Love to Hate You: Three's a Crowd

Chapter 1 - The Other Woman

Amy was late for work. Officially, she was only six minutes late, because registration didn't start until twenty-to-nine, but the school was open from eight a.m. and stay-at-home-mothers in desperate need of a break – and a few working parents, too – liked to drop their children off in the school playground the moment the hand reached the top of the hour. This meant that she was, in real terms, forty-six minutes late, and her fellow nursey teacher – Nikki – was bound to be in uproar at having to hold the fort singlehandedly.

It was this keen concern for the state of Nikki's nerves, and a quite justified fear of her temper, that prompted Amy to make a mad dash from the staff car park, across the playground, and over to the nursery building at the corner of the junior school. It was in the middle of this aforementioned dash that Amy spied an incredibly handsome man hurrying across the playground with a small child in tow. Indeed, so handsome was this man's symmetrical face, polished coiffure and toned physique, that Amy had quite eagerly slept with him on no less than six occasions. It was naturally a shock, therefore, to see him hastily drag a young girl towards the entrance to the nursery school.

Admittedly, Amy's previous encounters with the man had been of a predominantly physical nature, but she felt that he ought to have mentioned the fact that he was in possession of a small human being. She was quite sure she'd had the decency to tell him that she was the proud owner of a sausage dog called Horatio. Slowing down, so as not to collide with father and daughter in the middle of the playground (he approached from the parents' carpark on the opposite side), Amy watched him hurry to the classroom door, stoop to kiss the little girl on the cheek, foist a small backpack into her tiny hands, and pass her off onto Nikki, who – Amy realised with dread – had been lingering at the door hoping to catch a glimpse of her tardy colleague.

'You're late,' Nikki rather needlessly stated, once the dashing dad (both literally, and metaphorically) had departed, and Amy had seen fit to resume her journey across the playground.

'I know,' came her defensive reply. 'I had an emergency.'

'What kind of emergency?' Nikki pressed.

'The adult kind,' Amy told her, with a very pointed look at the young girl who was laboriously trying to force her left foot into the right foot of a pair of slippers. 'Would you like some help with that, Isla?' Amy asked, seeking refuge from her irate colleague in the company of... her lover's child?

'It won't go on!' the three-year-old complained.

'Shall we try swapping them around? This one might fit that foot better,' Amy suggested, picking up the left slipper and sliding onto the infant's left foot. The girl started to cry. 'What's wrong?' Amy asked kindly, as she crouched at the girl's feet.

'I miss Daddy,' Isla pouted, before fat, heavy tears trickled down her round little cheeks. Amy bit her lip. It was only a few weeks into term, and new children always took a while to settle; especially the very youngest, and if Amy remembered correctly, Isla was a summer baby, so she'd only recently turned three.

'School is a big change,' Amy told her, as she wrapped her arm around the child and offered her a hug. 'Did you want to stay with Daddy this morning?' Isla nodded. 'Well,' Amy said, 'you'll see him later.' The girl shook her head.

'Mummy's picking me up.' Amy smiled brightly, whilst secretly wondering if Mummy and Daddy lived together. 'She won't let me stay up until Daddy gets home. Mondays are his long day.' Amy didn't have to feign her empathetic disappointment at hearing this news, because it did very much seem as though Mummy and Daddy lived together.

'Well,' she sighed, rising from the incredibly low bench, which was at the perfect height for a three-year-old, but very much the wrong height for a fully grown adult in their late-thirties. 'Why don't we go and see what your friends are doing? We've got music this morning, and gardening after lunch.' Isla sniffled, swallowed her tears, and nodded in agreement.