamie and never would be. In Nancy’s eyes, Katie was a school dropout who didn’t like reading, and a hairdresser who didn’t earn a ‘proper’ salary doing a ‘proper’ job. It stung like hell.

When she and Jamie had first started going out, Katie had refused to meet Nancy for a full year. She knew by the way Jamie talked about his mother that she would be judgemental and that Katie would not pass muster. Katie didn’t want Jamie to meet her dad either. She wasn’t bothered with people’s parents. You were stuck with the parents you had: they didn’t define you. They didn’t make you who you were. Your life choices did; your experiences did; making mistakes and learning from them did. Katie cared about Jamie, not his family. She’d grown up with no mother and a fairly hopeless dad and she’d turned out just fine. She didn’t need her dad to approve of Jamie.Sheloved him and that was all that mattered. She didn’t care if Nancy didn’t like her, but she did care that Nancy’s disapproval might sway Jamie. So Katie made damn sure that Jamie was head-over-heels in love with her before she agreed to meet his mum.

The initial meeting had gone exactly as Katie had predicted. When Jamie had arrived to pick her up and saw she was wearing ripped jeans and her favourite cherry-red Dr Martens, she saw him flinch just a little, but Katie wasn’t going to pretend to be someone she wasn’t. At Nancy’s home, which was like a show house, not a cushion out of place, Nancy had been polite but cold. She’d asked Katie a million questions, which Katie had answered honestly and directly. Katie had been working, earning her own living and dealing with all sorts of difficult customers for six years at this stage, so Nancy didn’t faze her. When Nancy had asked her what her career plans were, she’d said, ‘To be a great hairdresser,’ and smiled. Nancy had then asked if she wanted to own a salon. ‘No. I don’t want the hassle of all that admin and stress, with employees and wages and rent increases. I like doing hair and I’m good at it.’

She could see Nancy was not impressed by her lack ofaspiration to be the next Vidal Sassoon, but Katie didn’t care. She only cared what Jamie thought. They’d left the lunch holding hands and Jamie had hugged her and told her she was amazing and how proud he was of her for not being intimidated by his mum, like all of his previous girlfriends.

Katie had turned to him, looked into his eyes and said, ‘It’s you and me, Jamie. No one else matters.’ And she loved that he had agreed and chosen her despite his mother’s objections and disapproval. Nancy had a face on her like a slapped fish at their wedding, but Katie had spent the day in a prosecco haze, not giving a toss about her mother-in-law.

‘I have a spelling test coming up, Mummy. I need to learn my spellings,’ Toby announced.

Katie looked at the clock. She had to leave in ten minutes and she had only just begun to do her make-up. ‘Why don’t you get Lucy to help you? She’s so clever. She got an A in her essay, Toby. Isn’t that amazing?’

‘I wantyouto help me. Lucy helped me last week when you had a headache.’

Damnit, she didn’t have time for this.

‘I’m sorry, sweetie. Lucy, can you help him?’

Lucy sighed dramatically and put her book down. ‘Fine, but it’s a mother’s job, not a sister’s.’

‘You’re an angel.’ Katie reached out to hug Lucy but her daughter swerved to avoid her. ‘I’ll take you to the bookshop tomorrow and get you some new books for being so helpful.’

‘Okay, fine.’ Lucy softened slightly at the bribe.

Jamie arrived ten minutes later. He kissed her and Lucy, and swung Toby over his shoulder, to his young son’s delight. ‘Frank’s waiting for you outside in a taxi.’

Katie applied some last-minute lip gloss and stood up.

Jamie whistled. ‘You look very sexy.’

She giggled. ‘So you like my gig-style?’

‘Very much. I might have to wait up for you.’

‘Do that!’ She drained the last of her wine, kissed him and ran out to the waiting taxi.

Frank was the best person ever to go to a gig with because he knew everyone in the music business. From the moment they arrived at the venue he introduced Katie to loads of people, ordered drinks for her and, best of all, they had VIP tickets for the concert and to hang out afterwards. Katie hadn’t come to one in ages, and now she wondered why they didn’t do this every week. It was amazing.

Tonight, their VIP spot meant they were within touching distance of Isla Overtone. Katie was in heaven. They danced and sang their hearts out.

After the final song, Katie threw an arm around her brother-in-law’s shoulders. ‘I’m only ever going to gigs with you from now on. This is so epic!’

‘It’s a deal.’ Frank grinned. ‘Melanie hates them.’

Katie often wondered what Frank and Melanie had in common. Obviously they worked in the same agency and that was how they’d met, but they were so different. When she’d asked Jamie how Frank and Melanie had ended up together, he’d said that his mother had instigated and encouraged the relationship and then they’d fallen in love. Jamie said that in the beginning Melanie had been slightly less obsessive about work and Frank had been more successful and involved in the agency. Slowly, over time, that had changed.

But Katie still couldn’t see Melanie falling for Frank. He was her total opposite. He was Mr Chill and she was MrsWound-up Like A Spring. Katie knew there was a theory about opposites attracting, but when you saw it in action, it just didn’t work the way they said it would. Frank’s chill vibe didn’t calm Melanie: it irritated her. Her obsession with work bothered him and he constantly tried to get her to slow down, which also irritated her. By the time Katie met them, several years into their marriage, they seemed at odds with each other in every way.

‘Jamie prefers to have a beer and watch sport than go to gigs. I’m lucky to have you to go with,’ Katie said to Frank, kissing his cheek.

Isla came back out for an encore. Katie and Frank clinked glasses, hers full of wine, his sparkling water, and sang along to Isla’s most famous hit – ‘I Want It All’.

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