‘I wouldn’t know how to do that if I even wanted to,’ Poppy told her honestly.

‘Just stay out of it, OK? Think of that little boy. What’s best for him.’ With that, Mrs Cauldwell turned and left.

After she heard the door click shut, Poppy sat back down and unpaused the reality show. The pretty people carried on with their self-created romantic dramas as Poppy watched on, still not taking in a thing.

She hadn’t thought it possible to feel worse, but here she sat, doing just that. She didn’t need this. She didn’t need people coming to her home to tell her not to get involved with people who didn’t want to get involved with her.

Thanks, universe. I got it, OK? Poppy thought and turned up the volume, hoping to drown out her sorrows with someone else’s.

But of course, it still wasn’t working.

Thirty-Four

‘Oh no,’ Norah groaned as the email notification popped up from her boss.

**Subject: URGENT: Customer Complaint**

Norah’s stomach dropped as she opened the email. The customer had complained about the incorrect information yesterday, and her boss was not pleased. The email was pretty direct: this was not the first mistake she’d made recently, and it was the final straw.

‘What’s up with your face?’ her mother asked, reappearing just as Norah finished reading the email.

‘I just got sacked,’ Norah said flatly. She felt curiously disconnected from the information.

Her mother’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, Norah! I’m so sorry. What happened?’

Norah closed her laptop with finality. ‘I made a mistake.’

‘They sacked you for one mistake?’ her mother asked, shocked. ‘You can appeal that.’

‘It’s not my first. I’ve been late a few times to log on. They’re cutthroat about error. So that’s that,’ Norah told her with a shrug.

Her mother reached out to touch her arm. ‘You’ll find something else.’

Norah sighed, pulling away gently. ‘I need some time, Mum. Just give me a minute, would you?’

Her mother gave her two seconds before she started up again. ‘With your degree, you’ll find something better in no time. I don’t know why you were even doing that job at all. It sounded rather basic.’

‘Because it’s what I could get, and it allowed me to pick up and drop off Freddie,’ Norah explained with dwindling patience.

‘Well, I can do that now,’ her mother said.

Norah looked at her mother in astonishment. Not because it was a generous offer but because there was no way she meant it. Ordinarily, Norah let something like that go. But she was in no mood. She was calling the woman’s bluff.

‘Oh, you could?’ Norah asked. ‘Great. I’ll look for a nine-to-five, then.’

She watched her mother squirm. ‘Well, I mean, I don’t think I could do it every day,’ her mother said.

‘No,’ Norah said. ‘I don’t suppose you could. Which is why that was a good job for me at this very moment.’

‘There’ll be others,’ her mother said easily. ‘You’ll have something else by the end of the week.’

‘It’s not that easy,’ Norah began.

‘You haven’t even tried yet,’ her mother scolded.

‘You get one, then!’ Norah exclaimed.

‘What? I’m retired,’ her mother said, confused.

‘You don’t have to do the job. Just get one. Hell, just secure an interview. To show me how easy it all is,’ Norah said, aware they were getting into a really dangerous situation.

‘What’s up your arse?’ her mother snapped.

‘Well, for a start, you were the one that distracted me into making the mistake that got me fired,’ Norah said.

‘Wha—’ her mother began.

Norah interrupted the protest before it could get started. ‘The other thing that is “up my arse”, mother, is that I’m sick of you telling me how simple everything is when you don’t know what the world is now. It’s changed. Things are harder. Sparser.’

‘But you have a business degree!’ her mother cried.

‘Which are ten a bloody penny,’ Norah told her. ‘So thanks for pushing that onto me. It’s barely been any use; it was expensive, and I hated getting it. Brilliant work, Mum. Top-notch.’

‘How dare you! You don’t know the sacrifices I made for you!’ her mother spluttered.

‘I do because I make them now. For Freddie. So you can put that card away,’ Norah said with satisfaction.

‘I was a single mother!’ she screeched.

‘That happened when I was eighteen years old, which is an adult, so it doesn’t even really qualify. And I’m a single mother to a five-year-old. So what else have you got?’ Norah dared her.

She loved having her mother on the ropes like this. She hadn’t ever managed it before. But now they were both mothers. The playing field was levelled. Norah had seen behind the curtain. Her mother couldn’t keep telling her she didn’t know what was what when she was the one in the dark about the realities of Norah’s life.

But as her mother gasped for her next gambit, it occurred to Norah that if they kept going at it like this, her mother might have a heart attack. Norah should stop now.

‘Mum...’ she began, taking her tone down several notches.

‘You don’t know!’ her mother screamed.

Norah could see that it was too late for cool heads. Her mother was in the zone. She wasn’t coming down until she’d tired herself out.

‘Mum, let’s just calm down,’ Norah tried, knowing the futility of it.

‘You think you get it because you’ve got a child. But he’s five. It’s not complicated yet. But you wait. You wait ‘till you have to protect him from himself!’

Norah tutted. ‘When have you ever had to do that?’

‘That terrible Jennings girl!’ her mother yelled at her. ‘She preyed on you! Disgusting!’