Chapter Thirty

Lisa turned in adjacent to the life-sized elephant marking the entrance to the safari adventure golf course and wondered how she had not registered it before. She spotted Felicity, her children and Melissa almost immediately amidst a host of jungle animals and scenes – each presenting a new adventure golf challenge with a variety of hurdles, twists and turns to the flag. It’s crazy golf; I’m at crazy golf … on a Sunday morning!

As she got out of the van and felt the chill air of the dank Sunday morning – a stark contrast to the warmth inside – Lisa could not help but think that lying in bed with Nathan, just hours ago, seemed like a dream. She clenched her thighs together; a bloody amazing, knee-trembling dream. As thoughts of Nathan led her to recall Pete’s text, Lisa reminded herself to keep a clear head. She needed to sound things out. She needed Felicity to confirm that all was well at home and that Pete wasn’t hiding something that would hurt her. How she would elicit that information while negotiating an adventure golf course with four children, Melissa and a baby in tow she wasn’t sure. But she knew she wanted to try and, while she was at it, she might also be able to gain some advice on how to proceed with Nathan. Cool indeed!

The sight of Felicity and her children being pleased to see her made her feel fortunate. Please don’t let that bloody text be anything bad!

As Lisa neared the group, Melissa smiled, and held out a golf club and blue ball. ‘Great timing; you can take my turn. Bella needs changing. I won’t be long.’ With Bella in a sling Melissa marched off, stopping only to call back, ‘Don’t spill the gossip without me.’

Lisa opened and closed her mouth. Looking at the club and ball in her hand she turned to Felicity. ‘Crazy golf? Really?’

‘Adventure golf actually.’ Felicity pulled a face and gestured to a large sign with a cheery gorilla welcoming all to adventure golf.

‘OK, adventure golf. What’s the difference?’

‘I have no idea.’

Lisa laughed. ‘And you need me because …’

‘Because we are at adventure golf on a Sunday morning.’ Felicity swung her golf club and sent her ball down a mini waterfall that carried it almost to the flag.

Lisa looked confused.

Felicity gestured for her to take a turn and continued, ‘We need you to tell us the gossip about Nathan; we need to hear about your date so we can fantasise about nights out with hot firemen, as opposed to facing our reality, which is currently adventure golf on a cold Sunday morning.’

Lisa laughed and took her swing, her ball nudging Felicity’s as it emerged from the waterfall run. ‘Why come if it’s that bad? Why crazy, I mean adventure, golf?’

Felicity took a breath. ‘It’s not something I normally do, believe me. But Callum has sodding Weekend Bear so—’

‘Weekend what?’

‘Weekend Bear; look at him with his smug little smile.’ Felicity pointed over at her children who were two holes ahead.

Megan was taking pictures on a phone, Alice was lining her golf ball up ready to make her swing, while Callum and Fred were holding a teddy bear, dressed in khaki shorts, aloft as they ran through the water sprayed by a rumbling volcano. Their shouts of, ‘It’s going to blow!’ were interspersed with screams and fits of laughter.

Lisa looked at their happy faces. ‘Who? Callum?’

‘No, not Callum. The bear.’ Felicity pointed. ‘That is sodding Weekend Bear – the secret assassin of weekend fun.’

‘That little bear? The one in khaki shorts? He’s the secret assassin of weekend fun?’

‘Yes, him. He comes with a suitcase of clothes for all adventures and a diary you have to write in. Oscar took him to Egypt in half term. Egypt, for God’s sake!’

Lisa didn’t know who Oscar was, but decided not to interrupt Felicity in full flow.

‘I could hardly let Callum say he took him to play on the trampoline in the back garden or to Tesco, could I?’

‘So instead you’re at adven—’

‘We’re on safari,’ Felicity opened her arms as if the surroundings made that entirely obvious, ‘the golf is irrelevant really, but they wouldn’t let us in without saying we wanted to play. It’s the pictures we really want.’

Lisa laughed. ‘That’s mad.’

‘I know! But honestly – and don’t tell Melissa I said this, she’s a teacher – Weekend Bear is sent home as this “nice” link from school, but it’s just extra homework in disguise and his diary is one massive exercise in one-upmanship.’

‘Wow!’ Lisa could tell Felicity was quite passionate in her contempt for Weekend Bear and all that he stood for, and decided not to point out that Felicity’s safari expedition suggested she was more than a little gripped by one-upmanship fever herself. ‘That’s crazy!’

‘That’s school politics for you, my friend.’

‘What is?’

Both Lisa and Felicity turned as one to face Melissa. ‘Nothing,’ they chimed innocently and pressed on towards the next hole. As they caught each other’s eyes they smiled; each recognising that their knack of quick collusion when needed remained true to form.

Not wanting to share her Weekend Bear wisdom with Melissa, Felicity changed the subject. ‘Lisa is about to tell us about her night with Nathan.’

‘Night?’ Lisa echoed, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink as she wondered how Flick knew.

‘Yes, your night out. Hold on—’

‘Yes, my night out. The parade was good, didn’t you think?’ Lisa deflected.

