Chapter 22
Following my trip to the supermarket, I made myself a rather exotic sandwich for lunch – cold chicken, hummus and roasted peppers – and then rang my daughter.
Nicky answered almost at once.
‘So you’re home safe,’ she said. ‘No problems or lost luggage?’
‘A bit late but okay,’ I said. ‘So when are you coming over to see me? I’ve brought you a present.’
‘Excellent! It’s my day off tomorrow, so I’ll pop over to see you for lunch, and then I can see my favourite boy too.’
‘Do you mean Ivan? My word, you do surprise me,’ I said.
Coincidentally, the cat in question was coming in, a small, suspicious-looking feather stuck on the top of one ear. He stopped halfway through the cat flap and glared at me.
‘It looks like your favourite boy has been up to no good in the garden.’
‘I’ve got some leftover minced beef for him,’ Nicky said, ‘he’ll like that. And there are some little scraps of smoked salmon he can have too. I saved them from our starters at the pub last night. Do you think he would like them?’
‘I think he would force it down out of politeness,’ I said. ‘He’s back on the ordinary stuff now I’m home. It’s no wonder he is sending me dirty looks if that’s what you’ve been feeding him.’
Nicky laughed. ‘Right, I’ll see you tomorrow.’
* * *
That afternoon I got to Anita’s house just after three o’clock.
I found her sitting in the garden with her laptop on her knee and a cup of tea at her elbow.
Bonzo her dog was wrestling with some squeaky toy at her feet and at the end of their garden, Rick was doing something to the lawnmower which involved a toolbox and a cross expression.
‘I’m just sorting out my photos,’ she said, ‘before I show them to Rick and he sees what we got up to. There seemed to be an awful lot of meals and glasses of Metaxa.’
‘Marvellous, wasn’t it?’ I said with a sigh. ‘I’m so glad I went. Do you know I was trying to think of excuses not to come along when you first mentioned it. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.’
Anita beamed. ‘I knew I was right about you. You fitted right in. It’s like I told you; the Old Ducks have a sort of magic.
We have fun, we talk about everything, we don’t take offence if someone disagrees and we don’t particularly care what other people think.
That’s what I call liberation. And because of that we are very good at supervising new relationships.
There is written evidence of that, probably in several scientific journals. ’
I laughed. ‘Not for me.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Not yet maybe, I think you might be surprised. A lot of women our age think life is slowly winding down. The Old Ducks don’t think like that, not one bit, and it’s very empowering.
And by the way, I have put in a request to Juliette our president for you to join us.
Don’t tell me you feel the same about the future now as you did two weeks ago? ’
‘No, actually. I don’t.’
She smiled. ‘Right then, tea or coffee?’
‘I don’t mind.’
Anita held up a warning finger.
‘Okay then, I’d like tea,’ I said.
‘Good choice. We must go to the painting group next week. There isn’t a meeting this week because Cassandra is away. She will be wanting to know how we got on and what we achieved,’ Anita said, passing me a mug of tea and a plastic box of biscuits.
‘Not much actually,’ I said, ‘but I expect Dennis will arrive with a huge folder of things he did while he was there. And his certificate.’
‘Teacher’s pet,’ Anita said, unwrapping a KitKat. ‘I didn’t have any comments on my certificate of attendance, did you?’
‘Nothing,’ I said, ‘and I expect Cassandra will look hard at the rest of us. Not angry, just disappointed. I don’t care; I had a great time. And I do have a drawing of Costas’s foot of which I’m quite proud.’
‘I think men probably have better feet than women because they don’t spend years cramming them into fashionable shoes.’
‘I wonder who is in our rooms now?’ I said wistfully. ‘In Hotel Costas. Looking out from the roof terrace, going down to the sea and trying out the cafés and restaurants. Lucky them.’
‘Onwards and upwards. So, where next?’ Anita asked, ‘You said you wanted to plan your next trip.’
‘Now I have unpacked and done all the washing, I’m going to see my sister in America and then I’ll do some research. Perhaps a river cruise. Or Mallorca.’
‘Oooh, I recommend that,’ Anita said. ‘My friends had a fabulous time there. A little place near Pollenca. The pictures looked absolutely gorgeous, I’d love to go there. But then the old town of Rhodes was nice too.’
Rick came in through the kitchen door.
‘Boots,’ Anita shouted automatically, and he scuffed them off.
