Please Forgive Me (30 page)

‘It’s like, so embarrassing,’ the teenager had whined during a recent visit. ‘What am I supposed to do for clothes? The girls will think I’m such a loser on Saturdays if I don’t buy loads in Bershka.’

‘Primark have got some great, cutting-edge stuff these days,’ Leonie had suggested, but by the murderous look on Suzanne’s face she might as well have recommended she wear hand-me-downs. Like Grace, Leonie thought it would do Suzanne good to have to prioritise her spending for a while. The girl had absolutely no concept of the value of money as it was.

‘I mean, in our day we were lucky to scrape together enough for a ticket to the pictures, let alone have our own DVD collection,’ her friend said and Leonie had to laugh.

‘In our day?’

‘Well, you know what I mean. There’s certainly no way I’ll be mollycoddling my two like that. As soon as they’re old enough, if they want money, then they’ll just have to go out and get jobs for themselves.’

‘I agree with you, but Andrea obviously thinks very differently to us. She sees it as Suzanne’s due.’

‘But that’s what I don’t understand. Adam’s been more than good to them both over the years; it’s not as though he has to make up for lost time or anything.’

‘I know, but he’s a very dedicated father.’

‘Maybe more so than the father of my own two!’ Grace laughed. ‘But you’re great for putting up with it too; I don’t know if I could.’

Leonie made a face. ‘Clearly I’m not so good any more. I don’t know Grace, maybe I shouldn’t have been so insistent about cutting funds from the outset. Then Andrea wouldn’t be calling on Adam so much now, which means he might have a better chance of finding another job.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Grace argued. ‘There’s no
way
you could be expected to keep two households going, what do they expect you to do – work twenty four hours a day? But Adam should know better if you ask me. Doesn’t he ever stop to think how difficult all this must be for you too? I mean, how would
he
feel if you’d lost your job and ended up spending all your free time at your ex-boyfriend’s?’

Leonie’s head shot up. ‘You think there’s more to it than meets the eye?’ Obviously this was something she’d considered herself, but because they’d split up so long ago, and Andrea was supposedly in a relationship of her own, she really didn’t think there was anything to worry about. Most of all, she loved and trusted Adam and firmly believed that he loved her too. OK, so they were going through a rough patch at the moment, but didn’t all couples?

‘No, no, that’s not what I meant.’ Grace was quick to reassure her. ‘I just feel that Adam’s being very thoughtless really, considering you’re the one who’s under pressure to keep things afloat.’

Perhaps this was true, but Leonie was sure that this was just a temporary phase they were going through. What with Adam disillusioned with his work situation, and Leonie stressed out with hers, there were bound to be some pressures. But at the end of the day, what all of this boiled down to was money, which with any luck would be a temporary problem at best.

And, her and Adam’s relationship was way too solid to be undermined by something as trivial as that, wasn’t it?

***

A few weeks later, and much to Leonie’s relief, Adam found a job; a mechanical engineer’s position in a firm based in Kildare. Although the salary was slightly lower than the one he’d got from Microtel, he was over the moon at being back in the workforce.

As a result, tensions between them had lessened considerably and while Leonie still wasn’t happy about all the time he’d been spending at Andrea’s, there was no denying that keeping himself occupied had a positive effect on Adam’s mental state.

‘I suppose it was just nice to be able to do
something
,’ he confessed to Leonie one evening over dinner, a meal he’d prepared himself from start to finish.

Upon her return from work that day, she’d found the apartment spotlessly clean, and Adam in the kitchen surrounded by newly bought groceries. ‘I just felt like such a bloody waster all the time, whereas when I was there, I felt useful.’

Leonie smiled, trying her best to conceal her hurt that it had been essentially his ex who had brought of him out of himself, and made him feel better about everything.

‘Well in the beginning, I did suggest you do a few bits and pieces round here to try and keep your mind off things…’ she began tentatively, not wanting to go over old ground.

‘I know, and you were right. But I was so focused on finding another job that I just couldn’t see the wood for the trees.’ He reached across the table and took her hand in his. ‘I’m sorry for being such a gobshite Lee, and especially sorry for taking so much of it out on you.’

