The Anniversary

Chapter 4

“Mom?” The little male voice broke through her thoughts. “You okay?”

Simone snapped out of her trance and stared in the rear view mirror at her son in the back.

“Huh?”

“Mom!” Nick whined. “Have you been listening to me at all?”

Simone winced and focused on the road. She was glad that Nick couldn’t see her blushing.

“Sorry, Nick. I guess I’m just feeling tired. It’s been a long day.”

It had been a long day but that wasn’t what had Simone’s mind wandering. Since leaving the house her thoughts had been on Carl and seeing the bandage wrapped around his head. To hear he had been attacked at school made her furious; the school was supposed to have security and they had been missing when Carl was being attacked with a baseball bat.

She was going to have a serious word with the principal about that. If they didn’t do anything about that little sh*t who thought it would be okay to do what he did then she would, whether Carl liked it or not.

Unfortunately her thinking about Carl and the failure of his school had resulted in Simone watching the basketball half-heartedly and then barely listening to Nick as he chattered away about his day and about the game. While it wasn’t fair on her youngest to be ignored, Simone couldn’t stop worrying.

She hoped Carl would see sense.

“Mom, you don’t do anything all day!” Nick teased. “You just sit at home with your feet up getting pedicures.”

“Nick, I’ve never had a pedicure in my life. You know from the amount of times you’ve crept under the duvet in the mornings that I have ticklish feet. No one’s allowed near them.” Simone raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I’ve been lazy at home?”

“Julian Penrie-Jones says that’s what you do because you’re so rich. You don’t have to go to work because Dad made all that money before I was born.”

Simone rolled her eyes. She had a feeling she knew where Julian had got that from. His mother, Hortense, was a middle-class woman with a high-paying job. She had a husband who had a similar pay check and they worked all the time, Julian ending up with his grandmother or with a babysitter before and after school. She was jealous that Simone didn’t go out to work and believed she was a slob who flaunted her wealth.

The opposite was true. Simone preferred to go out and work, be it paid or unpaid. She liked to be kept busy and sitting around reading magazines with her feet up didn’t constitute as work. Hortense was the one who wanted to stay at home and have the pedicures.

Simone sympathized with Julian, who barely got to see his parents.

She turned into the parking lot and slid into a spot directly outside the pizza outlet. She turned off the engine and unbuckled her seatbelt.

“If you must know, I have been very busy. And I wasn’t shopping, before you say anything.”

“I know.” Nick unstrapped himself and opened his door. “You and shopping don’t go together.”

Simone laughed.

“I’m glad you remember that part.”

“You’re worse than us when it comes to shopping. Unless it’s specific, you refuse to go out for retail therapy.”

That was true enough. Simone didn’t like going out to the shops unless it was for a certain reason, such as buying clothes because the kids had grown out of them or things for school. Going around with friends buying something that took their interest and to socialize didn’t work with her. She would have the coffee and cake and have a chat but she often left meeting her friends empty-handed. Most of the time it was books, her love in life other than Toby and the children. Whatever she couldn’t get on her e-reader, she got in hard copy.

Her friends called her mad for spending her wealth on books and not on clothes or perfume but Simone didn’t care.

Locking up the car, Simone stepped onto the sidewalk, Nick hopping up behind her and following her to the door.

“Can I have hot sauce on my pizza?” He asked.

“Hmm.” Simone raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know. Remember what happened last time? That pizza would have wasted if Carl hadn’t eaten it.”

“I can eat it, Mom!” Nick protested, hanging off her arm. “I swear!”

“That’s what you said last time.” Hand on the door handle, Simone sighed. “Okay, we’ll ask if they can do it on half the pizza and then you don’t end up wasting a pizza.”

“And ice cream?”

Simone couldn’t stop the smile. Nick was still the baby and often got away with a lot of things.

“Seeing as you won.”

Nick whooped and followed his mother inside. A pretty Asian woman in her twenties wearing a hijab stood behind the counter. She was smiling and friendly as Simone gave her usual order, both women chatting as the order was placed and they waited for it. Simone was in there often enough that the people there knew them by name.

Nick sat on the chair, wearing his basketball kit and swinging his legs in the air as Simone leaned on the counter and talked to Ayeesha. Ayeesha was a student nurse who worked in the pizza place for some extra money and Simone often asked about her degree and her placement at the local hospital. Most people would say something in passing to the cashiers but Simone always took the time to talk. It caused her children much embarrassment but she did it without guilt.

“Hey, Simone.”

Simone stiffened. She recognized that voice and had hoped not to hear it again. She turned and saw the tall dark-haired man standing behind her, giving her a smirk. His arm was looped around a woman in her early twenties, her dirty-blonde hair streaked with purple and pink stripes. She was shorter than Simone and slim but with big bre*sts barely kept in by the camisole she wore, her shapely legs encased in black leather trousers, finished off with boots with a very high heel.

Simone straightened up.

“Mike.” She nodded at the girl. “Candace.”

She had hoped not to see Mike again. After Toby had urged her to go, she had grudgingly gone to Mike’s barbecue at the weekend. The food was delicious and Mike did actually have a nice load of friends. Not all of his friends disapproved of Toby’s marriage to Simone and accepted her better than his family. The only issue was Mike and his recent girlfriend were nasty, especially towards Carl, who had been talking to a classmate. Simone had told Toby she was never going back there and if she saw Mike again he could drop dead.