Of course, I wasn’t the one to break the kiss because I never wanted it to end. Instead, he pulled back fractionally before kissing me again, softer this time. I smiled against his lips, loving the intimacy of the move. His nose brushed against mine in a little Eskimo kiss before he pressed his forehead to mine.

“Have a good day,” he whispered.

I couldn’t open my eyes. I was still lost within the bliss of his mouth on mine. When I traced my tongue along my bottom lip, I could taste him.

“Mummy?”

I gulped. Sasha’s little voice brought me out of the little romantic haze I found myself trapped in. “Yeah, we’re going, beautiful. Say bye to Daddy,” I said, clearing my throat as I pulled back and smiled sheepishly at Carson.

“Bye, Daddy!” Sasha chirped, already pressing at the button on her car seat to release her seatbelt.

“I’ll be here just after three then, all right?” Carson said before twisting in his seat and playfully tugging on Sasha’s foot. “Be a good girl at nursery.”

Carson had offered to have Sasha for the day today, but I had just felt it was a little too soon. Although she liked him, spending the whole day with her this soon would probably be a little awkward for them both. They needed time to adapt, and Sasha actually loved her crèche and her little friends who went there.

As I helped Sasha out of her car seat, I swung her onto my hip and pulled up her hood so it covered her face. The paparazzi immediately started asking me questions and walking alongside me. I just stayed quiet the whole time, keeping my gaze firmly focussed on the door of the building, counting the steps until it would be over. Carson had already assured me they wouldn’t be allowed to set foot inside the building, some code of privacy or something schools and stuff had. They had to ask permission to set foot on campus grounds – and they wouldn’t have that.

Once safely inside the building, I went to the next window and peeked out, seeing Carson drive off. I breathed a sigh of relief that it was over for a while. Hopefully by the time I came out of class at the end of the day, they would have lost interest and be gone.

The nursery Sasha went to was a little colourful wing of the building, which was especially for students who had children. There were only two nursery nurses who worked there, and an assistant. They only had about twelve children aged between zero and four. This place was a godsend for me and the sole reason I applied here in the first place.

As I stepped through the door, the two mothers I saw every other day – Katherine and Simone – both stopped talking midsentence and looked at me in disbelief. I forced a smile and set down Sasha, taking off her jacket and hanging it on her peg with her lunchbox before watching her run off to the kitchen/home play area to talk gobbledygook with her friend, Scarlet, just like every other day.

I cleared my throat and walked up to the pair who now had their heads together, whispering and trying not to look at me. “Hi. Good weekend?” I asked politely. “Did you get that assignment done you were worried about, Simone?”

Simone pressed her lips into a thin line and nodded. “Barely managed it.” She shared a meaningful look with Katherine and then turned back to me. “We should really go. See you around,” she stated, waving goodbye to the nursery nurse who had just stepped out of the bathrooms with one of the little boys from the crèche.

I nodded, hating that they looked at me with so much distaste and didn’t even have the decency to try and disguise it. I had known both of these girls for over a year; Simone I knew for a year and a half. I saw them every day, laughed with them, chatted. They knew me. But yet they were now looking at me with distain and clearly couldn’t get away from me quick enough. It actually hurt.

“Okay. Want to grab a coffee or something at lunch?” I asked, hoping I was wrong and they hadn’t read the papers, that they weren’t looking down their noses at me and I was just being paranoid.

Katherine’s nose wrinkled unconsciously. “We’re busy, sorry.”

Nasty bitch! So much for the common bond we’d made over the last year that she’d been dropping her little boy off for! “Oh, with non-lap dancers I suppose,” I muttered, nodding knowingly. She didn’t answer; she just shrugged, clearly not even feeling guilty. I sighed and turned away, walking over to Sasha. I already knew people would react differently to me today, but I wasn’t expecting it to come from people who actually knew me. I could hear them whispering behind me, but I didn’t look back as they left the room, letting the door swing closed behind them.

As I got to Sasha’s side, I bent and kissed her cheek, listening to her prattle on to her best baby friend in a language I had no hope of deciphering. “Mummy has to go to her lessons now. I’ll see you later. I love you.” She broke her chatter long enough to kiss me back, and then was frying up some fake eggs in the plastic kitchen.

When I got to the door of the nursery and twisted the safety lock to open it, the nursery assistant called my name. I stopped, turning and smiling at her. Hilda was a lovely, jolly, older lady who Sasha adored because she wasn’t afraid to get down on her knees and be silly with the kids. “Hi, Hilda,” I greeted.

She smiled awkwardly. “Hi, Emma. Umm… Cindy would like a word with you,” she said, nodding over her shoulder. When I looked in that direction, I saw the two nursery nurses talking heatedly.

“What about? Is something wrong?” I asked, letting the door click closed behind me.