Wonder Women by Rosie Fiore Page B

far left of the semicircle.
    â€˜My name is Eric Pocket, and for years I’ve told everyone I don’t have a middle name, but I do, and it’s Hillary.’
    This got a good laugh too. Next in line was one of the teenage boys.
    â€˜I’m Daniel, and there’s this one Coldplay song I secretly like.’
    His friend next to him looked utterly horrified. ‘You WHAT? I can’t believe you! Coldplay? Wow.’
    Louise pointed to the friend. ‘Now, now! It’s your turn.’
    â€˜Hi, I’m Chris, and I totally judge people by their taste in music.’
    Daniel looked unimpressed. ‘It’s supposed to be a little-known fact about you. Everyone knows that about you. Even people who’ve just met you.’
    â€˜Okay,’ said Chris, leaning back and stretching his legs. ‘I used to sing treble in the church choir.’
    Daniel was so astonished at this he was speechless.
    â€˜Well, clearly that one WAS a surprise!’ said Louise. ‘Next …’
    It was Jo’s turn. She’d been enjoying everyone else’s confession so much, she hadn’t thought about her own. ‘Er … um … I’m Jo, and I once dressed up as a pineapple and gave out leaflets for a travel company?’
    She got a smattering of applause for that one, but nothing like the one for the middle-aged tweedy woman, who announced baldly, ‘I’m Maureen, and I’ve been doing yogafor thirty-five years. I can put both feet behind my head.’ She got a standing ovation. By the time they’d gone around the circle, the ice was well and truly broken, and before they knew it they were into the first session, where Louise talked them through limited companies, partnerships and sole trading.
    *
    In Hendon, Lee was enjoying every minute of his solo-daddy day. He’d loved sitting quietly with the kids to watch a film, and when Imogene woke from her nap, she was lively and playful and kept pulling herself up on the furniture and Lee’s legs. Zach was playing on his sand table in the garden, but he kept running in to tell Lee about some adventure his dinosaurs were having in the sand. When he saw Imogene was up and playing, he wanted to kiss her and carry her around, but Imogene was having none of that. She crawled determinedly under the kitchen table and sat there, giggling to herself.
    Lee remembered a game he’d loved as a child, so he dashed upstairs to get a blanket from the linen cupboard. He arranged four dining chairs into a square in the middle of the living room, and showed Zach how to drape the blanket over the chairs. They weighted it with books and put cushions into their little house. It was darker than Lee had expected, so he went to get a torch from the kitchen drawer, scooping up Imogene as he went. He and both children crawled into their secret house under the blanket. Zach thought it was fabulous, and kept dashing out to bring in more and more toys, and Imogene saw it as the perfect opportunity to crawl all over her daddy and bounce on histummy. They played in the house so long that it took Lee a while to work out that he was hungry and that the kids must be too. Jo had left a lunch of cold chicken and some salady bits in the fridge, and he fetched it, along with some cartons of juice and a few bread rolls, and they had a fabulous torch-lit picnic in their blanket house.
    They crawled out after lunch, and Lee realised that the living room was in a state of advanced chaos. Even though the kids howled in protest, he dismantled the blanket house and hoovered up the crumbs and all the sand Zach had tracked into the house. He washed up and packed snacks, toys and a football for a trip to the park. It wasn’t until two thirty that he thought to check his phone and saw he’d missed a call from Jo at lunchtime. She’d left a message raving about the course, and her voice sounded vibrant and excited. He felt a little bad that