Page 67 of The Happy Hour
Sweet dreams, Jess. Ax
You too.???xx
She put her phone on charge and, with her elation overriding the flicker of unease that told her she was getting carried away, that she was letting him too far in, that the vodka had made her reckless, she went to clean her teeth in the tiny bathroom she shared with Terence.
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘Ijust don’t know, Mum,’ Jess said, her phone tucked under her ear. ‘I can’t say when I’ll be free. I haven’t asked Wendy for any weekends off for ages.’
‘Surely that means you could,’ Edie suggested.
Frustration bubbled to the surface. She didn’t need this pressure now: arranging to see her parents, changing up her weekends. She had so much work with her Etsy shop, packing up orders had become a nightly thing to stay on top of it all, but weekends were just as busy. Wendy wouldn’t be able to cope without her on a Saturday, and she couldn’t send Ash off to see Felicity alone. The thought was both unsettling and preposterous, because Sunday morning wastheirs. Except they were branching out. Tomorrow.
‘I’ll talk to Wendy,’ she said, trying to ignore the butterflies. ‘But I’ve got such a lot on at the moment. My print sales are really taking off.’
‘We’ve seen Lola’s TikToks,’ Edie said. ‘They’re wonderful. And it’s so good of you to give some of your Etsy profits to that young man.’
‘Enzo,’ her dad replied. ‘Enzo and Carolina Vela. It’s on the landing page. We shouldn’t forget their names.’
‘They’re not the forgotten victims of some terrible crime,’ Edie said.
‘But they have names,’ Graeme pressed.
Jess almost put the phone down and got on with her work while they bickered in the background. She was working on a print that said:Boundaries aremade to be broken through, unless you’re next toa field of angry bulls.It wasn’t quite right, but she’d found a beautiful photo of Highland cattle at sunset that was available for commercial use, and she’d tinker with the wording later on.
‘We’d love to see you, Jess,’ her dad said. ‘You’re not far from us, but sometimes you act as if you’re on a different continent.’
‘We’re a couple of miles away,’ her mum added. ‘And what we’re saying is thatwecan make the journey. It doesn’t always have to be the chick flying back to the nest.’
‘I’m just busy,’ Jess said lamely.
‘With any boys?’
‘Mum.’ She sighed the word. ‘Work’s full-on, and anyway... Terence’s flat is so small.’
‘But Greenwich has endless possibilities, for lunch or dinner or walks. We don’t expect you to cook for us.’ Edie’s laughter was sharper than it needed to be.
Jess remembered what Lola kepttelling her. Edie and Graeme Peacock had chosen her. She hadn’t been an accident, something unexpected or thought about in abstract terms. They had gone through a rigorous adoption process, court orders, home visits and questionnaires and scrutiny, to have Jess as part of their family.
‘I’m working tomorrow,’ she said. ‘So I can ask Wendy then, and let you have some dates.’
‘Marvellous,’ Graeme said, in a tone that meant he thought the conversation was over.
‘What about your Friday nights?’ her mum asked. ‘What about tomorrow? Are you and Lola hitting the town?’
Jess winced at her mum’s phrasing. Of course, it would be today that she asked. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure yet.’ It wasn’t a lie, because shedidn’tthink she and Lola would be hitting the town, and she also wasn’t sure what she was doing, because Ash had been teasing her with hints about where they were going, but had refused to tell her outright.
‘Well, look after yourself,’ Edie said, when Jess failed to be more forthcoming. ‘And let us know when we can come and impose on you. We miss our daughter!’
‘Sure,’ Jess said. ‘I’ll let you know. Bye, then.’
‘Bye, love,’ her dad said.
‘Take care, sweetie.’
Jess hung up and flung herself dramatically onto the bed, groaning and pressing her hands into her eyes.
‘Didn’t want to tell them you had a hot date?’
