‘She makes a strong case,’ Norah said to Poppy. ‘You in?’
Poppy smiled and turned to the kids. ‘You two head into the park,’ she said, gesturing at the nearby gates. ‘We’re getting back in the queue.’
The kids didn’t need telling twice, and they legged it with their treats into the play park. Poppy and Norah joined the back of the queue.
‘What are you getting?’ Poppy asked.
‘Something absurd,’ Norah said with delight.
‘Yeah?’
‘I’m feeling daring,’ Norah added. But how daring did she feel exactly? Enough to treat herself to looking good for a change. But what was she hoping to achieve with that, besides boosting her own self esteem?
They moved forward a place in the queue. ‘Oh, guess what?’ Norah said.
‘What?’ Poppy asked with an interested smile.
‘I got fired,’ Norah said.
‘What?!’ Poppy squawked in shock.
‘Yeah. I made a mistake and that was that.’
‘They fired you for one mistake?’ Poppy said.
Norah laughed. ‘That’s exactly what my mum said.’
Poppy looked disturbed by that.
‘But it’s OK,’ Norah said.
‘Is it?’ Poppy asked.
‘It shouldn’t be, right? Everything’s gone wrong. I got fired from my job and my marriage in the same year.’ Norah laughed, but she couldn’t think why. Her life was in the toilet.
‘You do seem lighter,’ Poppy observed.
‘Yes, I am. I feel like I’ve shed some stuff that was holding me down.’
‘The marriage or the job?’ Poppy asked.
‘Both. Among other things,’ Norah said. She realised she was setting up a segue, so her mouth wanted to do this, even if her brain wasn’t so sure. ‘I was arguing with my mum, and she told me something,’ she began tentatively.
Poppy immediately tensed. ‘What?’
Norah inhaled deeply through her nose. ‘She told me why you ended things with us back in the day,’ she said quickly.
Poppy was wide-eyed with horror.
‘Because she told you to,’ Norah continued. ‘Right? That’s what happened?’
Poppy’s mouth opened and shut a few times before it could achieve any speech. ‘God, how did that come up?’
‘We were fighting. She lost her marbles and confessed, James Bond Villain style,’ Norah said with a half-smile. ‘You could have told me what she said to you. At the time. Or now.’ She was doing her best to keep her tone light as air. She wanted this to seem like a very casual conversation. Precisely because it wasn’t.
‘I couldn’t,’ Poppy said shortly.
‘Why?’ Norah asked.
At that moment, they got to the front of the ice cream queue. ‘What do ya want, love?’ the guy in the van asked.
‘Why?’ Norah said, ignoring the man. She needed to know.
Poppy looked between her two interrogators. ‘It’s too much. I can’t find the words.’
‘OK,’ he said evenly. He turned to Norah. ‘What about you?’
Norah shook herself, quickly scanning the board. ‘Er, I’ll have a Nutella sundae.’
‘I’ll have that too,’ Poppy said quickly.
The man began putting together the first sundae, and Poppy looked at Norah. ‘I think we should leave this topic.’
Norah was handed her sundae. ‘Do you?’
‘Well, it seems like you already know what happened,’ Poppy said. ‘I don’t have anything to add.’
Norah spooned ice cream into her mouth, trying to drown her disappointment in refined sugar.
