Going Back

Chapter 10 - More Shocks

Martyn woke up in a particularly foul mood. Not only had his mother done her best to bring the whole day down, but she had also succeeded to make Stacey feel like a family outcast, Claire a trouble-making lush, and everyone else around her totally uncomfortable – and the news she delivered now while he was dropping her back home, only fuelled his mood further.
Was she nuts, or what?
No wonder his father hadn't wanted to come to the party with her.

Claire struggled to get up. She pulled herself out of bed, still fully dressed and went into the bathroom thinking, thank Christ Liam was at his dad's place. He would have driven her insane this morning, feeling the way she was. All that wine had taken its toll.

She threw off her clothes and got into the shower with a smile beginning to curl on her lips, remembering how Martyn's po-faced mother had demanded he took her outside for a cab before she'd go to bed, quite clearly not trusting them to stay up together unattended.

Her smile turned into a grin.

He'd done as he'd been told and had taken her outside - and with old Po-face just a brick wall away in the living room, they'd managed to have a quickie down the side of the house in the front garden. She felt somewhat triumphant! She'd been determined to get at least a bit of a smooch happening with him before going home.

She got out of the shower, dried herself off and put on some clean clothes, rubbing her short blonde hair dry with the towel before arranging it with some wax, feeling at least that proved he still liked her. To have chanced having sex with her, with both Stacey and her parents upstairs in bed and his own mother probably prowling around behind the blinds, gave her something to feel enormously smug about. He did still fancy her; he did still want to be with her, and they would end up together, eventually, when the time was right!

For the first time in five years or so, she couldn't give a toss about Lee and what might have happened with Stacey. She'd got bigger fish to fry now.
She stopped what she was doing and went back to the bedroom to check her phone.
There were no new messages, and then thinking further, she decided to text Stacey: Thanks for yesterday, had a great time.

And what a great time she did have! A great time with her husband amongst the Gardenias in the dark. And then before pressing send, she added: catch up soon xxx, the three kisses to seal their "friendship", before dropping her phone back down on the bed, and continued getting ready for work, her headache already lifting with the prospect of spending the day at work with Martyn.

After a late breakfast at Breakers On Bondi with her parents, they said their goodbyes and Stacey made her way to the Mega Centre at Bondi Junction for a quick browse around the shops, before treating herself to her latest craving – fudge, marshmallow or caramel latte.

She'd discovered these little rascals about three weeks ago when she'd gone to check out the new complex, and had since made the walk to Bondi the focus of her fitness regime, under the guise of exercise and grocery shopping, to make sure her indulgence didn't go straight to her hips and stay there. She'd seen what excessive pregnancy cravings had done to Claire and wasn't going to let it happen to her.

It was 25 to 11. Where had the morning gone? She'd hoped to have been home by half-past11 the latest, as she hated her chores dragging into the afternoon, but there was nothing she could have done about that, having had both Elena and her parents staying over. It was then that she suddenly thought of Martyn.
He'd told her he'd call her once he'd dropped his mother off and found out what her problem had been, but as yet, had heard nothing, and that in itself was strange. He usually texted her or rang her umpteen times a day over nothing, and it now caused her to worry.