The Distance Between Us Read online

  THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US

  Georgie Capron

  Start Reading

  About this Book

  About the Author

  Table of Contents

  www.ariafiction.com

  About The Distance Between Us

  Happy children, happy husband, happily ever after?

  Tasha knows that she should count her blessings: married for eleven years, mother to three healthy children, she should be content with her lot. However, feelings of frustration have settled over her like a dark cloud. Despite living under the same roof and sharing the same bed, Tasha has never felt so distant from her husband, Charlie. She feels worn down by the mental load of motherhood, drowning in the never-ending chores that keep the family and household afloat. Most of all she worries that her once happy marriage is slipping away from her.

  Tasha longs for something to change, but when change comes calling will it really be the answer she was hoping for? And is it possible to fall in love with the same person twice?

  Contents

  Welcome Page

  About The Distance Between Us

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  About Georgie Capron

  A Letter from the Author

  Also by Georgie Capron

  Become an Aria Addict

  Copyright

  For my family

  Chapter One

  Tasha stooped to slip on her black suede heels, trying not to trip on a pile of abandoned sports kit. She picked up the offending articles, swiftly identifying which of her three children was the culprit, walked down the corridor and shoved them in the laundry basket.

  ‘Bella, is that your games kit I’ve just nearly fallen over in the hall?’ she yelled up the stairs. The house seemed to be permanently awash with possessions, with Tasha fighting an endless one-woman battle to restore order.

  ‘Oops! Sorry, Mum!’ Bella replied through a mouthful of toothpaste as her younger brother, Max, came scampering down the stairs rosy cheeked from the bath.

  Flora was sitting at the kitchen table trying to finish her homework. ‘What are you doing, Max?’ Tasha asked, noticing a mischievous giggle. She suspected he had been up to no good, hoping it wasn’t a repeat of last week’s antics, involving a can of shaving foam and an attempt at graffiti on the bathroom wallpaper. Max’s burst of creativity had left an oily residue in the apparent shape of his favourite animal, a giraffe, which, to the untutored eye, was hard to interpret as anything other than an oversized drawing of male genitalia.

  ‘Just getting a drink of water,’ he replied, the picture of innocence.

  Tasha didn’t have time to suss out any potential mayhem that may or may not have occurred upstairs. She was about to go out and she hadn’t finished putting on her make-up.

  ‘Where can Daddy be?’ she asked no one in particular, mentally cursing Charlie for being late on the one night of the year she had dared to make plans of her own.

  Tonight was the celebratory dinner of her last school friend to get engaged and, as always, the gang had pounced on the opportunity to ditch their children and get glammed up for a night. Tasha was desperate for a few glasses of prosecco and a good gossip. She hit speed dial on her mobile, clenching it between her shoulder and her right ear as she fastened an earring with her spare hand. Straight to voicemail again. She hung up. He must still be on the Tube.

  ‘Right, Flora, you need to start thinking about finishing up or you’ll be in bed far too late.’ Tasha grabbed a few dirty plates from the counter and loaded them into the dishwasher.

  ‘It’s too hard!’ Flora moaned, rubbing her head with her hands.

  ‘Then just tell Mrs Edmundson that you couldn’t do it and I’m sure she’ll help you!’

  ‘It doesn’t work like that, Mum.’ Flora sighed. ‘I’ve got to get it right or I’ll get in trouble. You never understand.’

  Tasha took a deep breath; when it came to Flora she couldn’t seem to say anything right these days.

  ‘But surely it’s OK to make mistakes, darling!’ Tasha reassured her. ‘It’ll just show Mrs Edmundson that you need more practice. I’m sure you’re not the only one finding it tricky…’ Tasha knew her daughter would be awake all night beating herself up if she thought she was letting herself down. ‘Daddy can have a look when he gets home… which should be any second.’

  She surveyed the scene in front of her. For some unknown reason the contents of her handbag were strewn all over the floor. Last weekend’s papers and piles of unopened mail were stacked on one end of the table. Abandoned school bags, PE kits and coats lay slumped against the wall instead of hanging on their designated pegs by the front door. The bins were overflowing and the floor was desperately dirty and long overdue a sweep. Tasha took a deep breath. There was no time to tackle the kitchen – maybe Charlie would do some tidying when he got home? She doubted it, not after such a ‘busy’ day at the office. ‘Right, you little rascal, up to bed,’ she said, ruffling Max’s sandy-blond hair as he rushed past her and back upstairs, still giggling.

  She chased after him, pulling her black stretchy skirt down as she went, trying to feel whether her pants might be visible through the material. She had excavated a pretty black top with a lace trim from the bottom of her chest of drawers, which, though crumpled, at least made her look as though she’d made an effort.

  Tasha arrived in Max’s room to find him tucked up in bed, for once. ‘What story would you like, little mischief maker?’

  ‘Aliens Love Underpants,’ Max pleaded.

  ‘Not again?’ Tasha laughed half-heartedly. It must be the millionth time she had read it. She knew every word off by heart.