‘Hey, that’s what I’m here for,’ she joked, pleased that he was back to himself.

‘I know, but it wasn’t until Andrea pointed out how much you were doing to keep things going…’

At this, Leonie raised an eyebrow.
Andrea
had pointed this out? Well, miracles would never cease! And to think that briefly, she’d worried if she might be in serious danger of losing Adam to her… Now it seemed she owed the woman a favour.

‘I shouldn’t have taken you for granted,’ Adam was saying. ‘I was an idiot.’

‘Look, you didn’t take me for granted; you just weren’t yourself,’ she reassured him. ‘And while I’m glad we’re back on track now, I really was worried about you. I’d never seen you like that before, so down and disheartened about everything.’

‘Well, it wasn’t much fun for me either,’ he said with a wry smile, ‘but thank God it’s all over with now. I don’t want to go through anything like that ever again.’

Neither do I, Leonie thought, silently thanking the heavens that the old Adam was back.

After that, things pretty much began getting back to normal.

Leonie and Adam re-established their wedding plans; deciding to have the ceremony in spring of the following year, rather than this year. This would give Adam plenty of time to settle into his new job, and allow him to make the necessary arrangements with the new company to take time off for the honeymoon.

The two of them decided on a fortnight trip to the US; Leonie eager to return to the land of her birth, and Adam just as eager to visit it for the very first time. ‘I’ve always wanted to explore the Deep South,’ he’d said when they were discussing their plans. ‘New Orleans and Mississippi sound cool, well at least they do in Grisham novels.’

Leonie agreed but was also keen on heading over to the West coast to California, a part of the country she’d never been, but which had always held a huge attraction for her. Either way, they had plenty time to decide and thanks to Adam’s new job were financially on track to cover both the honeymoon and the wedding.

And after three long months of ‘roughing it’, Andrea’s generous maintenance was restored (albeit at a slightly reduced rate), as was Suzanne’s pocket money. Leonie was surprised to find herself almost relieved about this; it meant that the woman might now leave her and Adam in peace, and allow them get on with planning the rest of their lives.

But of course this was wishful thinking.

Barely a few weeks after Adam started the new job, and just as he and Leonie were settling nicely back into a routine, there came yet another ‘urgent’ phone call.

‘It’s Suzanne,’ Adam told Leonie, when he’d finished speaking to the girl’s mother, ‘Andrea is going away for a long weekend, leaving next Thursday, and she wants to know if we can take her. I told her it should be fine, but I’d ask you first. What do you think?’

Leonie groaned inwardly. A few days of the teenager moping and sulking around the place was all they needed, and as it was the school holidays, no doubt they’d see a great deal of her (equally moody) friends too. ‘The weekend is fine, but as there’s no school, how will we look after her on the other days when we’re both at work?’ she pointed out.

Adam grimaced. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’

But surely Andrea had considered it, Leonie thought, and if so, she must have known that in the circumstances, Adam would hardly be able to take time off to baby-sit. Typical! ‘And wait, isn’t that the same weekend as your work thing?’

The new company had arranged one of those team-bonding weekends away where they all went paint-balling and such-like, and she was pretty certain this was also happening the weekend after next.

‘You’re right,’ Adam groaned. He picked up the phone again. ‘I’d better tell her it doesn’t suit.’

‘No wait, has she booked somewhere?’ Leonie asked, thinking that it really wasn’t all that long since that holiday in the Caribbean Andrea had ‘so desperately’ required. ‘And how come Suzanne’s not going with her?’

‘I don’t know, she didn’t say. I suppose she’s probably just going away with friends.’

Or perhaps the mysterious Billy, Leonie mused.

‘What about Hugo? Who’s going to mind him? Or is she bringing him too?’

‘Again, I don’t know, she didn’t actually mention anything about Hugo…’

Leonie had to smile. Trust Adam to get the bare minimum of information! Not that it was really any of their business who Andrea was or wasn’t away with, but at the same time she couldn’t help but be curious about it.

Nevertheless, the fact remained that someone needed to be around to look after Suzanne.

‘I suppose I could do it,’ she offered. ‘I’m due time off from Xanadu as it is, and given all the extra hours I’ve done recently, getting a couple of days shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘You’re sure? It won’t affect your leave for the wedding?’

