It’s very informal, it won’t be very late as it’s a weeknight. It’s really for the girls; you know what kids are like. There’ll be loads of people there that you know.’
Kate was about to protest that there would be absolutely no one there that she knew when it occurred to her that Julie was talking to Maggie. She didn’t even have the wit to ask who ‘we’ was – husband, lover, kids, a cat?
‘Number 62, seven o’clock. It’ll be lovely to catch up.’ She looked back at Kate. ‘Is your husband staying here with you?’
Kate’s face must have answered for her because Julie said, ‘Job for them to get away, isn’t it? I just thought that if he was around you might like to bring him along with you. Extra pair of hands on the barbecue always welcome. Although these days you never know whether to say husband or not do you?’ she laughed conspiratorially. ‘Remember Pippa Rose?’
Kate didn’t have time to reply or even draw breath.
‘Pretty? Went to work in the Nat West? Travelled a lot. Long ginger hair. You must remember her. Good at games. Got her colours in the cross-country.’ Julie paused, waiting for Kate to catch up and then leaned forward and said conspiratorially, ‘Lesbian.’ And when they didn’t immediately say anything, continued, ‘I’d never have guessed. Nose ring, Doc Martens and everything.’
Kate would have laughed if Julie hadn’t looked so serious. ‘I was talking to her mother last week in the library.’
Which presumably assured the validity of the statement, thought Kate.
‘Still not come to terms with it.’
Kate wondered whether Julie meant Pippa or her mother.
Walking through town with Maggie, who appeared to be on first name terms with practically everyone they met, had made Kate sentimental for small town life, but at that moment she remembered just how claustrophobic and judgmental it could be. Nodding in a way that she hoped conveyed something appropriate Kate silently thanked the stars that had guided her away.
‘See you tomorrow night,’ Julie said, as she marched off towards Boots. Kate nodded and waved and made agreeable noises; not that there was a cat’s chance in hell that they were going to go.
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