  ‘It’s the best!’ he squealed as he wriggled over to make room for her. She chided herself for being so unenthusiastic.

  Tasha checked her phone once again – still nothing from Charlie. Trying to put her mounting impatience to one side, she read Max the story and then kissed his pale forehead and turned off his light. Whilst she was grateful
he seemed to have gone to bed without protest for once, she noted that Max never seemed to have one of his full-blown temper tantrums when Charlie was in sole charge. A petty part of Tasha would rather he was climbing the walls and kicking off at the exact moment her other half walked through the door. Bella was already in her room next door, reading a Harry Potter book. She was obsessed with the young wizard and his motley crew. Every night Bella needed persuading to put down whichever well-thumbed book she held and to go to sleep. She was a classic bookworm. Tasha could always tell if she’d been up in the middle of the night reading from the extent of the bags under her eyes the following morning. She frequently received phone calls from Bella’s school enquiring whether she was getting enough sleep. They clearly thought Tasha was too lax to enforce the regulatory 7.30 p.m. bedtime. How right they were! No matter how early she tried to start their bedtime routine she was lucky if she managed to get them down by eight o’clock.

  ‘Right, darling, time to turn your light off,’ Tasha said as she kissed her goodnight.

  ‘Night, Mum.’ Bella reached to switch off the bedside table lamp.

  ‘No sneaky reading in the dark…’

  ‘I won’t!’ Bella smiled, resting her head on the pillow and closing her eyes in a bid to convince her mother that she meant what she said.

  Tasha pulled the door to before heading back downstairs to try and encourage Flora to part with her homework. Her mind boggled at the complexity of the algebraic equations a ten-year-old was expected to solve these days.

  Just as she was peering quizzically at number eight the landline rang.

  She picked up the receiver. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Tasha, it’s me,’ came the ever-so-familiar voice of her husband, Charlie.

  ‘Where are you? I’m so late!’ she moaned, expecting the reply to be that he was just about to walk through the door at any second.

  He paused. ‘I’m afraid I’m stuck here,’ he said, awkwardly.

  Tasha’s heart sank, swiftly replaced by a flush of anger. ‘What? But it’s Steph’s engagement dinner. I’m all dressed up and ready to go…’

  ‘I know. And I’m sorry.’

  ‘God, why didn’t you tell me earlier? Then at least I might have found someone else to help. I’ll never find anyone now…’ Tasha was aware she was whining but she couldn’t help herself.

  ‘I was stuck in a meeting room with no signal.’ Charlie sounded somewhat sheepish. ‘I’m really sorry. I’ll be home as soon as I can…’ He tailed off.

  Tasha slammed the phone into its holder, misjudging her aim and causing the phone to ping up and fly down the back of the table. This did nothing to calm her nerves. She dragged the side table out with a screech and extracted the handset from a coating of dust so thick it had congregated into giant, spidery clumps. It was clearly a very long time since she had pulled out the furniture to clean the harder-to-reach gaps. She tried to quell the tide of burning resentment that welled up inside her. Her eyes smarted with tears. She knew Charlie’s job in asset management was all-consuming but she still felt unbelievably let down. She had been so looking forward to this evening. It was yet another disappointment to add to the never-ending list that seemed to be accumulating under Charlie’s name.

  ‘Dad’s not coming home?’ Flora said with a sigh. ‘Great. So you’re the only one who can help me?’

  Tasha took a calming breath. ‘Sorry, darling, I’m afraid he’s stuck at work.’ She fixed a false smile on her cheeks and said with a sort of crazed enthusiasm, ‘Don’t worry! I’m sure we can figure it out. Let’s have another look!’ She pulled up a chair and sat next to Flora. Together they puzzled through the remaining questions so that Flora could get herself upstairs and ready for bed. To add insult to injury, Tasha’s phone vibrated with messages on her school friends’ WhatsApp group – a bottle of champagne and lots of brimming glasses, a photo of Steph with her sparkling diamond ring, and a third saying ‘Hurry up and get here!’ undoubtedly aimed at her.

  Kicking off her heels despondently, she made a few phone calls to her trusty friends with au pairs and her usual babysitters, but as she had suspected no one was free last minute to come and look after her children. She picked up the phone and called Flo, her closest friend from the group.

  ‘Tash!’ she said, already sounding as if she’d had a couple of drinks. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Flo… I’m going to have to bail. Bloody Charlie is stuck at work. I’m so gutted…’ Tasha felt her eyes fill with tears, which she furiously bit back.

  ‘Oh, no! What a shame!’ Flo replied. Tasha could hear all the hyperactive chatter coming from the rest of the group. She felt even more upset not to be there.

  ‘Look, send my love to Steph and apologise for me. I’ll arrange to see her soon…’ Tasha hung up and sighed loudly.

  After a few minutes staring blankly at the peeling paint on the wall, in desperate need of redecorating, she dragged herself upstairs to check on Flora, who was in bed reading. ‘Lights out soon, darling,’ she said.

