Family Affair by Elle M Thomas
Chapter 6
Declan
The sound of banging is beginning to infiltrate my current state that is somewhere between drunk and hungover, awake and asleep. I think it must be the gremlins in my head stirring but as hungover and awake begin to win the battle, I realise it’s the door.
“Shit,” I mutter, realising that I am still in the club, having got drunk and fallen asleep here the night before. “Fuck!” I curse as I get to my feet and find both Lindy and Laura nearby, passed out and naked.
The banging continues and the thudding of my brain rattling against my skull is getting worse. I throw on last night’s jeans and plod, barefoot to the door. Opening it I wince at the daylight hitting me.
“What the fuck?” I’m stunned to find him here. He’s supposed to be on honeymoon, isn’t he? “What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask as he pushes past me and is heading towards the bar where I left Lindy and Laura lying naked.
“Fucking hell!” he bellows.
Yes, he’s found the girls and has woken them up judging by the series of sleepy, Morning Mases I hear. He spins so quickly that I almost collide with him and his angry face.
“Declan,” he snaps, and I am unsure if he is pissed with me or the fact that he has just seen my sister fuck buddies naked.
“Girls,” I say, already passing them their clothes and a twenty-pound note. “Go and get some breakfast yeah, and I’ll see you both later for work.”
They are good girls and don’t pout or make a fuss, they simply begin to dress and take the cash for food. With one each side of me they kiss my cheeks with a bye for me and my brother who is following me upstairs to my office where I will find pain relief.
I am scrambling through the drawers of my desk, hoping I can find some headache tablets when Mase speaks, having remained surprisingly silent since we ascended the stairs.
“What are you doing?”
I take him literally, maybe deliberately misunderstanding him. “Looking for headache tablets,” I reply as I find them. “Ta-da,” I cry and immediately regret my own raised voice that won’t be singing again anytime soon. I grab two bottles of water and offer one to Mase.
“I mean this, the mess of you and the girls?”
His serious frown makes him look like our dad and I laugh for no reason beyond the fact that my brother is truly whipped by Liv and marriage. My brain vibrating against my skull suggests laughter was also a mistake.
“Mase, just because your days of three ways are behind you, don’t condemn us all to the same mind-numbing monogamous fate. Anyway, why aren’t you on your honeymoon?” I hope I haven’t missed something bad happening as I have been on a real bender, night after night since I royally fucked up my handling of Anita. It’s for the best I tell myself for what feels like the millionth time since that night outside the restaurant.
“Grow up!” he snaps, and I assume that is in response to my monogamous comment. “My honeymoon ended yesterday and this morning my wife got a call from her father…”
“Shit, I didn’t do anything, Mase,” I plead, hoping he’ll believe me. What the fuck is the matter with Anita and her father that she must make a big deal out of her hurt feelings and why would her father decide he needed to tell Liv about it all? Presumably she has then shared with Mase and here he is. “We went for dinner, and it was as awkward as fuck. I thought about what you said about being honest regarding what I wanted and could offer, and I was. I thought we were on the same page and then when I suggested she needed to bring her car to mine so she could go home afterwards, she went mental and slapped me. I haven’t seen or spoke to her since.”
Mase sits on the sofa, staring at me. He might be mildly amused judging by his face, or it could be wind or just his smug in love face.
“Well fucking say something,” I demand and then hold my head as my raised voice echoes around me again.
“My wife received a call from her father who explained that he has a business issue…his kitchen at the catering company is knackered and his domestic kitchen isn’t suitable,” Mase explains and although I understand the words I am only concerned about Anita.
“What happened to the kitchen?” I hope to convey false nonchalance.
“Gas explosion,” he replies flatly but I am beside myself now.
“When? How? Is she okay? Not Liv, Anita, is she okay? Was she there?”
Mase shakes his head. “She should have slapped you harder or taken a leaf out of her sister’s book and punched you.” He grins, clearly thinking of the time Liv punched him. “She’s fine, they’re all fine. It happened at night.”
“So, what has the kitchen got to do with me?” Once I hear my own question, I know exactly how it involves me. “No, Mase, fuck, no!”
“You have the facilities. You’re the only one I know who does and I said I would ask you.”
