Edward, Serena and Eleanor piece. A few parts :)
A Thursday night like any other. He finished work, he headed home with a Thai take away and he poured himself a cold beer from the fridge. He could have pressganged Ric into going for a drink under the pretext of talking Primary Defence (but really swapping stories about ex-wives) but tonight he didn't fancy it. He'd had a bad day in which he'd argued with not one ex-wife but two, and he still had a blazing row looming with the third, and the truth was he was knackered. Once upon a time he'd thrived on endless drama, which was probably a good thing given his endless propensity for fucking up, but at some point, probably around about the time that his third marriage hit the skids, he had started to crave a quiet life. He wanted to work enough to maintain some kind of lifestyle and pay the wives, he wanted to see his kids occasionally and he wanted to spend the weekends on his boat. After thirty years working stupid hours as a doctor, and now that he was on the wrong side of fifty, he thought he could be forgiven for wanting to slow down but apparently the women disagreed. Ex-wife number one wanted to harangue him about their daughter's tuition fees, number two was being a pain in the arse about access to their son and number three was still arguing the toss about the divorce settlement. Then there was Eleanor wanting him to pay for her to spend New Year in New York with her new University friends and Mark wanting money to go on some football camp or other. Everybody wanted a piece of him, and it didn't seem to matter to them that the coffers were empty. He wasn't even sure that they'd noticed, and he was absolutely positive that they didn't care. They expected him to find the money for them to do what they wanted, which was why he had four maxed out credit cards and why he was avoiding calls from his bank manager. He could barely still afford the rent on his studio flat, and he was seriously considering giving up drinking and smoking as luxuries that he couldn't afford. Not tonight though; tonight he needed something to get him through.
He was crouching on the balcony, smoking a cigarette and nursing his second bottle of beer, and he nearly didn't hear the doorbell. Nobody ever came over at all, let alone dropped in unannounced, so he wasn't expecting it to ring and when he heard it he nearly dropped the beer with shock. Then the alarm set in. No good could ever come of somebody pitching up on his doorstep at ten o clock at night. At best it would be one of the wives coming to have a pop in person. At worst, it would be the police coming to tell him something terrible. The most likely hypothesis, though, was that one of the kids had fallen out with their mother and had come to tap him for cash and sympathy.
'Alright, I'm coming' he called, quickly stubbing out the cigarette and tossing the evidence over the edge of the balcony into downstairs' pot plant. 'I said I'm coming' he called again as the ringing became more impatient. He crunched a polo mint, stuffed the empty cigarette packet in the back of the kitchen drawer and went to open the door.
'Daddy!' as soon as he opened the door she flew into his arms, nearly knocking him off his feet as she did so. Her hair and her clothes were soaking wet so clearly she'd been out in the downpour earlier, and her eyes were rimmed with red. She'd been crying. For a moment he wondered what the hell Serena had done to get their daughter into this state because he hadn't seen her this upset since she was thirteen and her pony had died, but then he remembered. Eleanor wasn't living with Serena anymore, she was eight weeks into a University course and she was supposed to be in York.
'Eleanor, what's the matter?' he muttered, taking her inside and sitting her down on the sofa. He'd never been any good at dealing with his daughter's histrionics. He usually found that throwing money at the problem worked wonders, but that wasn't an option this time because he didn't have any money to throw. 'Why aren't you at University?'
'Why haven't you been answering your phone? I tried to call you' she replied through a torrent of tears. For a moment he was bemused because it hadn't rung but then he realised; the battery was dead.
'No juice' he replied, reaching out and sticking the thing on charge because although sometimes being non contactable was the only way to get any peace and quiet, it tended only to store up trouble for him. Like this; if only he'd answered her calls then perhaps she wouldn't be quiet so hysterical now and she certainly wouldn't be running the risk of catching a chill from her soaking wet hair because he'd have picked her up from the station. He was mildly surprised that she hadn't just climbed in a cab and expected him to pay on her arrival anyway. 'What's going on?'
'I've told you about plugging your phone in' she replied in a manner that made him suspect that she was intentionally avoiding the question.
