‘He has his music class tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.’
‘Ok, well, I could take him? I should be fine by then. What do you say?’ There was a terse nod, but no eye contact.
‘Great, I’ll see you then.’
Maddie let herself out.
*
Jade watched Maddie go. That went well. A twist of the gas ring, a subtle waft with a gossip magazine towards the air vent and she had created the panic she wanted. She hadn’t been entirely sure it would work, but it had been worth a try.
More than anything, she’d been curious to see how – or if – Maddie would react.
And boy, had she obliged! The look on Maddie’s face when she thought Jade had tried to gas herself was priceless.
Interesting.
Jade had a sense that Maddie was slowly losing interest, that her initial urge to build a friendship was cooling as she became more comfortable with living on her own. She was talking about starting a business and all sorts. That would mean she would have less time for Jade – and that couldn’t happen.
Jade felt like a spider on a web, inching towards her prey. She knew Maddie would be downstairs now, feeling terrible at freezing her out, wishing she had opened up and worrying that Jade would try something else. Another cry for help.
As if that was Jade’s style. Maddie didn’t know her well at all.
There was a lot at stake here, but all Maddie needed to see was what Jade wanted her to. On the other hand, Jade needed to know Maddie pretty well, most importantly if she was as innocent and trustworthy as she came across, but there was still so much Maddie was not revealing. It made Jade nervous, which was a feeling she was not familiar with. She liked to be in control, to know how things would pan out.
This was not comfortable territory for Jade.
Something had clearly gone on in the past that Maddie was holding onto tightly. Jade wanted to know what it was.
*
Maddie was tired.
Not only from the physical aftereffects of her recent bout of food poisoning, but also from the night before. After leaving Jade’s, she’d texted Greg and they had spent half an hour passing messages backwards and forwards – Maddie telling Greg about Jade and what was going on with her and Greg trying to convince Maddie to stay out of it, that it wasn’t good for her state of mind to get too involved.
Maddie knew he had a point, but she couldn’t just walk away from Jade – or rather, she couldn’t walk away from Ben. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Ben needed her, but she couldn’t say why. Just that she had an overwhelming urge to take care of him and it was something she couldn’t ignore. When she thought about having him all to herself today, her entire body fizzed.
She gathered up her handbag and shoved some mini boxes of raisins and a bag of breadsticks into her handbag and shrugged into her coat, enjoying the feeling of the smile riding her lips. As she grabbed her phone, it buzzed and vibrated in her hand. She expected it to be Greg again, following up on last night’s texts, but it was a message from Gemma:
Lots of messages between you and Greg last night. What happened to standing on your own two feet?
Someone wasn’t happy. Letting Maddie know she was aware of their messages, a little like she was pissing on a lamppost outside Maddie’s door, marking her territory.
She shoved her phone back in her bag and headed out the door.
*
Although the sun was shining, Maddie felt some of her excitement wane as soon as she stepped outside with Ben in his pushchair. He’d flashed her a rare smile when she’d collected him from Jade, who had been almost embarrassed at the events of the night before and practically shoved Maddie and Ben out of the flat. As Maddie opened the door to the main building, two women stood back to let her past, then headed inside. Maddie hadn’t seen them about before and assumed they were friends of Luke as they both headed upstairs, chattering away.
Interesting. He seemed so shy and awkward. Or were they friends of Jade’s? Was that why she was so keen to get rid of her and Ben? Maddie felt like she had been shooed away, as though Jade hadn’t wanted her friends to see Maddie for some reason.
Feeling irked at Jade’s rejection, Maddie headed off down the street, but her mood dropped even further as a tickling feeling tripped over her, like she was being watched. She couldn’t quite see around a parked van to determine whether it was Jade watching from her window or not. Maybe it was – checking to make sure they’d crossed the road safely. Maddie knew she would be doing the same thing, not wanting to let Ben out of her sight for a minute, worrying about him until he was returned to her safely. But that contradicted her bundling them out of the door. Maybe she was making sure they had definitely left the building then?
The feeling unnerved her and as she walked further down the street, it followed her, like a spectral breath on the back of her neck. She spun around quickly but there was no one behind her or following her. A car pulled out of the side street she had just passed and for a brief second Maddie thought it looked like Gemma’s Range Rover. Then she dismissed that idea too – Gemma had just texted her, so she surely wasn’t following her around in her car. And what reason would she have to do that anyway? There was nothing about Maddie that Gemma could ever find threatening, surely.
She shrugged it off, told herself she was just on edge because she was alone with Ben and carried on walking, but her pace quickened a little all the same.
The community hall was buzzing with noise and activity by the time she arrived. Little children ran in and around each other, climbing on chairs and crawling under the tables. It immediately made her feel better. However, Ben sat in his pushchair in the doorway with wide eyes as Maddie kneeled down to unclip his safety straps.
‘There we go, Ben. Out you come.’ She offered him her hand and he pulled on it to stand up. ‘Let’s get that coat off you.’ The room was stifling, the central heating notched up too far, and Maddie could feel sweat trickle down her spine underneath her jumper. She unzipped his padded coat and pulled it from his arms.
He stood watching the children zoom around him, not ready to engage with them just yet. Maddie’s heart ached. ‘What would you like to play with?’
He looked at her, then pointed at a table in the corner where there was some paper and crayons.
‘That looks like fun! Would you like me to come with you?’
He nodded and he led her by the hand to the table. He pulled out the miniature plastic chair and sat down very studiously before pulling a piece of paper towards himself and picking up a royal blue crayon.
Maddie stepped to the side and watched him as he pulled the colour across the paper with fervour, then set the blue aside in favour of a yellow crayon.
A little girl ran up, looked curiously at what he was doing and sat down on the chair opposite him. The crayon in Ben’s hand stilled for a second, then he continued to draw a yellow circle on the blue background. Maddie thought it looked like he was drawing a sun.
A woman came to stand next to Maddie. ‘Hi, I’m Chloe. That’s my daughter, Polly.’
‘Hi,’ Maddie replied. ‘I’m Maddie. I’m here with Ar— um,’ she coughed, ‘Ben.’
‘He’s a sweetie, isn’t he? So quiet compared to the other boys here.’
‘Yes, he’s quite sensitive.’