Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? by Julie Butterfield Page A

peace
would reign in the house. It was a tactic she had adopted after
realising that arguing, discussing, trying to reason - all just
prolonged the agony. Daniel never listened, never welcomed her
opinion, never changed his mind. If she shared in the conversation
it just made it last longer. So now she kept quiet. And even though
every morning she decided that she had to tell Daniel the good
news, show him her bank balance, each evening came to an end with
Daniel none the wiser.
    When Friday
came, Rebecca woke up feeling relaxed and happy. She was working
the early shift and had decided to go to Leeds at tea time and not
on Saturday morning. There was a play at the Leeds Grand that night
and she had booked a ticket. She had thought about asking Sarah but
decided that her daughter probably enjoyed spending weekends with
her friends not her mum so she booked one ticket and said nothing.
She was meeting Mrs Wendover on the Saturday and had also booked
herself a couple of hours at the Spa.
    She couldn’t
stop smiling at the Deli and Carol had stopped berating Susie so
loudly whenever she brought up the possibility of Rebecca of having
an affair. But Rebecca ignored them both and when her shift was
over she walked to her rusty old car and drove to the train
station, only slightly guilty about the note she had left Daniel
explaining her early departure as she jumped into the first class
carriage.
    Her suite was
waiting for her, like an old friend. The play was wonderful, the
meal she had in the hotel restaurant glorious, the new dress she
wore for the occasion looked fantastic and by the time Rebecca fell
into bed she was exhausted but so happy that for almost the first
time since she won, she forgot to fret about the fact she hadn’t
told her husband anything about her new life and she drifted to
sleep without a thought of Daniel in her head.
    Saturday she
met with Mrs Wendover who although a little confused by Rebecca’s
sudden interest, presumed that she was worrying about Gwen’s long
term plans. She admitted that the home was in difficulties. People
just couldn’t afford the cost of private care at the moment, she
confided in Rebecca. Few could now treat themselves to the luxury
of a home like Parklands. Bookings had gone down and a few of the
residents were actually having trouble paying their bills.
Delicately Rebecca asked how much a home like Parklands sold for
these days and wasn’t really surprised to find that it would be
well over 3 million. The house and grounds were large and in a
prime location regardless of added value of the business being run
there. Rebecca had patted Mrs Wendover’s arm, told her she thought
everything would work out okay and then had tea and sandwiches with
Gwen before leaving to spend the afternoon at the Spa.
    On Monday,
arriving back in Darlington, she felt as though she had been on
holiday with her batteries fully charged. It was her last week at
the Deli and on Saturday it was Susie’s party which meant Rebecca
couldn’t go to Leeds. But then she was a free person, nothing to
tie her to Darlington, nothing to stop her going to Leeds
permanently. Nothing except Daniel of course.
    She had skirted
around the subject at work but eventually Carol and Susie realised
that Rebecca didn’t want them to mention anything about her leaving
work to Daniel. And it was only a few short guesses after that to
work out that Rebecca hadn’t actually told Daniel she was leaving
the Deli which sent Susie into overdrive with her affair theory.
But they both agreed to keep Rebecca’s news to themselves, in fact
Susie relished the thought that finally Rebecca was defying her
husband and loved the idea that she knew something Daniel did
not.
    Friday was an
emotional day, all three of them sniffed their way through
Rebecca’s last shift, weeping into pots of tea and sobbing over the
scones. Finally, Rebecca took off her apron for the last time,
hugged both her friends and said goodbye. She walked across