‘Nope, as I said, I’m owed more than I’ve taken, so this’ll be a good excuse as any to take advantage of it. This time of year is manic too so I won’t mind getting away from it for a while.’

‘Lee, you’re an absolute star, you know that don’t you?’ Adam said, coming across and sweeping her into his arms.

Leonie snuggled into his embrace. ‘If you say so,’ she grinned, deciding that if offering to keep an eye on Suzanne for a weekend made him this happy, she’d gladly do it forever and a day.

As it turned out, looking after the teenager wasn’t that much trouble at all. During the day, Leonie pretty much left Suzanne to her own devices as often as possible, encouraging her to meet with her friends or go shopping, whatever she preferred.

She gave her lifts to wherever she wanted to go and as a result the girl spent most of her time hanging around town, or at her favourite haunt; Dundrum shopping centre,

It seemed that Suzanne, like her mother was content once her pockets were being refilled on a regular basis, and if that was what it took for the entire extended ‘clan’ to reach some form of equilibrium, then Leonie was happy too.

She was also making the most of her unplanned few days off, the weather was dry and she was spending lots of time out for walks or curling up on the sofa catching up with her reading. The last couple of months had been tough, so a few days of taking it easy and doing pretty much nothing at all was welcome. But best of all, her offer to mind Suzanne had scored considerable brownie points with Adam, and given their recent troubles this was an added bonus.

‘I knew the pair of you would come through it,’ Grace told her, when on Friday afternoon, she called over to her friend’s house. Suzanne was out with her own friends somewhere but had reassured Leonie she’d be back in time for dinner. ‘Adam is crazy about you, and the two of you are made for each other.’

Leonie grimaced. ‘I don’t know, it was touch and go there for a while. I was beginning to wonder if there was something going on with him and Andrea…’

‘Not at all, I had a sneaky feeling you were blowing things out of proportion.’ Grace teased, having none of it. ‘And as I said before, if Adam had any interest in her, then why isn’t he still with her?’

‘I know, but when things weren’t going so great with us, and they were spending so much time together … I don’t know, men can be weird sometimes.’

‘You can say that again,’ Grace drawled. ‘Sometimes I wonder what’s going on in their heads at all. You know the way we’re doing up the bathroom at the moment?’ she asked and Leonie nodded. ‘Well Ray came home yesterday with a new shower tray. Apparently there was a choice between an ‘easy-plumb’ and a ‘non easy plumb’ and guess which one he came home with?’

Leonie grinned. ‘Knowing Ray, I suspect the non-easy?’

‘Yes! Now, why on earth would
anyone
…?’ she trailed off, shaking her blonde head in bewilderment, ‘ah, never mind my eejit husband, Adam is great and I was full certain he wouldn’t let you down.’

‘Well maybe if you’d seen Andrea, you might have a few reservations, and she is the mother of his child remember, so there was always a huge amount of history there.’

‘Exactly. It’s
history
, so there’s nothing to worry about. It was a rough patch but you got through it, and now all is hunky-dory again.’

Leonie smiled, feeling happier than she’d been in ages. Grace had been right as usual and despite her recent doubts, she really did have nothing to worry about where Adam and Andrea were concerned. OK so his ex might be a
million
times better looking than her with a great figure and the most amazing clothes, but Adam had his chance and he’d chosen to walk away. And lucky for Leonie, now he was marrying her.

‘So how come you got stuck with minding the little princess?’ Grace asked with a wry smile. ‘Is Mummy off on a saucy weekend?’

‘That’s what I was wondering,’ Leonie replied. ‘All Adam said was that she was going away somewhere. He didn’t say where, or more importantly who with.’

‘A bit of a coincidence that Adam’s away too then, isn’t it? Ha, maybe you were right after all,’ she chuckled, obviously tickled by the notion. ‘Oh give over!’ she groaned, seeing Leonie’s face. ‘I was only joking.’

‘I know, I know. Just don’t be putting ideas in my head!’ Leonie said laughing. ‘I’m bad enough as it is.’

‘Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You have
nothing
to worry about with Adam. Believe me he’s just not that kind of guy.’