Page 69 of Sex Ed

‘It can be arranged.’

‘Can I come to your house?’

Mia sits there laughing with her cheese and sriracha as I continue to be interrogated by an eight-year-old.

‘I guess. Maybe with your Aunty Mia?’

‘Yes, please.’

She hugs Mia and they nestle into the sofa, trading secrets of some sort and I suddenly feel a pang of something. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think it might be sadness that this little girl’s world is going to implode soon and Mia is putting all differences aside with her sister to be with her. She’s a good aunt, a good sister. A good person. While I look over at them, we hear the key in the door and Felix drops the controllers to pop his head into the hall.

‘DADDY!’ he shouts, and Florence follows. Mia sits there and her expression changes. That’s not a good face. Oh dear.

‘You guys OK?’ we hear echoing in the corridor.

‘Yeah, Aunty Mia is here and she brought a friend. He’s called Ed and he’s really cool.’

Mia is halfway between a snarl and pure rage. I’ve only seen this face a few times – the last time was when the school canteen ran out of chips. I don’t know what to do here. My first instinct is that when this man sees me for the first time, I shouldn’t be knee deep in Minecraft. I put the controller down and go to sit down next to Mia.

‘Breathe,’ I say, putting a reassuring hand on her knee.

‘I can’t,’ she says through gritted teeth.

We hear footsteps heading towards the TV room where we’re sitting and a man in golf wear appears at the doorway, the kids attached to his hips. I stand up and try to smile.

‘Hello, I am Ed. Nice to meet you.’ I put my hand out and he shakes it reluctantly, eyeballing Mia.

‘Gareth. Where’s Rach?’

‘She’s at the dentist, Daddy. A posh dentist,’ Felix adds.

Mia can’t say a word, her jaw clenched, a puddle of sriracha on the plate in her hands. I’ve got that stuff in my eyes before, it stings. I hope she knows this.

‘Can you guys go upstairs for a moment while I chat to Aunty Mia? Is that OK?’

‘But Daddy, we were playing Minecraft with Ed,’ Florence grumbles.

‘Five minutes.’

The kids look at each other, not too naïve to see the air thick with tension, and head up the stairs looking back at me. I’m not used to confrontation, not at all, so I have no idea what to do here. Can I make you a grilled cheese, Gareth? You have good sourdough that has made my efforts sing this lunchtime. But instinct tells me I need to be here. To protect him from Mia at least.

‘Look, I don’t know what Rachel has told you but…’

Mia checks to see that the kids are out of earshot and stands up. ‘But you fucked another woman in her bed. That is super classy, Gareth.’

Christ, even I felt that sucker punch of that comment and cringe slightly to see Gareth’s face winded by that blow.

He pulls himself together and points a finger at Mia. ‘You don’t know our marriage, you can’t come into my house and say things like that to me…’

‘I’ll say what I want. My sister has given you everything. She gave up her career to look after those kids, to look after this stupid house, and this is how you repay her… I thought you were a dickhead when she married you but thank you for confirming those suspicions.’

Rage and acid flows from her veins, her mouth, her eyes whereas I know my jaw is slack like I’m just witnessing a horrific car crash.

‘That’s it, just leave. Standing there eating my food and taking the piss… And take your boyfriend with you. Good luck with that, Ted.’

‘It’s Ed, actually,’ I mutter, correcting him under my breath.

‘No,’ Mia says, standing there defiantly. I look over at her, still gripping on to her plate. Mia, I think, this ishishouse. We should do what he says otherwise I think that might be trespassing.

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