AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
‘You will come, won’t you? I know it’s a bit last minute, but I want to introduce him to my family. Well, the closest I’ve got to family right now, that is.’ Thea lurched forward as the bus accelerated. She turned to Gracie expectantly.
‘Of course I will.’
‘You won’t be too tired, will you, after work today?’
Gracie placed a tender hand on Thea’s arm. ‘Is that your way of saying I should retire?’
Thea looked at her wide-eyed. ‘Oh, no – of course not. I didn’t mean—’
Gracie burst out laughing as she grabbed the handle on the back of the seat in front of her to steady herself as the bus slowed down for the next stop. ‘Now, child, after all these years working together, you should know me by now. Not a serious bone in my body.’
Thea ran her fingers through her long dark hair. ‘You had me there,’ she said.
‘I certainly did, didn’t I? Now, I’m the one who normally throws the parties. What is the occasion, really? I mean, I’ve seen your boyfriend already, in and out of the apartment. Are you two finally moving in together?’
Thea leaned forward and rang the bell for the next stop. Thea and Gracie loved taking the bus back to Pimlico from the British Museum. Although they chatted amiably on the journey, mostly they took the time to just enjoy the London vista from the top of the bus. Gracie often said she had a bus tour every day – the same bus tour enjoyed by the many visitors who flocked to the capital, except that she lived there and experienced the different seasons, each with its own appeal.
They both loved Christmas with the festive lights and the hustle and bustle as pedestrians scurried from one shop to another, seeking out special gifts for loved ones. Spring always came with its promise of warmer evenings, and the best part was that when they caught the bus after work, it was still light. Thea also loved summer and the tourist season; she liked people-watching as tourists stood capturing special moments of their time spent in London. Now, though, it was autumn, and she could see pedestrians struggling to keep their umbrellas up in the blustery weather as it started to rain.
Glancing out of the window as the bus passed the Dominion Theatre, Thea noticed the trickle of theatregoers already arriving for the evening show.
Gracie noticed too. She turned to Thea, who was also quietly taking in the familiar scene. ‘Do you fancy a trip to the theatre one evening? We could make it a Friday and stop for a bite to eat and take the Tube home afterwards.’
Thea turned to Gracie and smiled. ‘Yes, that would be a great idea. I haven’t been to a show for quite a while. Miles isn’t interested in going when he’s in London. It’s a shame, really, with so many shows to choose from.’
Thea noticed that Gracie didn’t comment, choosing to keep any thoughts about Thea’s boyfriend to herself.
Gracie and Thea went back to people-watching as the bus crawled slowly along in the commuter traffic. As the bus skirted Trafalgar Square, Thea looked out of the window at the four imposing lion statues, which tourists loved to clamber over.
Gracie had once told her that if a person touched one of the lions in Trafalgar Square, they were destined to come back to London again. But Gracie had also said that she couldn’t tell if this was true; even though she had taken her own daughter, Tanya, to see the lions and they had stroked their beautiful manes – which apparently were not identical – Gracie had never left London since her parents had arrived from Jamaica.
Although the bus always took a little longer than the Tube, Thea particularly enjoyed the views from the top of the bus as it skirted Green Park and the Wellington Arch, especially at this time of the year. The old-fashioned streetlamps adorning the pavements gave London a magical, Dickensian feel that she never tired of.
At their stop, Thea followed Gracie down the stairs of the double-decker. Even though Gracie found going up the stairs a struggle, they both preferred to sit on the top deck and see the sights. As they stepped off the bus and began to walk through Pimlico, Gracie remarked, ‘You didn’t answer my question, Thea.’
Thea got the housekeys out of her handbag. She sighed. ‘No, we’re not moving in together yet.’
‘Oh, that is a shame. How long have you been stepping out?’
Thea smiled at that old-fashioned turn of phrase.Stepping out.It sounded so outdated – even coming from Gracie, who was in hermid-sixties. Perhaps it was a turn of phrase that Gracie had heard her older relations use back in Jamaica. She felt like asking, but imagined Gracie would just think she was trying to change the subject. ‘We’ve been stepping out for nine months. I keep hoping he’ll get a transfer back to the UK office.’
‘How long has he been working out in Hong Kong?’
‘Around five years, I think.’
Gracie shook her head. ‘Long-distance relationships. It’s not easy.’
Thea was beginning to wonder whether, contrary to what Gracie thought, itwaseasy. As Milesoften said, when they were together they did all the fun things, like meals out and cosy nights in, and occasionally going to his hotel, but mostly meeting up at her flat. It was way more fun spending quality time together than having to do mundane things like shopping and household chores. She agreed with his sentiments – up to a point. She had been quite happy with the arrangement at first, when he’d promised he would reduce his stints abroad and get a ‘regular’ job in the office in London. But so far, that hadn’t happened, and there wasn’t even any hint that he was putting anything in place to change things.
Just lately, for some reason, it had started to play on her mind that it was beginning to feel less and less like a real relationship. Although at some level every couple would like it all to be romance and roses around the door, at some point real life always intruded. The mundane side of living with somebody and doing everyday things together – wasn’t that part of what being in a relationship was all about?
Perhaps that was the reason she had made specific plans for that evening. She felt that finally introducing Miles to her friends would make her feel a bit more normal. She would have loved to invite her sister and brother-in-law over, but they no longer lived in London, and although she could have arranged it for another evening or a weekend, it had been a spur-of-the-moment thing. She knew Miles was flying in from Hong Kong that day. They hadn’t seen each other for two weeks.
Thea and Gracie walked up the steps of the Georgian terraced townhouse, which was just a couple of streets away from the bus stop near Pimlico Tube station. Thea noticed Gracie fumbling in her handbag. ‘It’s all right, I’ve got the key,’ she said. Each of them had a key to the front door of the house and a key for their own flat. Thea’s flat was on the ground floor.
They walked into the hallway, Thea’s comfortable flat shoes slipping on the smooth, old-fashioned decoratively tiled floor.
