Page 60 of One Day at a Time

Kimi had taken pity on her and stepped in. ‘He wasn’t at the gym. He came to the bar I work in. The same one as?—’

‘The bit on the side?’ Keli had gasped, sucking in way too much air from the room.

Kimi had nodded. ‘My brother was there…’

‘Hemsworth over the garden fence?’ Keli was doing her best to keep up.

Kimi had assumed they had the same person. ‘Yeah, that’s my brother, Aidan. Anyway, Aidan saw him there, they had an argument, Aidan punched him in the face. And before you think about pressing charges, or assume that my brother is a psycho, I can honestly say that’s the first time in his life that he’s ever been violent to another human being. He doesn’t even kill spiders.’

Keli had groaned. ‘No judgement here. If I wouldn’t lose my nursing licence, I’d be tempted to go over there and smack him myself. Orla, tell me what you want me to do.’

‘Can you get me out of here? No fuss. I don’t want to draw attention or do anything that will spoil Yvie’s party. Just help me get a taxi and then tell Kyle that I’ve left. I don’t want to deal with him, and I can’t stand to look at his face.’

Kimi had intervened, but this time it was in a positive way. ‘You don’t need a taxi. I was leaving shortly to head to my mum’shouse anyway. I’ll drop you home on the way. It’s the least I can do for having the biggest gob in Glasgow around you.’

That’s what she’d done. Kimi had taken her home, made sure she got into the house and Orla had found out later that Keli had gone back over to the table, told Kyle she’d seen someone slashing his tyres, then when she’d got him outside, told him that he was a faithless prick who’d been found out and warned him that if he went near Orla before she was ready to see him, she was phoning the police.

‘I need to go home. Get my stuff…’ He’d tried to argue.

‘I’ve got 999 on speed-dial and, trust me, you don’t want to test me,’ Keli had told him.

It must have worked, because Kyle hadn’t come back to the house that day. He’d called, he’d texted, but he hadn’t turned up at the door. When Orla had calmed down enough that her hands were no longer trembling too much to type, she’d simply replied with a text.

Stay away from me. I’ll let you know when I want to talk.

About an hour later, Emmy and Cormac had arrived at her door and stayed over, and the next morning, Yvie, Keli and Emmy had worked out a rota to make sure that she wasn’t left alone until her mum arrived yesterday. Orla wasn’t sure how she was ever going to thank them.

Her only other visitor had been on Boxing Day, when Aidan had knocked her door.

She’d leaned against the door frame, holding the edges of her cardigan close together, but she hadn’t invited him in. Her eyes were red raw from crying, and she was, quite frankly, over all members of the male species.

‘Listen, I heard what happened yesterday. Kimi is like afrigging megaphone and I feel like this is déjà vu, but I just wanted to say sorry, for the last time, for this time, for my sister’s gob…’

‘For punching my husband?’

There was a hesitation, then he’d shaken his head. ‘No, not for that. He deserved it. Look, I’ll leave it to him to tell you about it – I’ve interfered enough. But I’m sorry, and I’m always next door if you need anything.’

‘I’ve left him,’ Orla had said, she wasn’t sure why.

Aidan had nodded, slowly, his face full of sympathy. ‘Good. Then I won’t need to punch him again.’

Despite the weight of. Everything that was happening, and her general disapproval of violence of any kind, that had almost made her smile. That was nothing to be proud of, but looking back, she cut herself some slack because, of course, Kyle hadn’t done what she’d asked. He’d continued to call, had even turned up at the house, but Emmy had sent Cormac over to change the locks on the doors so that Kyle couldn’t get in. Again, she’d texted him and told him she’d speak to him when she was ready.

That time had finally come earlier today, when her mum was there to make sure he left when Orla was ready for him to go.

Her mum had answered the door to him, but she’d warned Orla beforehand that as before, she wasn’t going to interfere. ‘He’s still the father of your baby, love. He’s done a terrible thing, and you can be furious with him – you’ve every right to be. But you’re going to have to find a way to be in each other’s lives for a long time, so you need to find some kind of peaceful resolution.’

Orla had completely understood her mum’s viewpoint, even if there was part of her that wished her mum would rage against the man that had just decimated her daughter’s life. That wasn’t her mum’s style, though.

‘I think you’ve spent too much time in war zones, Mam.’

‘You’re probably right. I just don’t want you dragged into abattle that only has losers. Set your boundaries and then stick to them, because fighting him isn’t worth losing your peace of mind.’

Orla had agreed. Braced herself. Summoned all her composure. Taken a deep breath as she heard him come down the hallway to the kitchen. She’d known he’d be sheepish. Apologetic. Maybe even humble. And she had to resist that.

Only, when he’d walked into the kitchen, she’d realised she was wrong about it all. He hadn’t even made it to the stools at their kitchen island before he went on the offensive.

‘This is ridiculous, Orla. You’ve totally got the wrong end of the stick. I know I shouldn’t have lied to you, but I was just trying to protect your feelings and make sure I didn’t upset you. I only went there that night to tell her to stop harassing me because she kept calling and texting me after I called it off. It was done. It’s still done. So we need to just stop this nonsense and get back to normal. For the baby’s sake.’