on that door. What if you’d been in here with Owen?’
‘We’ve only had one drink!’ I pulled on the grey dress, ignoring Daisy’s disapproving tut.
‘Two drinks,’ she corrected. ‘And surely a kiss?’
‘No! Well,’ I conceded, ‘a kiss on the cheek.’ It wasn’t where Owen had aimed for, at the end of the evening, but I had chickened out and turned my head at the last moment.
‘Oh, Mary, you’re hopeless. You’ve devoted so much time to studying Alice Hornby that you’re acting like a Victorian virgin. You’re allowed to have sex with a man who isn’t your husband.’
‘Being allowed to do something doesn’t mean I want to. Anyway,’ I continued, turning away from Daisy’s sympathetic expression, ‘whether Alice Hornby died a virgin is one of her greatest mysteries. There’s a letter …’
‘Spare me the lecture. You didn’t go on about her to Owen, did you? You’ve spent so long in a bubble with Leo that you’ve forgotten not everyone is nuts about the Hornby woman.’
‘I can’t not mention her. It’s my job.’ I opened my jewellery box, took out the green pendant necklace that Leo had given me for Christmas, and fastened it round my neck.
‘Colour! At last!’ Daisy said, nodding in approval. She probably wouldn’t have approved if she had known where it came from, or that I was wearing it as a gesture of loyalty to Leo. ‘We’re going shopping before your next date. There will be another, won’t there? You haven’t scared him off with your prudery?’
‘As you’ve seen, removing my clothes would have scared him off far more effectively than keeping them on. We’re meeting to walk the dogs tomorrow, if the weather’s fine.’ I spritzed perfume, brushed my hair and dug out my smart pair of heels. ‘I can’t put it off any longer. Will I do?’
‘Even in that dress, you look gorgeous.’ Daisy hugged me. ‘Remember – you’re a single woman, not an abandoned wife. Go dazzle.’
Leo met me at his new front door, looking smart in chinos that I had bought him and a shirt that I hadn’t. We kissed cheeks politely – such a versatile gesture, capable of bookending the start and end of a relationship. His cheek was soft under my lips, so soft that I suspected it must be the effect of moisturiser. I had to hand it to Clark – he had smartened Leo up in a way that I had never managed.
‘This is nice,’ I said brightly, following Leo into a large space that served as living and dining room. Huge floor-to-ceiling doors opened onto a balcony overlooking the Bridgewater Canal. Inside, the room was pale, shiny, and minimal, all blond wood, white furniture, chrome, and glass. I couldn’t imagine Jonas and Ava staying here. Did they have to shower and put on one of those boiler suits that TV detectives wear, so they didn’t contaminate the place? I cringed at what Clark must have thought of our house at Christmas; but still, I wouldn’t swap my cosy chaos for this place. Six months ago I would never have dreamt that Leo would either.
Clark came in from the balcony, where he had been talking to two men and a woman I didn’t recognise.
‘Hello, Mary. We’re glad you could come.’ Only I seemed to feel any awkwardness over that ‘we’. ‘Come and meet the others while Leo gets you a drink.’
He led me out to the balcony and introduced his colleague, Pete, and wife Liz, and Andrew, an old friend from university. A few minutes later the final guests arrived, another married couple who had once been guests at my house, and who clearly had no idea what to make of me now being a guest like them.
As Leo and Clark had work connections with the two couples, it was inevitable that I would fall into conversation with Andrew.
‘Incredible view, isn’t it?’ he said, leaning against the balcony rail. I nodded, while making a mental note to tell Jonas and Ava never to do that. In fact, perhaps I should sweep the whole flat for potential hazards. ‘I assume you’re a friend of Leo’s as we’ve never met before. Do you work with him at the university?’
‘No, I …’ Why had this not occurred to me, that I might need to explain my presence? I had been too vain, supposing that everyone would know who I was – that my reputation would have gone before me. How demoralising, to discover that Leo hadn’t thought me worth mentioning. And how aggravating, a rebellious part of me argued, that he hadn’t thought to smooth the evening for me by pre-warning the other guests. Caught on the hop, I had nothing to offer but the truth. ‘I’m his wife.’
‘Leo’s wife?’ Andrew stared at me as if he’d just noticed that I had green scales and a horn. ‘You’re the last person I’d have expected to see here. Lower down the list than Elvis.’ He laughed. ‘Good for you. Not many wives would have been so tolerant. Mine certainly wasn’t.’
‘You mean you’re …’ I trailed off, not sure what the PC word to use was.
‘No, absolutely not. My ex-wife was intolerant about much more minor things than that. Leo’s had it easy.’
We both glanced over at Leo. He and Clark were watching us, but swiftly looked away and started talking.
‘That wasn’t suspicious, was it?’ Andrew said. ‘Do you think we might have been set up?’
‘Set up?’
‘Hadn’t you noticed that all the other guests are couples?’
‘No.’ Or rather, I had, but I hadn’t attached any significance to it – certainly not the type that Andrew was suggesting. The idea that Leo might have tried to set me up with a blind date was preposterous. Wasn’t it? I gazed over at Leo again, and he smiled and gave me a nod – the sort of encouraging nod I had seen him give the children a thousand times.
‘No such thing as a free dinner,’ Andrew said. ‘Shall we get it out of the way and then we can enjoy the rest of the evening? No offence, Mary, but I didn’t come here looking for a partner, and I don’t think I’ve found one.’
It was hard not to take some offence at being rejected after I’d spoken less than a dozen words. Perhaps Daisy had been right about the dress. But that was besides the point – the point being, what was Leo doing, trying to pair me off with this stranger? Before I could go and tackle him, Clark called us in for dinner. It wasn’t a surprise when I was ushered to a seat next to Andrew.
‘Fancy seeing you here,’ he said with a grin.
Andrew had been right: removing the awkwardness from the start meant we could talk about what interested us with no pressure about how we were being perceived. Of course I ended up talking about Alice Hornby, and my plans to visit as many bookshops as I could in Lancashire to plug Leo’s book and arrange publicity events.
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