“Ask? Is that what you’re doing?” I feel certain he is telling me he’s already agreed to it.
“It is. If you say no, I’ll go back and tell them no. It makes no difference to me beyond the fact that Olivia will feel better knowing it’s sorted, and I need her to be relaxed, but if I need to, I’ll hire them somewhere until their premises are back in action.”
“But then she’ll know. Anita. She’ll know I said no.”
“And that matters, why? You fucked it up with her, cut her loose or at least let her cut herself loose. You’ve moved on or at least reverted to type. Does it matter what Anita thinks or knows?”
His question is reasonable. It shouldn’t matter, but it does, and my smug and conceited brother knows that.
“Fucking fine, let them use my kitchen, but don’t blame me if I end up fucking her again,” I snap to a grinning Mase who is shaking his head at me.
“Good luck with Nigel around.” He laughs, but then more seriously says, “Dec, don’t mess her around. If you have licked your rejected wounds and want to try and make amends fine, but do not fuck her about, she doesn’t deserve it. Plus, I have left Olivia with Anita so I am sure next time it will be a punch, not a slap. Oh, and as I say, I need my wife to remain relaxed.”
“Why? Why does Liv need to be relaxed…oh, wow, should I be congratulating you, big brother?”
“Yes, you fucking should!” my brother replies with a smile of immense proportions, and I am pleased that he is so genuinely happy, pleased and a little bit jealous, the latter being something I reject quickly.
Anita
My legs feel as though they belong to someone else, but unfortunately my banging head is all my own. The walk of shame is never easy but is compounded when the final destination is your family home where your parents are and most likely, your brothers too.
Since that night with Dec, I have tried to spend as much time out of the house as possible. I had a couple of days where I stayed in, ate chocolate and cried, but then I picked myself up and brushed myself down and hit the town. I met a guy on the first night out and we’ve been seeing each other most nights since, work permitting. He’s nice, kind of. His name is Jack, and he has just split up from the mother to his two kids so is looking for nothing beyond some fun, which is fine. I am happy with that. I briefly consider that Dec was offering me the same, but the difference is that Jack didn’t plan on turfing me out onto the street once he was done. No, he lets me stay all night and even makes me coffee before I return home in last night’s dress which is what I am doing now.
“Oh bollocks!” I cry as my heel gets stuck in one of the gaps in the paving. I pull my foot free and yank the thing out with my hand, completing the journey up the path wearing just one shoe and hobbling as though I have one leg longer than the other.
It looks like everyone might be home, my parents and certainly my oldest brother and stepbrother, Scott. All the cars on the drive and the road confirm that, but I figure none of them should be judging me and if they are, tough, because there is far more about me that they don’t know that they certainly should and would judge me for if they were to discover, which they won’t. Nobody will, not ever.
I’m unsure if I can sneak in at eleven in the morning, but to be honest, after the last couple of weeks my appearance in last night’s make-up and clothes is unlikely to shock them. My parents are concerned, they have voiced them, several times a day. My brother, Aaron, who is just a year younger seems to be slightly disappointed, but he is with the same girl he was at fifteen, so I suppose I seem to be a bit of a slapper in his eyes. Joel is almost four years younger than me and seems amused, but I suppose at twenty and cute he’s no stranger to the walk of shame. He, however, is discreet and always comes home to his own bed before daylight. I have no clue how Scott feels, he’s a bit of a closed book and doesn’t really express much in the way of opinions, although I imagine that in the religious cult place he and Liv were brought up, opinions were rarely encouraged.
Falling through the front door, I consider going straight up to bed but the sound of laughter filtering through the house draws me in as far as the lounge where I see Liv looking tanned, relaxed and happy.
She sees me straight away and is up on her feet and heading towards me where she pulls me in for huge hug that is accompanied by a whisper of, “Sorry if Mase busted you.”
I have no clue what she’s talking about but allow her to lead me to the sofa where she pulls me down next to her. Quickly, my younger brothers disperse leaving Mum frowning her concern at me again. Scott still says nothing but is chatting to Liv about some jobs he’s applied for. My dad is glaring at me. Clearly, he is pissed off about my night out and I can see he is dying to say something but doesn’t, for now.
