Helen
They’d reached the old wreck at the far end of the beach.
‘I think the tide’s turning. We’d better head back,’ she said.
‘I’ve got out of the habit of paying attention to the sea.’
‘Didn’t you miss it?’
‘The sea? Yeah. I never had much time to escape to the coast when I was working. Did you miss it when you were in London?’
‘Yes, I was always looking for excuses to come home to visit. I suggested we move here when the boys were small, but Angus didn’t want to live this far from civilisation, as he put it.’
‘Dashford’s not that remote.’
‘I guess it feels like it is when you’ve always been a city dweller. He grew up in Glasgow then moved to London to study. And his work’s in London.’
‘What does he do?’
‘He’s a product designer. That’s where our money went. Investing in an invention that was going to change the world.’
‘I’m intrigued.’
‘Some form of lightbulb that used a fraction of the energy that current light bulbs do.’
‘Sounds laudable. Saving the planet and all that.’
‘You’d have invested in it then?’
‘I’d have wanted to see the figures first.’
‘And that’s the difference between you and Angus. You’d have sensibly analysed its chances of success, whereas he just fell in love with the idea, and piled our money into it until there was none left.’
‘It didn’t work then?’
‘It worked beautifully - but each bulb only lasted about 10 hours before they blew up.’
‘Shame.’
‘He tried to persuade me that if we just borrowed another ￡500k, he and his equally deluded mate could get it working properly.’
‘You didn’t believe that? Wasn’t it Thomas Edison who had a thousand attempts at inventing a light bulb?’
‘I bet he didn’t suggest to Mrs Edison that they spend all their savings and remortgage their house to do it!’
‘How did you bag yourself a product designer? I always thought you’d end up with a lawyer.’
‘Why a lawyer?’
He grinned. ‘It might be something to do with your ability to argue. A lawyer might have the skills to challenge you better than anyone else.’
‘How am I supposed to take that?’
‘I meant it as a compliment.’
‘I’m amazed you ever got anyone to the altar, if that’s how you think you compliment a woman.’
He gave her a wistful look. Had she upset him? Or was it the mention of marriage?
‘I bagged myself a product designer, as you put it, when I met him at a friend of a friend’s terrible birthday party.
Someone decided to put on a jazz CD on repeat, and there wasn’t enough booze to make it bearable.
Angus was there with his best mate Iain.
He sidled up to me and said he knew somewhere far more fun.
So Carrie and I and Angus and Iain headed to this seedy club in a taxi. ’
‘Carrie that you shared a flat with?’
‘Yes. We’re still friends. We talk most days.’ Helen decided not to mention that they’d talked about him yesterday. ‘Anyway, Carrie ditched his mate the following day, but Angus and I started seeing one another. That’s when he confessed he was responsible for the jazz.’
‘He was a jazz musician?’
‘No! He’d changed the music at the party as an excuse for us to disappear off together.’
She hadn’t known whether to be horrified at the level of manipulation or delighted that he’d been so keen to get to know her better that he was prepared to ruin someone’s celebration.
But he’d made her laugh, and he reminded her of Nigel in some ways.
Not physically - Angus was six foot four and wouldn’t have looked out of place on a rugby pitch.
But she felt relaxed with him, and she could talk to him easily in the way she’d been able to talk to Nigel.
And the big advantage was that Angus obviously fancied her.
She smiled to herself. The first few years had been bliss.
‘How did you meet Madison?’
‘At a business event. She liked my English accent.’
‘And what did you like about her?’
Nigel did that awkward laugh he used to do when he was thinking something that he wasn’t sure he should share.
‘You don’t have to tell me that you were mesmerised by her ample bosom.’
He was laughing properly now. ‘I’m not that shallow. You know I’m more of a leg man.’
She’d forgotten that. Another reason that this was unlikely to go any further. A leg man wasn’t going to be impressed by the varicose vein that had begun to make its ugly way down the back of her right calf.
‘We’ve talked more than enough about our exes,’ he said. ‘Are you ready for that coffee now? Because I can see Mary putting out the chairs and tables outside her cafe.’