The Two Lives
Of Maddie Meadows by Sharley Scott
Maddie
Meadows adores her family and loves her work. But she has good reason
to keep them separate.
For single mum Maddie, home is a flat on a run-down estate. And family consists of an excitable toddler, a lonely Dad and a younger brother mired in a love triangle.
Meanwhile, professional Madeleine balances a tricky day job, made worse by a jealous colleague. No one at work knows about her other life, and she needs to keep it this way: one of the bosses has made his feelings very clear about single parents and the people on her estate.
Thank goodness for her fun-loving and loyal friends - although Maddie wishes they’d believe her when she insists she has no time for love. Or so she tells herself as she fights to quell her hidden feelings for her gorgeous colleague, Oliver, who comes from the posh part of town.
When her friends line up their ideal man for her – Sean, more beanstalk than Bean – Maddie wishes she’d told them the truth. It’s hard enough juggling two lives. But, with all the added complications, how long will be it be before Maddie’s carefully created world comes crashing down?
For single mum Maddie, home is a flat on a run-down estate. And family consists of an excitable toddler, a lonely Dad and a younger brother mired in a love triangle.
Meanwhile, professional Madeleine balances a tricky day job, made worse by a jealous colleague. No one at work knows about her other life, and she needs to keep it this way: one of the bosses has made his feelings very clear about single parents and the people on her estate.
Thank goodness for her fun-loving and loyal friends - although Maddie wishes they’d believe her when she insists she has no time for love. Or so she tells herself as she fights to quell her hidden feelings for her gorgeous colleague, Oliver, who comes from the posh part of town.
When her friends line up their ideal man for her – Sean, more beanstalk than Bean – Maddie wishes she’d told them the truth. It’s hard enough juggling two lives. But, with all the added complications, how long will be it be before Maddie’s carefully created world comes crashing down?
Maddie Meadows
fancies Oliver, a colleague from work, but has been coerced into
making up a foursome with her friend Leah, her new boyfriend and his
friend, Sean, who is more beanstalk than Bean. With money being
tight, Maddie is worried about the price of the meal but she has
other concerns too. Not only is she shocked to find the restaurant is
much pricier than she had expected – not the typical
all-you-can-eat Chinese she had anticipated – but she is worried
about Leah’s plans for Maddie and Sean.
I
tried to push away anxious thoughts about how I would afford it,
especially when we finished our soup and my favourite, duck pancakes,
appeared. It took all my willpower to not steal an additional wrap,
on the basis that I hadn’t noticed it stuck to another one, but I
let honesty win and asked who hadn’t had their second pancake yet.
“Me,”
Sean said. “But you can have it. If I could become anything right
now, I’d ask to be a duck wrap. Look at the lust in your eyes.”
I
couldn’t deny it. With that, he became my favourite person on the
table and – by the look on her face – Leah’s least favourite.
She glanced across at Paul, who stuffed his second wrap into his
mouth so his cheeks bulged.
Leah’s
expression of distaste transformed into a sickly smile and she patted
Sean’s hand. “Well, you’ve already worked out the way to her
heart. Cupboard love.”
I
fired her an angry glance. Don’t
use that four-letter word here!
But then I realised that I couldn’t have it both ways. Accepting
Sean’s pancake might be a tiny notch upwards on his ladder of
expectation – and I don’t mean sex, just plain old dating – but
I didn’t want to lead him on.
“No,
honestly. You have it,” I said. “I’m saving myself for the
main.”
“I’ll
have it if you’re not hungry,” Leah said.
Sean
shrugged. “Be my guest.”
I
had a feeling that neither he or I were happy with this outcome. As
the waiter removed our plates, Leah told a story I’d heard before
about a job she’d once had in a restaurant. I found myself
half-listening and people-watching. I didn’t recognise anyone here
from work or the public meetings I’d attended.
A
man at the neighbouring table placed his menu at the edge of his
table but misjudged it and it clattered to the floor beside my feet.
As I lifted it to hand back to him, I noticed the set menu we’d
chosen. And the price. Seriously? Thirty pounds a head. That was
before drinks were added on.
A
quick tally told me the bill would be forty-five pounds each, most
likely more. Although Leah had paid for the drinks in the pub, I
hadn’t banked on this. I’d spent the little I’d saved on the
Easter break with Josh, and tonight would bust a hole in my bank
balance. He needed new shoes more than I needed posh food. Why hadn’t
I told Leah that we couldn’t go anywhere too expensive? The
all-you-could-eat in town was half the price of this. As the waiter
placed our dishes in front of us, the duck pancakes congealed in my
stomach. We couldn’t possibly eat all this food.
My
companions tucked in, digging their serving spoons into mounds of
rice and strips of meat. Candlelight reflected on my glass, the flame
brightening the bubbles. Mesmerised, I watched them spinning to the
surface like a soothing lava lamp until Sean broke in, giving me the
line I’d expected to hear earlier.
“Penny
for them.”
Right
now, I could do with more than a few quid for them. Then I shrugged
to myself. Eating less wouldn’t reduce the bill, so I might as well
enjoy it. Smiling at him, I reached for my glass to take a sip while
I waited for the others to finish serving themselves, but I clipped
the edge with my fingers. As if in slow motion, the glass tumbled
forward, evading my desperate grasp, before toppling onto the lemon
chicken dish, soaking it – and the table – with Prosecco. The
glass hadn’t smashed, but that was all I could be thankful for.
Moments earlier I’d been worrying about the cost of all this food,
and now I’d just ruined it.
“Oh!”
I lifted the empty glass from the dish, its side smeared with sauce.
“What have I done? I’m so sorry.”
Leah’s
lips were poised in an ‘o’ of surprise, her hands clasped to her
cheeks, while a hush had fallen over the restaurant. All eyes focused
on us. Or me, to be precise. If I’d felt as if we’d been sitting
on view before, now I might as well have created my own circus ring,
with me starring as the clown. My face burned brighter than the
crimson lanterns above.
Sean
grinned. “You’re brilliant. How did you guess?”
Ignoring
the waiting staff who scurried over to dab our table dry, he
stretched over to take the Prosecco-ed chicken dish and heaped a pile
on his plate.
He
must have caught sight of my stunned expression, as he chuckled. “I
just love coq au vin.”
Sharley Scott is
the author of the 'Devon Seaside Guesthouse' novels - Bedlam &
Breakfast and B&Bers Behaving Madly.
Her latest book
'The Two Lives of Maddie Meadows' is being published in early July
2020. The second in the series 'The Gift of a Rose' will be available
in the autumn.
Sharley is a
guesthouse owner in South Devon. She is thankful to have been blessed
with lots of amazing and kind-hearted guests, who are nothing like
some of the characters featured in the Devon Seaside Guesthouse
series.
The Two Lives of
Maddie Meadows is a fictional account, but Sharley has never
forgotten how interesting life can be with a toddler. Some of the
mischief Josh gets up to will be familiar to all parents. Sharley has
carried out the threats she made to her son decades ago and now
embarrasses him by telling tales to his girlfriend, although he gets
her back by recounting stories about his mum.
Sharley can be
found on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/SharleyScott3/
Or follow
Sharley on Twitter: @SharleyScott
