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‘I said ignore that, you need to read the messages.’
‘No Gran, I really, just no. How am I supposed to ignore . . . ?’ Paige closed her eyes and pushed Connie’s hand away.
‘Well fine, I have another idea. Just send her a picture of you laughing. You have to do something, put her out of her misery. I can feel her cringing all the way from here.’
Paige shook her head. That was definitely not her style. The girls might know what to do. But she wasn’t sure she could tell them everything, it wasn’t really what she did. They leaned on her not the other way around. They would, she had no doubt, she just . . . couldn’t that’s all, and with every passing second it was getting more and more awkward.
Paige: Good, I’m happy ticking your boxes x
‘No! God no, you can’t send that,’ Connie all but barked at her.
She deleted the message. Great, now they were both playing the three dots game.
Paige: Happy to help you tick off anything x
With the pressure of a response needed, she pressed send.
Connie groaned, shouting as she walked away towards the kettle, ‘You should have just sent her a picture of your boobs, that’s what I’d have done.’
Paige stared at her phone as it pinged.
The to-do list was showing a new notification.
Notification: New tab created — Personal.
Notification: New action created — Learn how to flirt.
Paige’s smile was slow as it went from one side to the other. That was surely the green light for flirting?
Melanie: We still need to put some time in for us to meet up. I’m thinking like two or three times a week? X
This wasn’t flirting, but Paige was more than happy to find time to meet up. She looked at Melanie’s schedule; they could do one night a week at her sister’s while she was watching Alfie. If it was earlier in the week then Paige wouldn’t feel so bad leaving the bar. That could work. Then maybe an early one? Paige sent over the suggestions.
Melanie: Great so I’ll see you tomorrow night at my sister’s house. Here is the address. I’ll be there from five, with Alfie, but Alfie goes to bed around seven if you want to come after up to you x
Paige: It’s a date see you tomorrow x
Paige groaned, yeah she really was terrible at this, but she could be better in person.
Maybe.
Chapter Thirteen
Melanie
Thursday was one of the days she didn’t have to take Alfie to school because her sister put him into breakfast club. But it did mean that it was her day to pick him up from after-school club, feed him his tea, and do all the bedtime routine, which usually involved a book or two dozen while her sister did the food shop. Today was going to be different for two reasons. The first was that she was late picking up Alfie because she’d just seen a truly horrible and definitely fake review added to their Facebook page and had to go through it and flag it for Louisa’s attention. Secondly, Paige would be joining them, although it wasn’t clear if she was joining pre or post bedtime routine. If she came at seven that would give her a couple of hours with Paige before Emily got in. That would be more than enough time; perhaps Paige would only stay for like fifteen minutes. They’d have a professional catch-up and then Paige would be on her way. In fact, she could even ask for Paige’s advice about what to do with bad reviews. If they were keeping it professional. Which she assumed they would be after her disastrous attempts at flirting.
Melanie got out the car and charged towards the school, running her hands down her skirt and straightening her glasses.
‘Auntie Mel,’ a little voice shouted out from behind the gate. She spotted him, so tiny and yet so grown up in his school uniform.
‘Hey little man, ready to go home?’ She apologised for the two-minute delay and thanked the school assistant as she took Alfie to the car, his car seat a permanent fixture in the back now.
‘So erm, I don’t know if she’ll be coming or not, but my friend Paige might be around later,’ Melanie said, figuring she’d best prepare Alfie just in case. What she wasn’t prepared for was his response.
‘Ohhh. Will she bring her cat? Will she bring her purse-in? Can we watch Star Wars again? I liked Pwaige. Can I show her my toys?’
Melanie roughly translated most of it but was unclear about the purse thing. But she really hadn’t expected him to be quite so enamoured. Now she was worried he might be upset if he didn’t see her tonight.
