Chapter 12

12

‘We’re being far too nosey,’ Pearl declares, although she is hungry for details. She wants to go to bed satisfied that Michael has the happy relationship he deserves.

‘No, no, it’s fine.’ He hesitates and looks around the room, as if not sure how to put it. ‘I’ve been… sort of talking to someone.’

‘Oh, someone local?’ Lena asks.

‘Not exactly. She’s in the States, upstate New York…’ He gets up to poke at the fire momentarily. It’s clearly a distraction from delving into further details. Pearl feels bad now for even bringing up the subject of dating.

‘How long’s it been going on?’ asks Shelley, who has no such qualms.

‘Erm, around nine months. First time we did a call, we talked for three hours.’

‘So… you haven’t met?’ she ventures.

‘No, not yet.’

‘She’s in the States,’ Lena reiterates, but Michael shakes his head.

‘She’s actually on a layover in London around now. Just about arrived, I should think. She’s a flight attendant,’ he adds.

‘How long’s she there for?’ Shelley asks eagerly.

‘Until Monday. So, three days. A last-minute thing. A colleague didn’t want to do the London flight so Krissy took it. They do that sometimes, apparently. When they get their rosters and there’s a flight someone doesn’t want to do.’ He breaks off and smiles. Now he’s warming up, Pearl decides as she tops up everyone’s glasses. She had worried that they might be a little much, the three of them as gang. But at nearly midnight Michael is showing no signs of wanting to call it a night.

‘I’ve learnt a lot about rosters,’ he adds with a grin.

‘So, what’s she like?’ Pearl asks.

He shrugs, and for a moment it’s as if he’s a teenage boy being grilled about his first girlfriend by his aunties. ‘Just a really lovely person. We seemed to click,’ he adds. ‘You know when you feel like the conversation could go on forever?’

Pearl nods, realising she never had that feeling with Elias, and wondering how she’d got it so wrong. ‘How often d’you talk?’ she asks.

‘As often as we can. Most days, when she’s not working?—’

‘We’re grilling you.’ Pearl catches herself. ‘I’m sorry?—’

‘It’s okay, honestly.’ He laughs.

‘—But I have to ask you one very important question,’ she adds. She laces her fingers together and leans towards him.

His brown eyes catch the light of the fire. ‘What’s that?’

‘Er… why are you here, Michael?’

He frowns, as if not getting it. ‘You mean, why aren’t I in London?’

‘Yes!’ she said emphatically. ‘You should’ve told us she was coming over. We could’ve planned our trip for the new year, or spring or even later?—’

‘I actually didn’t know,’ he cuts in, ‘when we arranged your visit. And also, there are guests coming?—’

‘But the family only booked in at the last minute,’ Lena reminds him.

‘Yes, but the other guy booked weeks ago and I didn’t want to mess him around,’ Michael states firmly. ‘He seemed especially keen to stay here. Said it was exactly the kind of place he’d been looking for…’

‘Well, I think you should have,’ Pearl announces with uncharacteristic boldness. ‘A weekend in London with Krissy, who you talk to almost every day?’ And who you’re besotted with, she wants to add.

Michael looks around at the three friends and shrugs in a ‘what-could-I-do?’ kind of way. ‘Just bad timing. But it’s not really, is it?’ he adds quickly. ‘It’s great you’re here. I couldn’t believe it, actually. That you could come up before Christmas.’

‘Neither could we.’ Shelley laughs.

‘Can we see a picture of her?’ Pearl asks. Michael looks surprised, but then goes to fetch his phone. They all crowd around him on the soft leather sofa as he brings up photos of Krissy. She’s strikingly beautiful, in her mid-forties perhaps – although they are all holding back from demanding further information. Her hair is glossy and dark, her skin creamy, her eyes big and brown. And something seems to happen to Michael as he talks about how she has brought up her son alone, and the child stays with her mother when Krissy is working. How she has worked hard all those years in order to raise him, and lives in a little wooden house by a river. He seems to light up, and appears a little surprised by his own effusiveness as he slips his phone into his pocket.

‘She sounds lovely,’ Shelley announces.

‘She is. But she also lives over three thousand miles away.’

Michael gets up then to let Stan out into the garden. As cool air gusts in, Shelley’s mind flickers to her terraced house and her life there. It’s okay most of the time. She loves her friends and her job, and Martha and Fin of course, even though they’ve turned sour, like milk – Martha especially. And mostly, Shelley does the proverbial rolling-up-sleeves thing, and they all get by. But occasionally, she is startled by something – like a dazzling light shone into her eyes. And she can’t tell anyone – not even Lena or Pearl – that when the light shines, she knows it. That falling in love with Joel was a mistake.

Of course, if she hadn’t, there would be no Martha or Fin. But her mind doesn’t work that way when the light dazzles.

And here is a man who grafts away alone, and has a chance of happiness. What was that thing she’d spotted on Joel’s desk, when she’d ventured in to dust his studio? He’d written it on a scrap of paper and left it there.

Once your one life is gone, it’s gone.

Probably just a doodle, she’d surmised. And she thought it should be ‘ has gone’, rather than ‘ is .’ But never mind that now, because the sentiment seems to ring loud and clear in her head.

Michael could go to London to see Krissy.

She looks at Lena and Pearl, who are admiring the hand-made ceramics dotted around the snug little room, and agreeing how perfect the cottage is. ‘Girls,’ she starts, biting her lip. ‘I’ve had an idea.’

‘What is it, Shell?’ Lena looks quizzical.

‘You’re going to think I’ve gone mad,’ Shelley replies. ‘But what if we can persuade Michael to go to London? D’you think we could look after things here?’