Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (9 page)

‘She’s okay but
I - worry.’

Susie was
looking at her through narrowed eyes. An easy going, generous and
loud person she was also razor sharp.

‘Have you left
Mr Nobby?’ she demanded.

Carol dug her
in the ribs and Rebecca looked shocked.

‘Of course I
haven’t!’

‘Susie!’
berated Carol. ‘Why would you say that?’

‘Well she looks
so much happier! Look at her, she’s glowing, she’s had her hair
done, she’s wearing a new top, she keeps going to Leeds - Oh My
God! You’re having an affair aren’t you?’

‘Susie!’
Carol’s voice was even louder and Rebecca felt her cheeks
flushing.

‘Of course not
Susie! What a thing to say.’

Susie wasn’t
convinced and for the rest of the afternoon she kept a watchful eye
on Rebecca much to Carol’s amusement.

The problem of
her replacement wasn’t really a problem. The young girl who covered
the weekends had already made it clear she would love to do more
hours and so it was agreed that Rebecca would leave at the end of
the following week.

‘But you’re
still coming to my party aren’t you?’ asked Susie plaintively.

It was Susie’s
wedding anniversary and she had been planning the party to end all
parties for months. Rebecca felt a brief regret that it meant a
weekend she would be unable to visit Leeds.

‘Of course I’ll
be there.’ she said hugging her friend. ‘It’s the day after I’m
leaving Susie, I won’t have forgotten you by then!’

At home the
evening meal was as silent and strained as ever. Daniel was
wallowing in self-pity at having been abandoned over the weekend
and Rebecca felt herself caring even less than usual. She had put
away all her new clothes, her new shoes, her new perfume. But she
refused to revert to the downtrodden woman of only a few weeks
earlier and she put on a new pair of trousers, ones which fitted
neatly at the waist and narrowed at the ankle, a pair of shoes with
much higher heels that her usual flat courts and one of her new
tops. She felt good about herself for the first time in many years.
It was amazing the difference new clothes could make and as she
carried a plate from the kitchen and placed it in front of Daniel
she felt she did it with a certain flair.

He didn’t
notice. ‘It’s going to be a very hard week for me,’ he started.
‘Peter is on my case non-stop. He’s jealous of course. He knows I’m
the better sales man, he’s doing everything possible to stop
me.’

He carried on
as Rebecca ate her food and poured herself a glass of wine. The
Pinot Grigio had become a permanent fixture in the fridge and she
hadn’t bothered to hide it for some time. She looked around the
boring dining room and thought fondly of her bedroom at
Quebecs.

‘And I suppose
you’ll be back there this weekend?’

Rebecca stared
down at her fork. She hadn’t said it out loud but she knew inside,
she had known since the moment she climbed on the train bringing
her back to Darlington.

‘Yes, I
am.’

Daniel’s face
darkened. ‘Again!’ he exploded. ‘You really need to go again?’

He threw his
knife and fork on the table.

‘This is just
too much Rebecca. This can’t go on. You are my wife, I deserve some
consideration, I deserve to know what’s going on!’

Rebecca met his
eyes, waiting until the storm had finished. He was right, he did
deserve to know what was going on.

‘I don’t have
to go,’ offered Rebecca watching Daniel’s tense jaw relax a
little.

‘Well, I should
think so. I…’

‘Mum could come
here for the weekend instead.’

She actually
saw his life flash before him. She saw him weigh up the idea of
having Gwen in his house for the weekend. The cancellation of his
golf as he helped get Gwen in and out of the car. His involvement
in the general organisation of where she would sleep, how they
would get her up the stairs.

‘Well…’ He was
sweating. He tugged at the collar of his shirt which wasn’t at all
tight and puffed his cheeks. ‘Well… I suppose... I mean it’s not
that I don’t want her to visit...’

‘Or I could go
to Leeds and visit her?’

He was gritting
his teeth. He didn’t want to be beaten. He didn’t want to give in.
But neither did he want Gwen in the house.

‘Probably for
the best,’ he grunted. ‘I suppose.’

