Page 5 of Strictly Friends
Despite feeling appalled at the prospect of searching for her ex-partner, Ruby smiled at the reference to Fi, her long-time boss and longer-time friend. With her petite frame, tiny waist and impressive breasts, Fi was a dead ringer for the country music star, a resemblance she cultivated with carefully teased ash blonde hair, tight-fitting clothes, and her trademark scarlet lipstick. Fi’s commercial savvy, however, defied her doll-like appearance. Over the past few years,she had built a thriving communications consultancy, hiring Ruby initially as her PA, and now as Office Manager.
‘Fi’s not just my boss; she’s one of my best friends. Which is why I wouldn’t want to take the pi—’ Auntie Pearl frowned, and Ruby cleared her throat. ‘I mean, presume on our friendship. She has a business to run, and with the company growing so fast, it’s all hands on deck.’
Auntie Pearl waved aside the objection with an impatient tut. ‘Now you listen to me, Ruby. My daddy adored Opal and me. We were his precious twin gems and he made sure we knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do for us. Opal named you Ruby because you wereherprecious gem, and you’ve never had to wonder if your father loved you because Neville worshipped you from the moment you were born. Jake doesn’t have those types of memories, and until he meets his father face to face, he’s always going to feel like a part of him is missing.’
‘But what if it all goes horribly wrong?’ Ruby agonised. ‘I mean, we don’t even know why Kenny left the country! What if he’s involved in something awful or – orcriminal –and I’m going to put Jake in harm’s way?’
‘Jake’s not the only one who needs answers,’ Auntie Pearl muttered, but Ruby, caught up with imagining the direst possible repercussions of getting entangled in Kenny’s life, let her aunt’s words go right over her head. As she opened her mouth to raise another objection, Auntie Pearl cut in.
‘Ruby, love, you really don’t have a choice. If you want to kill off the fantasy, you’ve got to show the boy the real thing. When Jake sees for himself what he’s been missing – or not missing, in the case of that man – he will snap right out of all these delusions.’
Taking in the disconsolate expression on her niece’s face, Auntie Pearl’s voice softened. ‘Darling, let the boy meet his father. It’s time.’
4
Jake’s class emerged from the building and trooped into the noisy playground in single file. Spotting his mother leaning against a pillar a few feet away, Jake gave an excited shout and ran over, throwing himself against her.
‘Oof!Hello to you, too!’ Ruby laughed.
Jake wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and she stooped to drop a kiss on his soft curls before he could object. She scooped up the battered backpack he had dropped in his haste and slung it over her shoulder, raising her thumb in an OK gesture to Jake’s harassed-looking class teacher scanning the playground filled with waiting parents and checking off the names on her list.
‘Wait, how comeyou’repicking me up today, Mum?’ Jake demanded. ‘Why aren’t you at work – and where’s Grandma Pearl?’ His initial excitement at seeing her disappeared and she could see the worry lurking in his wide eyes and suddenly serious expression.
Jake’s tendency to catastrophise was another thing she blamed on Kenny’s abrupt departure from their lives. After losing his father and doting grandparents within the space of a few months, Jake’s response had been to cling to Ruby, Auntie Pearl and Griffin. Leaving him at nursery had proved a daily battle and it had taken months before Jake eventually settled. His anxiety had persisted as he grew older and, constantly fearful of bad things happeningto those he loved, he would imagine the worst and then feel as despondent as if it had already occurred. Convinced that anything he grew to love would either run away or die, Jake refused to pet or even engage with Indie, despite the cat’s best efforts.
‘Grandma Pearl’s fine,’ said Ruby reassuringly, before he could get worked up. ‘I took the afternoon off so I could pick you up because I’ve got a lovely surprise for you. Come on, let’s get out of here and I’ll explain everything.’
Ruby’s cheery tone restored her son’s smile, and she wrapped his trailing scarf around his neck and steered him away from a group of boys playing football and towards the school gates. They started down the road, but after a minute Jake stopped in his tracks and looked up at her through narrowed eyes.
‘This isn’t the way home. Where are we going?’
‘I thought I’d treat you to a hot chocolate at the café on the high street – if you want one, that is?’
‘Cool!Can I have mine with whipped cream?’
She ruffled his hair and grinned. ‘Absolutely!’
Ruby was still smiling twenty minutes later as she watched Jake peer into his half-empty mug, oblivious to the streaks of chocolate smeared liberally around his mouth. She had yet to meet anyone who tackled hot chocolate with as much focus as Jake.
‘So, how was school today?’ she asked, before taking a cautious sip from her cup of steaming black coffee.
‘Fine,’ Jake replied, his attention still on the contents of his mug. His preferred strategy was to save as much whipped cream as possible to eat by itself and after gulping down a mouthful of his drink, he tilted the mug carefully to gauge how much liquid was left under the top layer of melting cream.
‘Well, that doesn’t tell me very much. You had Literacy today, didn’t you? What did your teacher say about the Black History Month class project?’
Jake spared her a quick glance. ‘Everyone’s got to choose a Black person and write about why they’re inspiring.’
‘Okay, that sounds interesting. Any idea who you’ll choose?’
‘I told Missthat I’m writing about my dad because he’s very famous and he inspires lots of people.’
Ruby winced. ‘We’ve talked about this, Jake. Making things up is wrong. Youknowhow important it is to always tell the truth. Look at the trouble you got into at school last week. If you hadn’t said those things about your father—’
‘But everyone teases me because I’m the only one in my class who doesn’t have a dad,’ he said defiantly.
‘Youdohave a dad. He just happens to live in a different country. He’s a real person, Jake – you don’t have to make up stuff.’
‘I do, if I don’t know anything about him,’ Jake retorted, and Ruby sighed, unable to argue with his logic. Why couldn’t he still be the baby she could swaddle in a shawl, hold in her arms, and nuzzle, knowing he was safe from the cruelty that came with the outside world? When Kenny first left, Jake had cried for his ‘dada’ for weeks until one day, as if tired of hearing his father would come home soon, he had simply stopped asking. Ruby had welcomed the reprieve from giving assurances she couldn’t fulfil, and as Jake grew older, he seldom raised the subject of his absent father. Until, that is, he’d started bringing home sketches from Art Club, convinced they would impress a father he could barely remember, and making up stories about the man that grew more far-fetched by the day. The past few weeks had proved that the years of not talking about Kenny didn’t mean Jake had forgotten him. But no matter how much Ruby wished it were so, Jake was no longer a baby, and her job now was to help him navigate a crisis he wasn’t responsible for creating.
