Here Come the Girls by Milly Johnson Read Free Book Online

or holidays to look forward to like normal people in normal marriages. She had blinked and her whole life had somehow gone by and she had nothing to show for it.
    She was just too weary to do all the bending and cleaning with this pain thrumming persistently in her temple. Janice would do her share of the work for her share of the pay, but it would be worth it tonight. Olive got off at the next bus stop. It was winter-cold for August and the rain was lashing down, but she for one was glad of it. It was just what her headache would have prescribed. The cool drops on her forehead were like a medicine.
    She walked slowly down the narrow alley towards Land Lane and pictured what it must be like for Ven and Roz, looking forward to going off on holiday tomorrow morning – on a luxurious vessel that would have taken her eventually to Cephalonia with its white beaches and blue, blue sea. How would it feel, being single figures of miles away from Tanos and the Lemon Tree? And Atho Petrakis. How would he look now, twenty years on? Would the grey have rampaged through his thick black wavy hair? Would his eyes still be as big and bear-brown? Would his skin still smell of wood and coffee and herbs? Would his lips still be as full and soft? Olive cut off those thoughts. They weren’t exactly helping her headache.
    She was nearly at the end of the alley now and wondering instead if anyone had lifted a finger since she went out of the house that afternoon or, by some miracle, someone had washed up or vacuumed the carpet, or splashed some bleach in the toilet. Then, just as she was about to cross the road, she saw the front door of Doreen’s house open – and what she witnessed was to jerk the course of her slow life off its track in favour of a far more perilous and unpredictable one.
    Roz was just struggling to close her suitcase when Manus came in, his overalls scented with oil and petrol. The smell of him prodded an old responsive part within her that was hidden under her pettiness and stubbornness. And there was she, telling Olive that she was weak, when she wasn’t strong enough to say to this kind hunk of a man in front of her that she should be going for some sort of medical psychiatric help because she loved him and couldn’t tell him. In the past fortnight, since agreeing to the break, they had been living like virtual strangers, civilly talking to each other when it was needed but no more than that. Manus had moved into the spare room.
    He didn’t attempt to kiss her in greeting. Instead, he pushed down on her suitcase so she could close it more easily.
    ‘Packed then?’ he said. ‘Got the kitchen sink in there?’
    ‘More or less,’ she said with a small smile.
    ‘I’ve got a little something for Ven myself,’ he said, reaching in his pocket and handing over a black pouch. ‘It’s only because it’s a special birthday. Forty, like.’
    She watched him stumble over his words, expecting her to make some smart-arse comment about buying presents for other women, and realised what a nervous wreck she’d made him. It was easier to rebuff that fact than accept it as the truth, and she heard herself say tightly, ‘I’ll pack it and give it to her for you.’
    ‘I haven’t had time to wrap it, as you can see.’
    ‘Doesn’t matter. You’re a bloke – she’ll understand.’
    Once again she lumped him with a bunch of useless men. She wanted to backtrack and say that she didn’t mean how that came out, but her stupidly galvanised pride wouldn’t let her.
    She watched him walk out of the bedroom, his expression stone. She had not thought it possible he could look so cold.

Chapter 11
    ‘Bugger,’ said Doreen Hardcastle to herself as she opened up her packet of Black Superkings to find it totally empty. David or Kevin must have sneaked her last one when she was napping, the little monkeys. Neither of them were at home to send to the shop for her, and Olive was working and not due back for at least two hours. There