‘That sounds interesting. I’ll have that.’
Wilbur was taking this in. Turning to the next table, he saw the bald man his ghost had pointed out, the one with the birthmark on his scalp. He had seen this precise scene. This precise restaurant and its décor. This was way beyond déjà vu. But these growing signs and tells were merely confirmation that he had seen this before. It was impossible. But, at some point, you had to trust yourown feelings over logic, if logic had nothing to add to the argument except incomprehension.
And so, as they ate their food and drank delicious Italian wine, he decided to believe.
The Good Old Days
Wilbur put down his wine glass. He needed to put something straight.
‘Ignore what I said earlier,’ he told her.
‘What about?’
‘The meeting with the bank manager.’
‘The loan?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m not going to bother. We don’t need that kind of pressure. We don’t need to expand. We have a perfectly good bookshop. And it doesn’t need to change its name. Agnes – Mrs Bagdale – the original owner was a legend of sorts and she did things differently. She planted the seed and I think it’s right she is remembered. She ran it for over thirty years and never once set up another shop. Maybe she knew what she was doing. I just want to run a really good bookshop and keep it that way and have a nice time. Do it the Mrs Bagdale way.’
Maggie was so surprised she put down her cutlery. ‘But you were adamant. You said it was the opportunity of a lifetime.’
‘I know, I know …’
‘Is this because I sounded worried? Because I asked if it would take us away from each other?’
‘No. It was nothing you said. Not at all. But the thing is, it will. It will take us away from each other, Maggie.’
‘But you said it—’
‘I know what I said. But I was lying to myself. Look, I don’t want more than this.’
‘More than what?’
‘More thanus. More than our life.’
‘Wilbur—’
‘Look, we are having our honeymoon inVenice. We are literallyabroad. The shop is doing well and could stay that way. We need to find some balance. It’s not my dream to have shops on every corner. And I know it isn’t yours. If I take this offer, years from now you’ll be sat on a sofa in a very expensive and magnificent house on Sumner Place in South Kensington and you’ll be deeply, deeply unhappy and want to leave me. And you’ll be right to want that. Because I’ll already have left myself.’
‘Your imagination, Wilbur, honestly! South Kensington, for heaven’s sake? We have no idea it would be like that.’
‘I do, actually. And I don’t want it.’
Her eyes shone with a smile and a memory.
‘What?’ he asked her.
‘You haven’t changed.’
‘Since when?’
‘Since I first met you on Glossop Road. Remember? Telling me to mind the glass. You’re still that boy. And that’s good. I don’t want to lose him.’
His eyes glazed. ‘No. I’m right here.’