The week took a
long time to pass for Rebecca. Daniel all but ignored her, which
actually suited her very well. He made no comment on the dramatic
improvement in her appearance although she thought she caught a few
questioning glances her way.

The best part
of the day was either during the morning of a late shift at the
Deli, or an afternoon following an early shift. Then it was just
Rebecca and her thoughts. She would come home, turn the heating up
full, make a cup of coffee in her new coffee machine and look
through the growing pile of glossy magazines and brochures. She
would make plans, decide where she would put all her new purchases
once Beech Grange was hers, how she would put her own personal
touch on the already beautiful house. Occasionally she would check
her bank account and look at the numbers. The money for the house
hadn’t been transferred yet and the shopping Rebecca had done so
far was a drop in the ocean. The figure had hardly moved. At work
she was the same old Rebecca, albeit better dressed and happier. At
home she was still Bec, in the kitchen making the evening meal for
when Daniel came home. But for those few hours she snatched to
herself each day she was a lottery winner with 15.7 million in the
bank.

She ordered a
new bed to be delivered once the contracts had been exchanged. She
narrowed a choice of holidays down to an all exclusive resort in
Mexico or a beach hut in the Seychelles. She knew Daniel would not
want to go on either. She bought a plasma screen TV for her new
lounge. She also looked into the problems of running a residential
home, the average costs and investment needed and made an
appointment to meet Mrs Wendover the following Saturday. She
donated money to the local dog’s home and pledged monthly amounts
to almost every charity that advertised on the TV. She read through
the documents left by the investment Lottery people and worked out
some rough figures as to how much she should put in trust for the
children and how much to put away for her mother’s continuing care.
She read the report the bank manager had sent her and had to pour
herself a brandy as she read how much interest she was earning on a
monthly basis and she tried to learn a little more about stocks,
shares, interest rates and other financial matters.

The only thing
she didn’t do was tell Daniel. Each evening he came home and told
her how hard his life was, how hard he had to work. And Rebecca did
what she had been doing for years, nodding in the right places,
serving his meal and waiting for him to shut up so blessed peace
would reign in the house. It was a tactic she had adopted after
realising that arguing, discussing, trying to reason - all just
prolonged the agony. Daniel never listened, never welcomed her
opinion, never changed his mind. If she shared in the conversation
it just made it last longer. So now she kept quiet. And even though
every morning she decided that she had to tell Daniel the good
news, show him her bank balance, each evening came to an end with
Daniel none the wiser.

When Friday
came, Rebecca woke up feeling relaxed and happy. She was working
the early shift and had decided to go to Leeds at tea time and not
on Saturday morning. There was a play at the Leeds Grand that night
and she had booked a ticket. She had thought about asking Sarah but
decided that her daughter probably enjoyed spending weekends with
her friends not her mum so she booked one ticket and said nothing.
She was meeting Mrs Wendover on the Saturday and had also booked
herself a couple of hours at the Spa.

She couldn’t
stop smiling at the Deli and Carol had stopped berating Susie so
loudly whenever she brought up the possibility of Rebecca of having
an affair. But Rebecca ignored them both and when her shift was
over she walked to her rusty old car and drove to the train
station, only slightly guilty about the note she had left Daniel
explaining her early departure as she jumped into the first class
carriage.

Her suite was
waiting for her, like an old friend. The play was wonderful, the
meal she had in the hotel restaurant glorious, the new dress she
wore for the occasion looked fantastic and by the time Rebecca fell
into bed she was exhausted but so happy that for almost the first
time since she won, she forgot to fret about the fact she hadn’t
told her husband anything about her new life and she drifted to
sleep without a thought of Daniel in her head.

