Love to Hate You

Chapter Nineteen - The Deep End

'Oh, Raffey, darling,' sighed Ramona Paxton, pulling her son into a firm embrace. She was a very slim woman; well put-together, but with a comfortable, homely warmth about her. Adding to that warmth were the red-rings about her eyes, and the whites of her knuckles as she clutched fiercely to her treasured son. Mattie instantly knew that Ramona was a woman who loved without boundary; a woman with a good heart.

'Mum,' sighed Rafe, inhaling her comforting scent. He remembered it from childhood, and fleetingly wondered if that meant she'd worn the same perfume for more than forty years. 'How're you holding up?' Rafe asked, pushing his mother away from him so that he could bring her into focus and fix her with a long, assessing look.

'I'm as well as can be hoped. It was sudden. His heart was a concern, but I never expected... well.' She drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment, as though trying to will her emotions back into some semblance of order. 'Verity's been looking after me.'

'Where is Aunt Vee?'

'Smoking in the garden,' whispered Ramona, to which Rafe smirked, because Aunt Vee's husband was a thoracic surgeon and despised smoking, so that Verity – who simply loved nicotine – had to become a covert smoker, relying on Fisherman's Friends and a steady supply of Chanel No.5 to keep her husband's suspicions at bay. Of course, Carl knew his wife smoked – everyone did – but she thought it was a big secret which she kept well hidden.

'Mum,' Rafe said, standing back and urging Mattie forward with a palm to the small of her back. 'This is Mattie. My girlfriend,' he said, with feigned confidence. 'Mattie, this is my mother, Ramona.'

'I'm sorry that we have to meet under such sad circumstances,' Mattie said, for want of anything more profound to say. Ramona was mildly taken aback. Rafe had phoned his mother to tell her that Bianca had finally signed the divorce papers – that he'd seen her do it with his very own eyes and that she couldn't now back out – but he'd mentioned nothing about a girlfriend. And to Ramona's mind, girlfriend seemed a very apt name for Mattie.

'How old are you, Mattie?' she asked warmly, but it was quite obvious what she was thinking. Mid-life crisis... divorcing his wife and jumping into something new with a barely-grown up!

'Mattie's twenty-nine, mum,' Rafe said, squeezing Mattie's hip in reassurance.

'Really? You look younger. You'll age wonderfully. Lovely.' And Ramona did look rather pleased to hear that Rafe's new girlfriend wasn't still at university. 'Come in then, Mattie, dear. What's that short for? Matilda?'

'Yes,' said Mattie, following the bereaved wife into her large, expensively-furnished home.

'Oh, Raffey!' screeched Verity, who had just finished spraying breath freshener onto her tongue, and was in the process of hastily stashing the little bottle in her handbag.

'Aunt Vee,' Rafe said, stooping to give the shorter woman a hug.

'And who's this beautiful young thing?' Vee asked, looking wildly at a mildly-alarmed Mattie.

'Raffey's girlfriend,' Ramona announced, proudly. 'She's called Matilda, and she's twenty-nine! Mattie, darling, this is my sister, Vee.'

'My, Raffey!' said Vee, exuberantly. 'She's adorable. So small and natural. I bet you haven't got a botoxed face, have you? No, of course you haven't. You don't need it. And I see those full lips are au naturel. No, Raffey, you've done well.'

'Sorry,' Rafe murmured. 'Vee always detested Bianca, because she doesn't like people who "fiddle with their faces".'

'Neither do I!' agreed Mattie. 'Unless they need to for medical reasons, or were born with a disfigurement, got mauled by a dog or something. Then I think it's quite alright.' Rafe gave her a look.