  ‘I’m just going to get to the end of my chapter.’

  ‘OK, sleep tight!’

  ‘Mum?’ Flora said, peering over the edge of her book. ‘Thanks for your help earlier…’

  ‘You did really well – but I’m not sure how much use I was!’ She laughed as she closed the door.

  Tasha popped in to check on Max and Bella who both seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Lacking any enthusiasm, she went into the kitchen and slopped the rest of the children’s dinner into a bowl. Pasta and a tomato sauce, not very exciting. She whacked it into the microwave and pressed the timer, finishing the washing-up while it turned around. She grated some cheese over the top in a bid to make it a little more appetising before carrying her meal through to the sitting room and plonking herself on the sofa. What a surprise – there was nothing to watch. For the second time that evening she felt absurdly close to tears. How come all of her friends had managed to sort out childcare except for her? It was Charlie’s fault. She hoped that he would be feeling guilty.

  Chapter Two

  When Charlie finally got home later that evening he found Tasha sitting on the sofa watching One Born Every Minute.

  ‘Hi,’ he said, bending down to give her a kiss. She kept her eyes fixed on the television, cradling a large glass of red wine close to her chest. She tried to suppress the disproportionate anger that raged in her chest.

  ‘Hi,’ she replied, keeping her voice flat and her tone curt, trying to communicate just how unimpressed she was.

  ‘Sorry about this evening,’ Charlie said.

  She glanced at him. The sight of his dishevelled brown hair, his kind blue eyes crinkled and apologetic, almost softened her resolve but she couldn’t help herself. Instead of telling him not to worry about it, that it wasn’t his fault that he had got stuck in a meeting, she shrugged her shoulders. ‘It’s OK,’ she said.

  Charlie knew her well enough after eleven years of marriage to realise that there wasn’t an awful lot of point in talking to her when she had gone into quiet mode. She would answer him with as few syllables as possible. If he forced the matter things would undoubtedly escalate into a full-blown argument, which he was clearly keen to avoid. Knowing that it was better to leave her in peace, he went upstairs to have a shower.

  Tasha remained on the sofa, simmering quietly. She didn’t know at what point she had stopped feeling as though she could talk to Charlie about her emotions. There would have been a time where she would have tackled her disappointment straight away, talking it out, arguing even, but then making peace and laughing it off, possibly even ending up in bed to kiss and make up. The worst thing was that she wasn’t even sure if Charlie noticed. Was he upstairs worrying that she was annoyed with him? She doubted it.

  Charlie had always been the most happy-go-lucky of guys. In fact, it was that particular character trait that had attracted her to him in the first place, fourteen years ago at the tender age of twenty-three. She reme
mbered the first second she had seen him, across a crowded party. Tall, dark and good-looking, with those huge, warm blue eyes. She had thought he looked perfect and had repositioned herself next to him to place her order at the bar, striking up conversation as she’d waited for her drinks. It had turned out he had been single for several years, not even looking for a girlfriend until he met Tasha. He had sworn off women completely following a nasty breakup. But when he had met Tasha it had been love at first sight. She had helped him move on from his heartbreak and they had never looked back. She still loved him to the end of the earth, and she knew how much he loved her, but somewhere along the way, amidst the sleepless nights, the school runs, the endless piles of laundry and the humdrum of daily life, it was safe to say their relationship had lost some of its initial spark. The all-consuming lust she had felt for him in the beginning had dissipated. She supposed most marriages were the same… well, at least she hoped theirs wasn’t unusual in that respect; it seemed inevitable really.

  *

  Friday morning dawned bright and breezy. Tasha felt a lot better as she stepped from the open-plan kitchen into the garden and took in a deep breath of fresh air. She sipped her coffee, admiring an intricate cobweb that had appeared overnight, spun silver in the morning light. The grass was heavy with dew. Fat droplets of water clung to glossy leaves and dangled from branches like miniature crystal baubles. It was her morning ritual, a moment’s peace to herself before she got the children up and ready for school. Charlie had already left at some ungodly hour to go to work leaving Tasha to relish this time alone at the start of each day before chaos inevitably broke out. Having finished her coffee, she tipped some porridge oats into a pan and poured milk over the top, setting it to simmer while she went to rouse the children.

  Once they were all up, dressed and full of breakfast Tasha helped them gather their bookbags, homework diaries and coats, ruing the fact that she had yet again failed to ensure each child’s bags were ready to go the night before. It had been her over-optimistic new year’s resolution, picturing the calm morning routine that her excellent organisational skills could create with a bit of forward planning. Tasha accompanied the children to school before setting about her household chores, fighting the overwhelming sense of boredom that had grown steadily heavier over the years. As she loaded yet another wash into the machine she received a text from Charlie to remind her that he wouldn’t be home for dinner. He was meant to be going out for drinks with a few of his friends from university. She had known this was in the diary so had arranged for a friend to come over for a catch-up dinner, she was grateful that she had made plans so she wouldn’t be spending yet another evening drinking alone in front of the television.