‘Hello, Meg. Had fun? We had a marvellous time in Scotland. Pity about the rain. And the blackflies. And my ankle. And Harry having food poisoning. And Vince breaking his glasses. We had to mend them with a blister plaster. And the car having a puncture miles from anywhere. But the locals were really helpful. We’ll go back, I’m sure.
I like going back to places. I know where everything is and how it works.
Unlike that blasted lawnmower, which still isn’t working.
I’ll have to get someone round to fix it.
Bashing it with a mole wrench doesn’t seem to be working this time. ’
Blister plasters. A mole wrench. Ridiculous things which reminded me of Will.
The image we had conjured up between us, of Mr Mole in his velvet waistcoat, living underground.
That was the first time we had chatted and smiled at each other. When we had connected. For a moment I felt rather sad to think I wouldn’t see him again. He lived near Bicester. I could hardly just drive around there aimlessly wondering if I would see him, could I?
* * *
Nicky came round the following morning to see me and hear all about the trip.
I presented her with a rather lovely, blue-patterned tea towel and a giant bar of Greek chocolate, and she was delighted.
And even more pleased when Ivan came and wound himself around her ankles while we sat out in the garden having lunch.
She reached down to scratch his ears, and Ivan threw himself on the ground in ecstasy.
‘That cat is a traitor,’ I said, ‘he never does that for me. All he has done since I got home is scowl at me and bring me a dead mouse.’
‘But it’s a sign of high favour when cats do that,’ Nicky said. ‘You should be proud. Now then, tell me all about this Doctor Bill person. Maureen was asking about him. She says she had such a crush on him back in the day. What’s he like?’
‘Really nice,’ I said. ‘Rather reserved at first. Almost shy. But when he realised we weren’t going to take endless selfies with him or try to embarrass him, he loosened up a little. He knew all about the Minoans. And he was funny. And considerate. And kind.’
Nicky grinned. ‘Sounds like someone else has a bit of a crush.’
I could feel my face getting rather hot. ‘No, not at all, absolutely not.’
She laughed. ‘It’s okay, Mum. You’re allowed to like him.’
I felt a bit panicky. Did I want to talk about him? I wasn’t sure.
‘Do you want some tea? Or a cold drink? I have some squash.’
Nicky narrowed her eyes. ‘You’re trying to change the subject, aren’t you? What is it you’re not telling me?’
‘Nothing!’
‘Nonsense. I can tell. You’re hiding something. You did like him?’
‘Well all right, I did,’ I said, ‘I liked him quite a bit actually.’
‘So will you see him again?’
‘I shouldn’t think so,’ I said, trying to sound light-hearted, ‘he lives miles away, and anyway, we didn’t exchange any details. So no.’
‘Pity. I expect he still has a good bedside manner.’
‘Nicky!’
‘Don’t be so stuffy. There’s nothing wrong with it. So did you do a lot of painting and sketching?’
‘Not as much as I thought I would,’ I said, ‘although I did do a nice drawing of Costas’s foot.’
‘Huh?’
‘Oh, I must tell you all about that. It was hilarious.’
I filled her in on all the details of our life class session while over the hedge we could hear Bonzo barking accompanied by the sounds of Rick’s lawnmower trundling up and down, so he must have managed to mend it.
Nicky looked at the photos on my phone with considerable interest, particularly the few with Will in them. She spent some time zooming in on the picture to get a good look at him and at last she looked up at me.
‘That picture of him in the restaurant.’
‘You’ll have to narrow it down a bit. We went to a lot of restaurants.’
‘The one where he is sitting across the table from you. And you were obviously there on your own, not with the group at all. That’s a bit of a clue, isn’t it?’
‘Ah yes, that was…’ I tried to remember. Was it three days ago or two when we had gone to the vineyard for dinner? It seemed like an age, another lifetime. ‘We had dinner out together, that’s all. A lovely evening in a fantastic location. It wasn’t without incident.’
‘I think he likes you. I can tell,’ Nicky said.
‘Oh, don’t be daft. It was just one meal out. I expect it was the one that evening, where the waitress took our picture.’
Nicky grabbed my phone and found the picture again. And then she passed it over for me to look at.
‘His expression. Don’t you see it? The way he’s looking at you. I wish Joe looked at me that way sometimes.’
I stared at my phone, and to see Will again, to see his expression and remember how I had felt – it took my breath away for a moment.
The problem with the over-spiced meal, the fishbone, the toothpick, the way I had terrified the woman on the stairs – none of that mattered because after that we had gone down to the sea, not wanting the evening to end. And he had kissed me.