The image was already in her mind and it confused her. ‘Hudson. Why?’
A satisfied smile crept onto Bert’s lips. ‘You know tickle fights always end in a kiss?’
‘Err, I think that’s the end of that game,’ said Anna, suddenly flustered.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.’ Bert reached out a hand and Anna took it.
‘You are cheeky.’
‘No point getting old if you don’t get crafty,’ said Bert, and they both laughed. But he had sown some seeds for Anna to dig about in. ‘Now, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. Rosie, are you there?’
A perky little lady almost sprang from a nearby armchair and Anna realised she must have been watching them all this time. ‘Yes, Bert. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine. I’d like you meet a friend of mine. This is Anna,’ he said, pointing in her general direction and smiling proudly. Anna felt a warm glow of affection for the old man. ‘Nice to meet you, Rosie,’ she said, shaking the bony hand.
‘And you, dear. He talks about you and Maurice all the time. And all the men in your life. It seems very exciting.’
‘She exaggerates,’ said Bert, a little flushed.
‘So does he,’ said Anna, wagging a finger at Bert.
Sophie had been having the same conversation for what felt like slightly longer than forever when Anna pulled up. Hopefully she’d be able to make sense of whatever Mrs Nowakowski was going on about.
Mrs Nowakowski was now waving her arms frantically. ‘D’ese is not that sort of neighbourhood. You look like you’re advertising burdel. Shame on you!’
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Anna, butting in.
They both started to speak at once and Anna held up her hands to stop them. ‘Sophie, hang on.’ Anna gave her best ‘bear with me’ face before turning to the older woman. ‘Mrs Nowakowski, what seems to be the problem?’
‘You make this nice place look like burdel. That is problem.’ She crossed her arms and gave a sharp nod of her head.
‘I think she means brothel.’ Sophie dissolved into giggles and felt the baby kick in response.
‘Why? What have we done?’ asked Anna.
‘The bra hanging in your window.’ Mrs Nowakowski pointed round to the side of the building where Anna’s lounge window was. Anna walked round and as the laughter died Sophie followed. When they reached the window the three women stopped and stared at the large bright red bra hanging there.
Anna looked at Sophie and gave a tip of her head. ‘What?’ said Sophie. ‘It’s not mine.’
Anna unfolded her arms and pointed to her chest. ‘Well, it’s definitely not mine!’ Anna was grinning.
‘Is it the international symbol for brothel?’ asked Anna.
‘According to Mrs Nosy-kowski,’ whispered Sophie.
As the two friends descended into yet more giggles Mrs Nowakowski shook her head and went home. Eventually they realised they were alone and went inside. Anna tugged down the bra that was hooked over the handle of the window, shook her head and dropped the bra in the dirty clothes bin.
Sophie didn’t really understand why Anna had hung the bra up, but it had made her laugh and she had to admit it was like one of hers but she was wearing her big comfy maternity bras at the moment, so it couldn’t have been. She thought for a second how funny Dave would think it was, then remembered her situation. Suddenly emotion swamped her and she had to swallow hard to keep it in check. Perhaps the break from Dave was having a bigger impact on her than she cared to admit.
Anna made chicken Caesar salad for dinner and they ate it in silence, interrupted only by the pitiful begging mews of Maurice trying to snag a little chicken. He’d already wolfed down his own meal of Ocean fish in a light gravy but some days it was hard to fill him up. Anna was still smiling to herself about the bra. She had no idea why Sophie had hung it in the window unless it was purely to wind up Mrs Nowakowski. Sophie no longer looked amused. She was violently spearing croutons, making her current mood very apparent.
‘What’s up?’ asked Anna.
‘I had to say goodbye to the kids and I know they’re going to have an amazing time on holiday with Granny Kraken and it means I don’t have to go to Butlins but it still felt horrid.’
‘Were they okay?’
‘Oh, yeah. I think that made it worse. Arlo had a strop because we made him get out of the car to kiss us both goodbye and Petal happily waved and blew raspberries as she was driven away. They couldn’t have cared less. It was horrible.’
‘Kids take things in their stride. How was Dave?’
‘He wound me up. I came back here to escape and got hijacked by Mrs Nowakowski and bra-gate. I thought she was nice but today she really put the cow in Nowa—’
‘Now, now. She might have had a point. What did Dave do to wind you up?’
Sophie dropped her fork and it clattered onto her plate. Maurice gave her a haughty look at the disturbance. ‘Arlo brought home all his schoolbooks and I was looking through them. When I was away on the team event, Dave had to check Arlo’s homework. It was one sodding line, that was all, and he never bothered to check it.’ She was shaking her head.
‘What was wrong with it then?’
‘Arlo had written, “I love cock!” with an exclamation mark at the end. Which to be honest I thought was really advanced for his age …’
‘Cock?’ asked Anna, her face distorted with the effort of not laughing.
‘Yes. Obviously he meant Coke,’ said Sophie, giving her friend an old-fashioned look. ‘Which, more to the point, Dave shouldn’t have been letting him drink either. Anyway, his teacher had corrected it and put a smiley face …’
‘Dave’s a cock,’ said Anna, and Sophie nodded her agreement. They looked at each other across the small table and dissolved into hysterics.
When they were all called together for a 9 a.m. briefing they knew it would be Liam’s presentation and there he was standing at the front of the room looking smug. Liam watched her walk in but his expression remained fixed. Bugger, thought Anna. She’d already calculated her redundancy. It wasn’t a lot, but it should mean she wouldn’t have to look for something until the new year, which was a bonus. Perhaps she’d take herself off for a holiday.
Hudson strode into the room, overtook a few meanderers and slotted into the seat next to Anna. ‘D Day has arrived,’ he said, exuding enthusiasm as always.
‘Here,’ she said, handing Hudson her phone. ‘This is a picture of Liam doing ballet aged eight.’
Hudson held the phone and immediately his shoulders started to bob up and down as he took in the photograph of a small boy in a very tight orange leotard displaying a very obvious lump. ‘Where did you get this?’
‘I remembered his mum sent me a load of old photos for his birthday last year and I thought it might help if we had this to look at while he delivers our fate.’
Karl took the seat next to Hudson and immediately clocked the photo. ‘Someone’s excited about ballet. Who’s this?’
‘Liam,’ said Hudson, through splutters of laughter. Liam glanced over and they huddled around the phone and reduced their volume.
‘Bloody hell, remind me not dump you,’ said Karl to Anna. She tried to snatch her phone back but Karl was already passing it along their row.
‘I think everyone’s here,’ said Roberta, stepping up onto the