AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Of course, thank you.’ Mack waved as he left the shop.
A few moments later the bell rang again. Mack looked up to see Flora.
‘You’ve just missed…’
‘Colin. I know. I saw him come in. I’m sorry, Mack, I know he’s a lovely man, but I just don’t want to… well, I’d rather not bump into anyone too chatty at the moment.’ She looked at Mack and pulled a face. ‘I’m sorry, that’s probably a dreadful thing to say.’
‘Not at all, I know exactly what you mean. He means well, though.’
‘I know. Ooh, is that fresh coffee I smell?’
‘It certainly is. I’ll pour you one.’
‘Lovely, thank you. So, Mack, don’t faint but I think I’ve finally finished the online wine-course material. Just to warn you, Johnny’s insisting that you and I do some short videos for the website, like an introduction, for example.’
Mack looked horrified.
Flora laughed, ‘I know, I know. I had the same reaction. But he promises they’ll be really short, he’ll film them and do all the editing and we just have to talk wine for a bit. Honestly, if I’m being made to do it you have to do it, too.’
Mack raised his eyebrows. ‘Well, if you think we should…’
‘If we don’t, we’ll never hear the end of it, Mack. Let’s just do it and then he’ll leave us alone.’ Flora took the coffee from him. ‘Lovely, thank you. Right, I’ll get on with those new tasting cards for those wines that came in last week.’
‘It’s lovely to have you in the shop, Flora.’
‘I want to keep busy.’ She smiled at him.
‘I know you do. You get sorted. I’ll fetch you some blank cards; they’re in the back somewhere. No doubt Johnny’s put them somewhere sensible and I won’t be able to find them now.’
Flora spent the next hour writing short tasting notes for the new wines to go on the shelf. It had always been one of her favourite jobs, finding the words to describe the aromas, flavours and textures of wines, and thinking about the best type of food they’d go with. But this time she struggled to find the words, no matter how hard she tried. Instead, her thoughts kept returning to the woman on the bench. And the more Flora thought about her, the more she realised she wanted to talk to her. Why, she wasn’t quite sure. She just knew that the need to meet her wasn’t going away and sooner or later she’d have to do something about it.
* * *
Kate sat opposite Robin at the table, the house quiet except for the sound of the grandfather clock in the hall. The midday chime rang out. Robin looked up from his paperwork, not that he could concentrate. Kate was seemingly lost in her book, a weighty tome on Shakespeare’s wife, Monty curled up on her lap.
Ever since delivering her news to Robin, life had gone on in a strangely normal way, their daily routine not that different from before. But the subject of his affair was a closed one, as far as Kate was concerned. Whenever he tried to broach the subject, Kate shut the conversation down. It just hung in the air, around but ignored, like an unwanted guest at a particularly hideous drinks party.
‘Can I make you something for lunch?’ Robin ventured.
Kate didn’t look up. ‘No, thank you. I’m going to pop out in a bit to pick up some shopping. I’ll get myself something then.’
‘Kate…’
‘Robin, if this is about her, I don’t want to hear it.’
‘It’s not. I mean, of course I want to talk to you about it, tell you it’s over and how sorry I am…’
‘Robin, I’ve said I don’t want to talk about it and I haven’t changed my mind.’ She looked up at him, her eyes impassive.
‘I know. I’m sorry. It’s not that. I wanted to talk to you about next week.’
‘You mean going to court?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, obviously we’ve got to go to the wretched thing, but it doesn’t really make any difference to Billy, does it? It’s too late now.’
The words thumped onto the table.
