Well, that’s a wrap! Just dropped DS off. He’s thrilled with his room. Great flat mates. Now to see if he can cope with shopping and cooking for himself.
Lucky him! My DD was in floods when we left. Brought back memories of prising her fingers from my dress when we dropped her at nursery for the first time. Gosh, I hope this gets easier. I’m driving home in complete bits!
Oh no! Poor you! Hopefully this is just first night nerves, and you’ll hear from her tomorrow with a long list of great new friends she’s made.
Hope she settles soon. Sending hugs to you. Tough for us mums too!
I feel your pain. Similar for us. Hang on in there x
Thanks for your kind replies! Here’s hoping.
Son arriving in Edinburgh Airport as I type. Waving him off in Baltimore was like waving goodbye to my heart. Hope St Andrews is kind to him!
XXX
Sending hugs x
You guys are the kindest of strangers. Your messages give me hope that someone will look out for my kid. Thank you.
Chapter 5
HEATHER
Heathershakesherstraightdark hair free from its ponytail in her plush St Andrews hotel room. If she’s going to manifest a change in her life now Georgia is gone, she may as well look the part. She’s spent the last three days in tracksuits suitable for dragging boxes around the house, moving them into the car and then manhandling them into Georgia’s university accommodation. Now that task is over, it's time to change her outfit, slap on a bit of BB cream and style her hair. She looks in the mirror and plasters a smile on her face. Smiling takes only two muscles, frowning takes forty, right? Tonight, she’ll give those two solitary muscles a darned good work out.
Whilst this is her first ever meal for one in a hotel, modern working women frequently eat out alone. If the manifestation process shows she should go for the promotion her boss is hinting about, eating alone in restaurants could well become a new normal for her. She may as well test the water tonight while she’s in a strange place and anonymous.
She pulls on a shirt dress in vibrant red and treads softly down the carpeted staircase towards the restaurant entrance. What if she’s overdressed? What if the bar’s full of relieved parents in cut-off shorts, drinking whisky, and toasting the start of their new era? Or, worse still, Freshers on their third stop in a bar crawl? She palms the front of her dress at her belly.You look good,she reminds herself.You’ve got this.
Nobody stares, nobody laughs, nobody points when the restaurant manager asks her if she needs a table for one. He leads her to the bay window overlooking the sea where there’s one other small table, also occupied by a solitary diner.
‘Here, madam?’
A grin spreads over Heather’s face. Here, she can stare across the horizon whilst manifesting the shit out of her new life and, well, if it results in tears, she can always direct her face towards the coast and no one will be any the wiser.
‘Perfect.’
The restaurateur escorts her to her chair, and Heather is positioning herself at the table when a movement catches her attention. A broad-shouldered man with blond hair curling just below the collar occupies the table next to hers. It takes a moment for her to switch from intrigue to distaste: Oh my goodness. It is Scott-Bloody-Reynolds, typing on a laptop.