'It's charging now' he replied, glancing at it as it buzzed back to life and immediately assailed him with eight text messages and fifteen missed calls. Clearly she had been really desperate to get hold of him. Not only her though; there was one from Bethan, probably wanting round two of the argument over Mark, and four from Serena. That was the most worrying thing of all. Serena only ever called him in cases of absolute dire emergency. The fact that she'd called him four times would have left him utterly panic stricken had his daughter not been sitting in front of him, alive and well, when he received the calls. 'What's going on, Els. Why is your mother trying to call me? Is it your grandmother?' he asked, because something happening to Adrienne was just about the only thing that he could think of that would send both mother and daughter into a meltdown.
'No, no. Grandma's fine. It's mum. We've had a row. We've had a row' she replied. He'd guessed that much. The fact that Eleanor was here and Serena had called suggested that their daughter had flounced out. He was more interested in why Eleanor was not at University.
'About?'
'It's a long story' she replied tearfully, wiping her face with the tissue that he held out to her.
'Well we have all night. Alternatively I could return your mother's call and…'
'No!' she reached out and snatched the phone from his hand 'Daddy, you mustn't'
'Why?' he asked, even more worried now because she seemed to want his attention but she didn't want to share with him what was upsetting her. 'I should at least let you mum know that you're here. She'll be worried about you'
'I doubt that'
'Believe me, she will' he replied, taking the phone back from her and firing off a quick text to Serena before his daughter could stop him. 'Now, what's all this about?'
'You're going to be angry'
'Why? What have you done?' he asked. The truth was, he didn't have much grounds for trying to discipline his children when it came to delinquent behaviour because anything that they did he'd done the same, if not worse. The problem was that they knew it and they wouldn't hesitate to remind him of the fact if he got ideas above his station. The fact that Eleanor cared that he'd be angry was worrying in itself.
'I'm pregnant' she replied, and in that instant his world came crashing down around him. His little girl. Pregnant. By the kind of stupid, feckless idiot who couldn't use a condom properly. No wonder Serena had gone ballistic.
'Are you sure?' he asked, fighting the urge to shout because it wouldn't really help anything. Eleanor had clearly already had the riot act read to her by her mother, and she didn't need it from him too, even if this was the one act of delinquency that he could successfully take the moral high ground on.
'Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't be telling you otherwise, would I?'
'I suppose not' he replied, going over to the kitchen drawer and pulling out the cigarettes. Let her judge him for the fact that he still smoked when he'd let the whole family think that he'd given up a decade ago. Let her tell her mother. Let her tell whomever she liked. He needed a smoke. 'Who is the father?'
'You're smoking, daddy' she looked shocked but he ignored her. She wasn't wriggling off the hook that easily.
'Don't change the subject. Who is the father?'
'A boy' she replied, totally unhelpfully.
'I'm going to need a little more information than that. A boy at university?'
'No'
'Who then? You didn't know any boys before you went away' he replied, not particularly enjoying the bitter laugh that she gave at his naivety. Of course she knew boys, she just didn't broadcast the fact to him.
'Just a boy. In Thailand'
'Thailand?' he snapped, his heart sinking. 'As in the holiday that you went on because you did so well in your A levels? Because you're so sensible?'
'Yes' she mumbled, staring at the ground. She knew perfectly well that he'd fought her corner with her mother for her to go on that holiday, not to mention footing the bill for the flight and the hotel. He had persuaded Serena to show Eleanor a little trust and now this. Somehow he thought that in her mother's eyes, this was going to end up being his fault.
'Jesus Christ, Ellie. Do you even know his name?'
'Tom' she replied sheepishly.
'Surname? Address? Nationality?'
'He was from somewhere in America. Georgia I think'
'So just the ten million odd people then. Do you have any idea how to contact him'
'No. He's not on Facebook' she replied miserably, as if that was the only way of contacting anybody of her generation 'I didn't know I'd ever need to contact him, did I? It was just a stupid… night'
'Stupid is right. I take it your mother hit the roof'
'Of course she did'
'Jesus' he let out a low, weary moan and sank his head to his hands. 'You do realise that we're going to have to discuss this. The three of us'
'What? Now?' Eleanor looked alarmed.
'No. In the morning. Right now I need some time to think about this and I suggest that you have a shower and get changed out of those wet clothes' he told her and to his relief she did as she was told. She stood up and sloped off into the bathroom to change, leaving him to creep out onto the balcony because it was the only place that he was going to get any peace to think about what the hell they were going to do.
