Page 36 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

Harry scanned the options. He hoped that the real-life Taylor would say it wasn’t important, because the truth was, he had very little experience when it came to the bedroom. There’d been Fay, of course, and a couple of others, but he wouldn’t even call them relationships, they were so short-lived.

‘My turn,’ said Kate, choosing a card. ‘You’re going to pop the question. Do you a) take her shopping to choose a ring, b) go by yourself and surprise her or c) ask her best friend… What’s the matter, Hal?’

Harry put his head in his hands.

Kate reached across the table and patted his arm. ‘What is it, Harry? You can tell me, you know. You can tell me absolutely anything.’

It all came spilling out. He had never confided in anyone before about how he’d fallen in love with Fay, had been looking at rings and daydreaming about having a family.

‘I really thought it was going to happen, Kate,’ he whispered, dabbing his eyes on a handkerchief. ‘And then she dumped me.’ He was mortified to be sitting here, with tears running down his cheeks. Thankfully no-one appeared to have noticed the upset. That was another good thing about the board game café; most people were too engrossed in their games to notice what anyone else was doing.

‘And the way she did it,’ he said, keeping his voice low. ‘She took the Michael out of my love of trains. Said our relationship had come off the rails, that we’d hit the buffers. Reached the end of the line.’

He looked at Kate to see if she found it amusing, but she said, ‘Oh, Hal. That’s awful. Why be nasty about it?’

‘Exactly. She thought I was ridiculous. A loser. A geek.’

‘Her loss. You’re a lovely man, Hal. Some fabulous woman is going to realise that one day. And I’m pinning my hopes on that woman being Taylor. You two are very different but opposites attract.’

‘I can’t see it ever happening. I’ve tried to be helpful. I offered to fix her washing machine when it leaked. But she said no.’

‘Yeah, you’re always helping people. But you know what I read somewhere? That people like being asked for help. It cements social bonds apparently. Could you ask her to help you with something?’

‘She’s always so busy. I wouldn’t want to add to her burden.’

Kate looked thoughtful. ‘I’m sure she’d say no if she hasn’t time. Make it something small.’

‘Could I borrow a cup of sugar?’

‘Might be a bit odd, when you live three miles away and could easily go to the shop.’

Harry paused for a moment, looking at the traits cards on Kate’s side of the game board.

Giggles. Homemade clothes. Sexy underwear.

Homemade clothes.

He suddenly knew exactly what he’d ask her to help him with.

19

She felt like she took one step forward and then two steps back.

The previous day, she’d arrived at school to collect Max in an optimistic mood, only to find him in a bloodstained shirt, with mud on his knees and puffy, red eyes. There had been an ‘incident’, according to Mrs Green, but Max was apparently as much to blame as the other child, if not more so as he’d been the first to lash out.

‘But he was teasing me,’ Max had wailed. ‘He kept asking why I don’t have a dad.’

‘You do have a dad,’ Taylor had said to Max, and then to Mrs Green: ‘That’s not teasing. It’s bullying.’

‘The head is speaking to the other child’s parents, but that doesn’t alter the fact that physical violence is not acceptable at Essendale Primary. Under any circumstances.’ The elderly teacher had glared at Max then with narrow eyes, eyes that made Taylor want to whisk him home there and then, and never take him back.

On the train home, she’d suggested – and not for the first time – that Max could move to Hebbleswick Primary. She’d been hopeful this time that he might say yes. True, he hated change, but he’d managed the house move okay. But it seemed that Max disliked change more than he disliked Essendale Primary despite recent events, and he wouldn’t budge.

‘If I moved schools,’ he said, ‘I wouldn’t get to go on the train every day.’

‘We could go on the train on a Saturday,’ Taylor had said hopefully. ‘A day trip somewhere.’

‘Every Saturday?’