left the house for the second time that morning, a faint redness bloomed on and above Esther’s eyelids where the lipstick remained and refused to budge. Sophia ushered her book-bag-holding, cardigan-wearing daughter up the road, past the local swimming centre and over the zebra crossing until the school gates came into view and they hurried through them. She felt ready to collapse by the time she delivered Esther to her classroom, red-cheeked and eyes streaming from the cold wind whistling outside. Today was her day off from her part-time job in the post office, and she couldn’t wait to get back home and into the warmth. How was it possible to feel like she’d been defeated by the day already?
Once she was back home, Sophia scooped up the small pile of envelopes from off the carpet and took them through to the kitchen. While the kettle boiled, she hung her coat up in the hallway and returned to open the post. It was the usual stuff. Bills. Tacky fast-food flyers. A leaflet with an offer to clean her windows for a fantastic price. Just as she was about to abandon the post, the last envelope caught her eye and Sophia paused as she looked down at it in her hands.
The envelope was pearlescent. She turned it this way and that, watching how it shone, before sliding a finger beneath the seal. As her eyes scanned the invitation, Sophia went dizzy. Her stomach dropped and she sat down in the nearest chair to read it again, knowing she could read it a million times over and it would still announce the same thing. A reunion. A school reunion, right here in Worthington Green.
Immediately, her mind swarmed with memories of her childhood and teenage years, of the people she’d grown up with, and one person in particular, the thought of whom made Sophia’s stomach clench. The same person who had made it so hard for Sophia to make and keep friends as an adult because she found it so damned impossible to trust anyone. The thought of seeing that face was enough to have all her old insecurities come rushing to the surface, along with a certain sense of sadness that felt crushing in its strength. She’d happily moved on since all of that but this invitation was dragging memories back up and she could hardly bear it.
Sophia tried to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat but it wouldn’t budge. She stood to open the window and remained beside it for a moment or two to relish the feel of the cool air on her face. She closed her eyes and steadied herself against the wall. The invite and the envelope lay on the kitchen table and Sophia stared at them, unable to comprehend the possibility of bumping into the woman who had ruined everything. How long had it been since they’d spoken their last words to each other? They’d been eighteen at the time. It had all happened so quickly, Sophia had barely had time to register what was going on. But she hadn’t forgotten what that woman had done. The deceit. The betrayal.
How could the arrival of such a simple thing shake her world up so much? She felt uneasy now, unable to carry on with her plans for the rest of the day. Knowing she had no choice but to carry on because there was housework to attend to, Sophia snatched up the invite and its envelope and shoved both behind the breadbin. Out of sight, out of mind. Probably.
‘Do you think you’re in love with Tom Archer?’ Sophia was curling her hair in the mirror when Magda asked the question.
Magda was painting her toenails on the bedroom carpet, eyes focused on the brush.
‘Maybe,’ Sophia shrugged. ‘Who knows?’ She spun round and looked at Magda, wondering how it was possible for her best friend not to think Tom was the sexiest lad in the world. ‘What I do know is that whenever he’s near me, I get this weird flutter in my chest. My heart starts to beat really, really fast and my legs feel like jelly. Is that stupid?’
Magda shook her head quickly. ‘No, I don’t think so. It sounds like you do really like him though.’
‘I do,’ nodded Sophia. And she meant it. Tom Archer had been her one true desire since before she could remember. She still couldn’t understand why he liked her when he could have his pick of any of the girls in town.
She settled down beside Magda on the floor and perused the different colours of nail varnish before picking up a hot pink. ‘He’s actually asked me out. He wants me to go round to his and watch some movies.’ Her stomach flipped and she bit into her bottom lip at the thought of being alone with him.
She saw Magda smile. ‘And are you going to go?’
Sophia wavered. On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to be alone with him, but on the other, it would eat into her time with Magda, and she didn’t want her friend worrying about being replaced. ‘Maybe,’ she said in the end. ‘I haven’t decided yet.’
Arriving home after her night in the hotel, Magda pulled up in the driveway and switched off the engine. Rather than heading inside straight away, she sat and stared at the exterior of the house, mentally building herself up to take that step.
Greg would no doubt be in his home office, pretending to work but secretly texting and emailing whichever woman of the moment he was trying to get into bed. He was a private accountant, bringing in most of their income, while Magda was a content writer for an online magazine, focusing on fashion and beauty. She adored to write, and it was possibly one of the only things she had ever been good at. She didn’t earn anywhere near as much money as Greg did, but she didn’t care. She enjoyed it.
Greg liked to hide away in his office. Magda wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t sure why he thought she was. She was clever. Clever enough to put together the pieces of evidence Greg left behind him like a trail of breadcrumbs and reach the nasty conclusion that he’d been having numerous affairs behind her back. She wasn’t entirely sure how long it had been going on for, but she didn’t think it really made any difference.
‘I’m back,’ she called into the empty quietness. Her voice echoed around the hall. She heard a noise from behind the door of his study.
‘There you are,’ Greg said once he’d stepped into the hall. ‘Good. I tried to ring you last night.’
Magda forced a smile. ‘Yes. Sorry I didn’t answer. I was invited out to a spa day at the last minute and I had such a good time I decided to stay over. I ended up drinking a bit too much at the bar so driving back wasn’t an option by then.’
Greg narrowed his eyes and spoke his next words in an infuriatingly condescending manner. ‘Yes, you seem to be getting a bit fond of the drink lately. I’d slow down a bit if I were you.’
‘I know, and I will.’ She felt like shrinking beneath his stare. She wanted to tell him that he was the reason she was drinking so much, that it was because of him and his lies that she felt drinking was the only option she had.
‘Good. Dinner tonight? I thought we could go out and grab a bite to eat.’ Everything he said was a command. Anything that sounded like a question was one of the rhetorical kind that warranted no answer from his wife. ‘I’ve booked us a table for eight. I’d better get back to work.’ Greg spun round, strode back up the hall and disappeared back into his study. Left to her own devices, Magda tugged her suitcase up the stairs and pushed open the door to her bedroom. They’d long since stopped sharing a bed, but Magda preferred it that way. How could she possibly get a good night’s sleeping beside such a lying bastard?
*
It was while chopping vegetables in the kitchen the next afternoon that she came across the envelope, propped in the post holder along with the other household bills and letters. Magda wiped her hands down the front of her blouse and picked it out. Once she’d opened it and read the invitation, inviting her to a school reunion back in Worthington Green where she’d grown up, she had