Saturday she
met with Mrs Wendover who although a little confused by Rebecca’s
sudden interest, presumed that she was worrying about Gwen’s long
term plans. She admitted that the home was in difficulties. People
just couldn’t afford the cost of private care at the moment, she
confided in Rebecca. Few could now treat themselves to the luxury
of a home like Parklands. Bookings had gone down and a few of the
residents were actually having trouble paying their bills.
Delicately Rebecca asked how much a home like Parklands sold for
these days and wasn’t really surprised to find that it would be
well over 3 million. The house and grounds were large and in a
prime location regardless of added value of the business being run
there. Rebecca had patted Mrs Wendover’s arm, told her she thought
everything would work out okay and then had tea and sandwiches with
Gwen before leaving to spend the afternoon at the Spa.

On Monday,
arriving back in Darlington, she felt as though she had been on
holiday with her batteries fully charged. It was her last week at
the Deli and on Saturday it was Susie’s party which meant Rebecca
couldn’t go to Leeds. But then she was a free person, nothing to
tie her to Darlington, nothing to stop her going to Leeds
permanently. Nothing except Daniel of course.

She had skirted
around the subject at work but eventually Carol and Susie realised
that Rebecca didn’t want them to mention anything about her leaving
work to Daniel. And it was only a few short guesses after that to
work out that Rebecca hadn’t actually told Daniel she was leaving
the Deli which sent Susie into overdrive with her affair theory.
But they both agreed to keep Rebecca’s news to themselves, in fact
Susie relished the thought that finally Rebecca was defying her
husband and loved the idea that she knew something Daniel did
not.

Friday was an
emotional day, all three of them sniffed their way through
Rebecca’s last shift, weeping into pots of tea and sobbing over the
scones. Finally, Rebecca took off her apron for the last time,
hugged both her friends and said goodbye. She walked across the
precinct towards her car hugging her body, partly against the cold
night air and partly to hold in the sobs. She was leaving because
she had won 15.7 million, she should be happy. On the drive home
Rebecca wondered what it would have been like if she’d been able to
tell them the real reason she was leaving. They would have been
pleased for her she was sure of it. They would have whooped and
screamed and would have wanted to hear all about her plans. She
could have shown them pictures of her house, taken her new clothes
into work, described the hotel - which Susie would have loved and
the night at the theatre - which Carol would have loved and for the
first time since her win Rebecca actually felt lonely. What was the
point of having a windfall like hers if you couldn’t share it with
people, tell them all about it, how you felt, what your plans were?
She decided to tell Daniel that very night. She would show him the
bank account, tell him she had won and then they could go to
Susie’s party the following evening and share their news with
everybody.

She didn’t. She
made something to eat, listened to the evening tirade, cleared away
and sat on the settee to read a book that she’d bought herself on
the way home, a hard back that had cost £12.99. She waited for
Daniel to notice and ask her what she was doing wasting money, why
she hadn’t waited for the paperback version; but he never did and
he went to bed still none the wiser about the large amount of money
in his wife’s bank account or the fact that she was shortly to
become the owner of a house in Leeds.

As Saturday
arrived Daniel started to present the reasons why he couldn’t
escort Rebecca to Susie’s party. Rebecca didn’t bother to answer.
She cleaned the kitchen and put in some washing as he described how
he needed to go through some figures that evening and it might be
best if he stayed at home and how tired he was anyway after such a
hard week. And when he had finished she turned and smiled
pleasantly as she said, ‘We need to leave at 7.30pm Daniel.’

A couple of
hours later Rebecca nursed her glass as she looked around the room.
Susie had greeted them at the door, already giggling and unsteady
on her feet courtesy of the champagne she was liberally pouring for
everyone. She looked amazing in a corset style dress that made the
most of her natural assets and took the eye away from her slightly
expanding middle. Her bright red hair tumbled onto her shoulders
and she looked exactly what she was, a vivacious confident woman,
comfortable in her own skin and happy to celebrate her 25th wedding
anniversary with a man she still loved. As Susie embraced them on
the doorstep, Rebecca saw Daniel’s sneer at Susie’s dress, her
rough manner, the tiny mid terrace house and she resisted the urge
to slap his mocking face. As they walked into the kitchen Rebecca
grabbed a champagne flute and walked quickly back towards the
little living room already packed with guests.

‘You can drive
tonight Daniel, I’m having a drink,’ and she was gone leaving him
no time to protest or argue.