Page 79 of Love Me Till Wednesday

Lisa had just finished clearing away lunch when the doorbell rang. It must be Nick, punctual as usual.

Lisa looked through the spy hole in her front door. An odd-looking man with floppy dark hair and large black-rimmed glasses was standing on the doorstep holding a brown paper carrier bag.

‘Is it Grandpa?’ Sophie called from the kitchen, where Lisa had left her colouring in a picture of a parrot.

‘No,’ Lisa said. Please don’t let it be a journalist when Nick was due to arrive any minute. She put the chain on the door before she opened it. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Probably,’ the man said, pulling his glasses down to the end of his nose and grinning at her.

‘Nick! What the hell?’ Lisa opened the door to let him in.

‘I can’t wander around the zoo looking like me, can I?’ he laughed.

Sophie stared at him as he walked into the kitchen. ‘Why do you look like that?’

‘Because a lot of people know who I am, so if we don’t want to be bothered while we’re out today, I have to wear a disguise.’

‘But how did you make your hair grow like that?’

‘It’s a wig.’ Nick pulled it off with a flourish.

‘Can I try it?’ Sophie asked.

‘I’m not sure it will fit over all your lovely curly hair,’ Nick said.

‘Can we see if it does?’

‘You haven’t got nits have you?’ he teased.

‘No!’ She sounded most put out at the suggestion.

‘I suppose I can let you try it on then.’ He grinned at Lisa.

Lisa watched with amusement as Nick lifted Sophie up so she could stand on one of the dining chairs and look in the mirror while he attempted to put his wig on her.

He gave up with half her hair hanging out the back

‘Even your best friend wouldn’t recognise you now,’ he said.

Sophie folded her arms. ‘I think she would. She’s not blind.’

He chuckled. ‘Shall we see what Nanny looks like in hers?’

‘Mine?’ Lisa said.

‘You’re almost as infamous as me now! Come on, tired housewife, 56, time for your transformation,’ he grinned, pulling a long straight blonde wig out of the bag he’d brought.

‘Blonde is an interesting choice.’ Lisa wasn’t sure how she felt about that, given Nick had exclusively dated blondes since they’d split up.

‘Dark brown would be too close to yours. And red will make you look more like you did years ago, so that’s no good either. See what you think.’

She took the wig off him. ‘Do you have to do this whenever you do something normal?’

‘Not usually. But as we’ve been in the news this weekend, it’s the safest way to make sure we have an uneventful day out. You might need this as well.’ He handed her a hairnet.

After some messing around to get her real hair under control, Lisa managed to get the wig on. It looked prettyconvincing. ‘The dark roots are a nice touch, but it feels weird looking so different. What do you think?’

Nick nodded appreciatively. ‘Even I wouldn’t recognise you.’

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