Page 34 of The Late Bloomer’s Playlist

‘For you? My thoughts are that it’s long overdue.’

I smiled in return and asked, ‘And what about for you?’

‘That it’s mostly more trouble than it’s worth.’

* * *

Two cups of tea later and I was curled up in my armchair enjoying the hammer of rain outside. I had nowhere to be, and after the excitement of the last few days it felt like a quiet bliss that I didn’t need to leave the house. I turned my attention back to my book, the cat and mouse of an Agatha Christie classic – And Then There Were None – with Fred acting as a hot water bottle on my feet.

‘I’m going out.’ David’s voice cut through the quiet. ‘Do you need anything?’

‘Where are you going?’

‘I’m meeting someone for a coffee.’

I narrowed my eyes. ‘When will you be back?’

David narrowed his stare in return. ‘I don’t know.’

A laugh hiccupped out of me. ‘Then you’re not meeting anyone for coffee.’

He shrugged. ‘We might have coffee afterwards.’

‘Go.’ I waved him along. ‘Enjoy yourself. I have everything I need.’

David shouted his goodbye from the hallway. In time with the front door clanging shut, my phone hummed with the notification for a new message. Something in me shifted, like a soft and playful tickle happening somewhere in my stomach. I’d never been especially bothered about my phone before, seeing it mostly as a necessary evil in case of emergencies. Now, it was a mechanism for delivering short, sharp electric shocks straight to my chest. And sometimes other places. I snatched at the handset and saw a notification for a new text. And I hoped, hoped, hoped–

‘Yes!’

–that it would be Sheila.

Sheila: How do you feel about dancing?