Felicity and Melissa looked at each other and raised their eyebrows.

‘Hmmm, well I liked it, didn’t you, Melissa?’ Felicity mocked, feigning interest in the subject before moving swiftly on. ‘Of course, we don’t mean the parade, you fool. We saw the parade. How was Nathan?’

Lovely, great, bloody amazing. ‘Good, he seems to be really enjoying life, quite the adventurer.’

Felicity pulled a face. ‘Melissa is it just me or do you think Lisa seems a bit cool about her evening?’

Cool. No, she wasn’t cool. Apparently Nathan was ‘cool’.

‘I—’

‘Mummy! Weekend Bear fell in the crocodile pit!’ Callum bellowed, holding Weekend Bear up to show just how covered in swamp grass and soggy sand he was.

Megan held the phone aloft. ‘I got a great photo of it.’

‘Let’s take him home. I’ll operate.’ Alice leapt with glee.

Lisa breathed a sigh of relief; saved by the bear!

As the three of them sat in Felicity’s lounge drinking coffee, while the children played upstairs and Weekend Bear dripped soddenly on the radiator – not needing an operation after all – Lisa decided not to reveal too much about her evening to Felicity and Melissa. It felt very personal to her, and already it didn’t seem casual. She told them she’d had a good time and about the bobble-beanie palaver. Felicity and Melissa loved the part where Lisa got swept up by the pirates and hoisted onto the float. And while they swooned over that moment Lisa could only think about the kiss that followed. It felt like a claiming moment – in front of all those people. But not in the over-bearing way Ben would treat her in front of others. Nathan had made it feel like nobody else was there, that nobody else mattered. It was very much about the two of them and not the onlookers. She could not bring herself to relate it all and then tell them Nathan had dismissed her with the word ‘cool’. They might ask her what else she expected and she really didn’t have an answer for that. Lisa checked her phone, there were no messages from Nathan, but looking at the screen reminded her of the message she had seen earlier. The message she wished she had never seen.

‘So Pete had to miss the fireworks then?’

‘A last minute drama at Cin Cin or something. He really didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to disappoint the children.’

Lisa smiled and pondered Felicity’s response while Melissa told them how her Adam was sorry to have missed it too. Pete didn’t want to go, he didn’t want to disappoint the children! Lisa felt relieved. Of course he didn’t. Pete loves his wife. He loves his children. See, it’s nothing. She really wanted all to be right in Felicity’s world. If Flick and Pete, who had been together forever and presented the picture of familial harmony despite their children’s best efforts to lead them into conversational minefields, weren’t happy, what hope was there for anyone else? If they couldn’t make it work, then who could?

‘That’s three times this week he’s been called in!’ Felicity added.

‘Bloody hell, really?’ Lisa bit her lip as she realised her response was too much.

Felicity and Melissa looked at her quizzically.

‘I mean, you … umm, you have to stand up to these bosses. They can’t just call people in at the drop of a hat! Is there no respect these days?’ Drop of a hat … no respect these days! Wondering why the pressure of Melissa and Felicity staring at her had made Winnie’s voice come out of her mouth, Lisa paused.

Felicity looked at her. ‘Are you OK? You seem—’

‘Sorry, I … it’s just that it used to happen all the time in London.’ Phew! Pleased that something plausible had come out of her mouth Lisa decided to change tack. ‘Any more coffee in the pot?’

With Felicity heading for the kitchen to sort the coffee, Lisa turned her attention to Melissa. As much as she hated the idea, she knew that Melissa was more likely to be Felicity’s confidant if she needed someone to talk to than she was. They clearly spent a good deal of time together.

‘So Flick and Pete, they’re happy, right?’

Melissa lifted a snoozing Bella on to her shoulder. ‘I think so, why do you ask?’

‘I don’t know, it’s just …’ She didn’t have anything to finish the sentence with, other than mentioning the text. Lisa knew it would hardly make sense to say Felicity and Pete seemed really happy together when she had spent the evening with them. Then she remembered there was whatever Flick had tried to tell her, whatever she had tried to reveal to her as she had drifted off to sleep the night of shoulder-blade-gate. She wondered if Melissa might know what it was. ‘It’s just Flick mentioned their issues.’ The words, not being entirely true, felt disloyal as they came out of her mouth, but the look on Melissa’s face seemed to suggest recognition of something.

‘It’s tough. I mean, we have trouble finding time with Bella, let alone having four of them to run around after.’

‘I’m sure.’ Lisa nodded, not sure at all what Melissa was on about.

‘But they’ll sort it. From what I’ve heard, Flick’s got a few tricks up her sleeve.’

Lisa was baffled, but tried hard not to show it. She decided not to speak but simply to nod in the hope that Melissa would clarify what she was on about.

‘Avocado starter, salmon for the main, strawberries and chocolate for desert, red wine—’

‘Mmm, yummy!’ Lisa had no idea why Melissa was off on a tangent and reciting a menu.

‘I know she’s missed the classic oysters, but she says five of the top ten aphrodisiacs ought to do it.’

Aphrodisiacs; oh no, so there is an issue!