Free Guess Who's Coming to Christmas Dinner by Laura Lockington

staring out at the cold snowy night.

 
     
    Chapter Ten
     
    In the end, Susi gave Bella her bath, and Archie came to sit in the kitchen whilst Sophie shoved all of Bella’s clothes in the washing machine and generally tidied up the kitchen. They could both hear giggling and splashing coming from the bathroom, which Sophie was pleased about, but she also knew that she would have yet another room to clean before she went to sleep that night. It would never occur to Susi to wash the bath, or pick up the wet towels. She glanced at Archie, who was nursing a scotch and staring blankly around the kitchen. His eyes glided unseeing over the picture, stuck up on the fridge with peeling tape that Bella had done of herself and Sophie picking flowers and had printed with a wildly wobbly child’s crayon – Me and Mummy xxxxx
    Archie cleared his throat and said, “She’s gone, Sophie.... gone for good. I don’t think I can bear it...” He put his head in his hands and started to sob. Sophie wound a strand of hair through her fingers, and stared at Archie’s shaking shoulders. She straightened her back, and said, not unkindly, “I know how you feel Archie.”
    There was a silence in the kitchen, only interrupted by the clicking of the boiler turning the sub tropical heating firmly off, and the squeals coming from the bathroom. Sophie cast her mind back to those dark days when Archie had left home. Days where it felt that her world was at an end. But she had Bella to look after, and that had helped, and then the pain had diminished into something manageable. Her hope that Archie would return had finally come true, but what a state he had returned in. This wasn’t the man that Sophie had married. The old Archie would never have sat crying like this. Sophie turned abruptly away from him and filled the kettle with cold water.
    “Tea?” she asked, without looking at him, busying herself at the counter top, setting out mugs.
    “She left with everything... she’s not coming back Sophie...what will I do?” Archie sobbed.
    The flicker of annoyance that had started in the pit of Sophie’s stomach grew and grew into a tight ball of anger. How dare he complain and cry about his girlfriend to her of all people? What other nearly ex wife would sit and listen to his whinging and crying when their perfectly gorgeous daughter needed attention and love? Sophie slammed the kettle down rather harder than she intended, slopping water out of the spout. The sudden noise made Archie look up.
    “No tea for me...got any more scotch?” he said waving his empty glass at her.
    “No. None. And you’ve had more than enough. Have some tea and then I suggest that you go and read a bedtime story to your daughter. You know, the one you didn’t feed yesterday or today, the one you left outside by herself in the snow, the one that you…”
    She bit her lip as Bella came scampering into the kitchen with a bath towel wrapped around her, leaving tiny wet footprints across the wooden floor of the kitchen. Sophie scooped her up in her arms, and patted her dry.
    “Mummy, mummy, Susi said I could use her best body shampoo it’s made of strawberries! Strawberries in shampoo! Do I smell of strawberries mummy? Do I?” Bella threw her arms around Sophie and snuggled up to her. Sophie could feel her daughter’s smooth skin and hugged her tightly.
    “Yes, darling, you smell like a summer pudding! Now, let’s get you in your jim-jams and then say your goodnights; it’s way past your bedtime.” Sophie said smiling at her.
    There were the usual protests, but Sophie could see that Bella was tired, and didn’t put up too much of a fight. Though there were the usual time delaying tactics. This time lengthened by a discussion that Sophie wasn’t sure she could win about where Max would sleep.
    “The thing about cats, Bella, is that they pretty much choose where they want to sleep, you can’t really make them sleep where you want them to,” Sophie said, standing