Page 43 of Not Moving Out
Joe looked at me, sighed heavily, and then turned back to the stove.
‘Get me a beer?’ he said while poking the vegan lasagne with a fork like someone trying to see if something was dead or not. It did look like it had been hit by a car.
‘Right. On it!’ I said, trying to remain positive.
I wanted this to go well for Dolly. We had let her down at the party, and I didn’t want to do it again. I had offered to help with dinner, but Joe had said it was probably better if he did it alone, and that he would be fine. There was a time when Joe and I would have cooked this together. We used to be quite the double act in the kitchen, and we had in the past whipped up more than one dinner party together and quite a few Christmas roasts. However, now we were separated and with the tension between us bubbling away, it seemed Joe preferred to work alone.
‘Here you go,’ I said, passing him a beer. ‘Are you sure I can’t help?’
‘I’m fine,’ Joe demanded with all the certainty of someone who definitely wasn’t fine.
‘I suppose I’ll just get ready then.’
Joe ignored me and walked across to the fridge and took out a bag of salad, clearly not in the best headspace to greet Dolly’s girlfriend. I walked up the stairs, and then poked my head around the door of Dolly’s bedroom.
‘You all right, love?’ I asked.
Dolly was sitting on her bed, looking at her mobile phone.
‘Yeah,’ she replied, but much like Joe, it wasn’t convincing.
I walked across and sat next to her.
‘A penny for your thoughts,’ I said, and Dolly looked across at me.
‘Are you and Dad going to be all right tonight? I don’t want tonight to be another summer party fiasco. Maya’s had enough family stuff to deal with, and the last thing she needs is to walk into our house with you and Dad being all weirdly passive-aggressive.’
‘I promise tonight will be better.’
‘You promised last time, Mum. I’m sorry but I just don’t trust you two at the moment.’
‘Then we’ll just have to show you how mature and perfectly charming we can be!’ I said, and finally a smile broke out on Dolly’s face, cracking through her stubborn teenage resistance.
‘Okay, well, you’d better be,’ said Dolly, and I gave her a hug.
‘Just you wait. Tonight we’ll be on our best behaviour.’
‘Promise?’
‘With a capital P! Right, I need to get ready,’ I said, standing up. ‘See you downstairs?’ Dolly gave me a thin smile before returning to the security of her phone.
I went to our bedroom and quickly got changed, brushing my hair and putting it up, before I went downstairs. I needed to make sure that when it came to Dolly, Joe and I were on the same page. I needed him to realise that while things between us had been tense and uncomfortable, we couldn’t be like that around Maya. It required a frank, straightforward conversation. It was time to be honest with each other because I wasn’t sure how many more chances Dolly would give us – and how many more we deserved.
‘The lasagne tastes like utter dog shit, but I don’t have time to make anything else,’ said Joe when I walked into the kitchen. ‘So be prepared.’
‘Can we talk?’
‘About the vegan lasagne? I don’t think any amount of talking is going to save it.’
‘Not about the lasagne. Can we sit for a moment?’
I walked across and sat at the table, and Joe followed me with his beer. I would need a glass of wine soon if I was going to survive tonight. We sat for a moment, then Joe looked at me.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked, taking a sip of his beer.
‘We can’t be weird with each other tonight. Dolly is worried it’s going to be awkward for Maya, and with her own parents already divorced, the last thing she needs is us causing a scene. After the summer party, when I think we can both agree that neither of us were at our finest, we need tonight to be perfect. For Dolly.’
‘I think we can handle one night together without having a raging argument.’