I sit and listen to the chatter around me for another ten minutes or so and after failing to stifle my final yawn, I attempt to excuse myself which is when my dad decides to chime in.
“Maybe if you came home at night you wouldn’t need to slope off back to bed,” he snaps, and everyone suddenly looks awkward.
“Dad, I’m not sloping anywhere. I am going to take a shower and redress and then I will be ready to do that cake for Saturday.” I’m lying. The only plan I had was to go to bed, but I do need to bake that bloody cake for the wedding we’re catering on Saturday.
“How long, Anita? How long are we supposed to simply sit back and watch you do whatever it is you’re doing with God knows who?”
I can see Mum literally stepping in. “Nigel,” she warns. “This isn’t the time—” she begins but he cuts her off.
“No, Carol! Enough is enough and it probably isn’t the time, but this is unacceptable.”
Scott looks beyond uncomfortable and is disappearing into the back garden, Liv looks like she might cry while Dad looks beyond angry, angrier than I have ever seen him. The words you’re not my dad are swimming around my head, but I stop myself, just.
He continues goading me to say things that can’t be taken back, not that he knows he’s doing that.
“Why can’t you be more like Livy? You don’t see her behaving like this. She’s found someone she loves; someone she has married.”
The temptation is to point out that his precious Livy picked Mase up as a one-night stand and shagged him without even knowing his name, but I don’t. Although I think Liv knows how close I am to the edge.
“Dad,” she says, and he turns to face her. “Anita is a grown woman. You need to let her make her own decisions.”
“Do I indeed?”
She is clearly shocked by his firm, terse tone and I am kind of hoping Mase will walk in to hear him speak to her that way, but then I remind myself that his current tone, although aimed at Liv is definitely down to me.
“Well, maybe everyone needs to remember that while you live under our roof, we have expectations.”
I don’t need to say anything because Liv does now and she stops our dad dead, so much so that I end up feeling sorry for him and guilty that my actions have caused this.
“Yeah, well I don’t live under your roof. Haven’t done for a very long time so your expectations don’t impact on me, but whether you like it or not, she, Anita, is not a child and if you continue to treat her as one, she won’t be living under your roof either.” She then turns her attention to me. “You really do need to go and have a shower and maybe think about what he said.”
I nod and am happy to leave the room, offering a single and heartfelt, “Sorry,” to my parents.
The sound of Liv walking behind me up the stairs is a shock, as are her words to me. “I would like to know just what the fuck is going on with you!”
Liv follows me to my room, sits on the bed and waits for me while I have a shower and because I am not overly confident of my own body I quickly redress in the bathroom before returning to her.
“So?” No more words are required.
I tell her about my dinner date with Dec and how it all went tits up and she looks genuinely surprised.
“Wow.” She exhales slowly. “I would have punched him,” she tells me sounding slightly disappointed that I only slapped him. “He is a man whore but that’s a bit shitty. He’ll fuck you in his bed but doesn’t want you to sleep in it.” She is shaking her head when she suddenly seizes upon my night out. “Hang on, if you weren’t with Dec, which is what I meant about Mase busting you…shit, I’ll come back to Mase. Who were you with if not Dec?”
I explain about Jack, and she looks sceptical, but why wouldn’t she be if I am.
“I am in no position to judge,” she concedes. “I knew Mase intimately and he’d told me he didn’t date girls who shag him on the first night before I knew his name. Oh, and thanks for not outing that to Dad. It must have been tempting. Although from that to this, happily married and preg— shit, I am supposed to be keeping this to myself until I’ve seen a doctor, but you’re my sister, so it doesn’t count.” She grins and then physically beams as she says the word in full, “I am pregnant.”
We hug and I mutter a variety of congratulations before Liv moves back to her earlier reference to Mase.
“Mase has gone to see Dec. Dad said it’s been a struggle with the gas explosion at the kitchen so we thought you might be able to make use of Dec’s kitchen, especially in the day. Sorry, I didn’t know…”
“Shit. Let’s hope he says no.” I pout but then there is a knock on the door and when I open it Mase is standing there.
“Have you told her?” he asks with a nod of his head in my direction. “Dec says yes.”
“Great,” I cry, hoping I will be lucky enough to avoid Dec and if not, to at least remain dressed in his company.