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“Yes, I realise that, but there must be others. Would you like me to check?”
Sarah nodded, and Kate began searching train times on her phone. The two women sat in silence, the only sound Kate’s fingers tapping her phone, and Sarah taking small sips from her mug.
“OK, it looks like there’s another train in an hour. Is your partner waiting somewhere nearby? You probably need to text him to let him know, or you’ll miss the next one, too.”
“He’s gone.”
“Pardon?”
“I said he’d gone.”
Sarah looked up, her eyes swimming in tears. The bravado was gone, and in its place Kate saw a vulnerability that tugged at her empathy.
“What happened?” Kate asked, sitting down beside Sarah and placing a hand on her arm.
“He left me. Right there on the Camel Trail. Got on a train and headed back to London. Bastard.”
“Oh dear, that sounds a mean thing to do. Had you had a falling out?”
Sarah looked at Kate in surprise. “No? Why would we have fallen out?”
“Sorry, um, it’s just there must have been a reason for him leaving?”
Sarah dug her phone from her pocket and showed Kate Mark’s message.
“Shit. That’s pretty brutal. And he didn’t say why he’d gone?”
“No.”
Here they come, thought Kate, as one fat tear trickled down Sarah’s face. One was followed by another, and another, until Kate had Sarah held in her arms, sobbing like a baby. At first they were angry tears, directed solely at Mark. According to Sarah, he’d been a wet blanket, fun straw, crap at conversation, crap in bed, crap at cooking, crap at everything if Sarah was to be believed. The angry tears were followed by self-pity. What had Sarah ever done to deserve such treatment?
Sarah’s tears stopped abruptly. She blew her nose loudly, throwing her used tissue on the floor, and looked Kate square in the eyes. “What do you think?”
“Me? I only met you both yesterday. I don’t think I’m qualified to give an opinion.”
“But you must have formed one. Everyone is judgmental to some degree. Did he come across as an arsewipe to you?”
“Um, not that I could tell?”
This was clearly the wrong answer, as Sarah huffed and folded her arms tight around herself. “So if he didn’t seem like an arsewipe, how did he come across?”
“Well…” Kate realised she would need to choose her words carefully. “He seemed rather devoted, if I’m honest. He kept running errands for you and didn’t once complain.”
“Why should he complain? What’s wrong with asking him to do stuff for me?”
“Nothing… it’s just I’ve not met many men who would be so…” Kate wanted to say hen pecked, but felt this may not go down well. “So… obliging.”
Sarah humphed and glared at Kate. “So you think it’s my fault he left me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You implied it.”
“Look, Sarah, you asked for my opinion. I told you I wasn’t qualified to give one, but you insisted. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Sarah looked up at the ceiling. Kate wondered if the tears were about to resurface, but instead she took a deep breath and launched into a rant.
“My mum says you need to put men in their place, let them know who’s boss. It’s worked for her. She’s been married thirty-eight years. I don’t hear my dad complaining. No, Mark just wasn’t man enough. That’s the problem. Do you know he left his bike for me to take back? Imagine that! Ha! He toddles off on his steam train and there’s me, looking a right loser, wheeling two hire bikes for miles back to Bodmin. What kind of a man does that to his woman? Plus, he’d got a puncture, so I had to explain that to the hire guy, who made me pay extra. I’ll be sending Mark a bill for that, I promise you. Men are useless, spineless creeps. I’d be better off a lesbian.”
