âCOME on, Mum ⦠weâre going to be late!â
âIâm coming, Iâm coming â¦â Nell scrabbled feverishly through her bag, checking to see that she had everything she needed. She had been so forgetful recently, and it had all been such a rush this morning that if she wasnât careful she would have to go to the meeting this afternoon without any make-up on, and that was the last thing her confidence needed right now.
Ah, there was her comb. At least sheâd be able to do something about her hair when she got to the office. Now, where was her cosmetic bag? Had she left it in the bathroom after all?
âMu-um â¦â sighed Clara.
âIâve got to get myself a decent bag,â Nell muttered to herself. âI canât find anything in here ⦠Oh!â
She broke off in consternation as the bag slipped from her grasp and landed with a splat on the doorstep, spilling keys and pens and tissues and lipsticks and the odd coins that always seemed to be lurking in its depths onto the path.
Clara bent to help pick them all up. âMum, what is the matter with you at the moment?â she asked, ten going on forty-five. Anyone would think that she was the mother, and Nell her awkward child. âYouâre not usually this muddled.â
âIâm not that bad, am I?â asked Nell absently, shoving everything back into her bag. There was that compact mirror she had been looking for everywhere.
âYou lost your keys the other day.â
âThat could happen to anybody,â Nell protested as they headed down the pavement at last.
âAnd when you came to pick me up at Charlotteâs the other day, you went to the wrong house although youâve been there millions of times.â
âThe doors were the same colour.â Nell tried to defend herself, but Clara hadnât finished.
âAnd you forgot that Sophie was coming last Saturday.â
âIâm sorry,â she apologised before Clara could come up with any more examples of what a bad mother she was.
Her daughter was right, though. She wasnât usually this vague. âThere just seems to be a lot to think about at the moment,â she tried to explain. âIâm not really settled into my new job yet.â
It was true that moving jobs had been more stressful than she had imagined, but that wasnât the real reason she was so unsettled at the moment, was it? Deep down, Nell knew that what had really thrown her was being reminded about P.J. after all these years.
It was all Theaâs fault. Nothing had been the same since she had got in touch with P.J.âs sister on some internet site. There was no need for people to go contacting old school friends, Nell thought crossly as she waited with Clara at the lights. It just made you remember all the things you had tried so hard to forget for the last sixteen years.
P.J. was part of her past. He had gone to the States, she had stayed here. They had both moved on. She hadnât thought of him for years. Well, not very often, anyway.
Sometimes she didnât think of him for weeks at a time.
But now he was back.
âGuess whoâs back in town?â Thea had said, bursting with news, and Nell had been taken aback at the way her heart had clenched at the sound of his name.
âJaney says heâs been incredibly successful,â Thea told her. âSomething to do with electronics. We should have known. He always was a bit geeky, wasnât he?â
âHe wasnât geeky,â Nell objected, annoyed. âPeople just used to say that because he was clever.â She defended him, just as she had all those years ago.
âI wish weâd known just how clever,â said Thea. âItâs a pity you didnât stick with him, Nell. According to Janey, heâs practically a billionaire now.â
P.J., a billionaire? Nell couldnât get her head round the idea. In her mind he was still the P.J. she had loved, a bit gawky, very young and very lanky, with that thin, intelligent face and the unexpected smile. The thought of him as a thrusting tycoon was vaguely unsettling. It didnât fit with her image of him at all. She had always pictured him as a scientist rather than a businessman.
But then, she had never imagined that she would become a struggling single mother, either.
âJaney says that heâs not with anyone at the moment,â Thea went on, oh so casually. âYou should get in touch.â
âThat would look subtle, wouldnât it?â Nell said sarcastically. âHi, P.J., I havenât been in touch for sixteen years, but Iâve just heard that youâre incredibly rich, so I wondered if you fancied meeting up?â
âYou could say that youâd just heard that he was back in London,â Thea suggested. âYou wouldnât need to mention the rich bit.â
âNo, and of course P.J. would never guess that I knew that he had all that money, him being so stupid and all!â