friend. Years ago, Sylvia and I, and the three other girls I’d shared a house with at university, used to meet up here once a month, chatting about our lives, wasting an afternoon over coffee and food. Karen and Lesley had both moved away; Karen to Canada, where she’d taken a teaching post at the St. George campus of Toronto University, and Lesley to Dublin, where her family lived. Last year Sylvia had had a big falling out with Sasha, and she didn’t hang out with us anymore. Sometimes I had an e-mail from her, but she’d found a new boyfriend who had become a fiancée, and they’d moved into a new house, and gradually Sasha’s life had diverted away from the life we had shared.
So now it was just me and Sylvia, my best, my dearest friend. She was working as a journalist on Lancaster’s regional newspaper, but was desperate to get out of the boring provinces and move to London. She would suit London, I always thought. Already she was too vivacious and bold for Lancaster, her blonde hair and jewel-bright outfits setting her in bold relief against the sandstone and the concrete.
“You look like you’ve got some news,” I said. Sylvia was fidgeting in her seat, and it wasn’t like her to be first to arrive.
“Not yet,” Sylvia said wickedly. “First, what’s this I hear about a new man? A little magpie told me you were out having dinner with a man in a suit.”
The magpie would have been Maggie, who had been Sylvia’s flatmate when we’d first graduated. She’d gotten her nickname because she only ever wore black, very occasionally with something white, and had a penchant for bling.
I found the smile that had barely left my lips had returned.
“Well?”
“Shit, Sylvia, I can’t keep anything from you, can I?”
Sylvia gave a little squeak of delight. “I knew it! What’s his name, where did you meet him and what’s he like in bed?”
“God, you’re dreadful.”
“You know you want to tell me.”
I took several sips of tea as Sylvia hopped from one bum cheek to the other.
“His name’s Lee, I met him at the River, and it’s none of your damn business.”
“And is he absolutely stunning?”
I fished out my cell phone from my bag and scrolled through the menus until I got to the photo I’d taken of him, the only photo I had. Fresh out of the shower, dressed only in a white towel, hair damp, the bruises on his face and on his side fading. The look on his face lecherous.
“Oh, my God. Catherine. He’s totally hot, isn’t he? Why the fuck didn’t I see him first?”
For once, I thought, allowing myself to feel a tiny bit smug.
A small frown furrowed between Sylvia’s neatly styled eyebrows. “What’s with all the bruises? Is he some sort of cage fighter? Stunt man?”
“You tell me. He’s being all secretive.”
That got Sylvia’s interest piqued. “Really? Secretive how?”
“I don’t know what he does. He turned up at my house one night looking like he’d been in some fight and then jumped out of the car on the way home. He wouldn’t tell me what had happened.”
“Was he pissed?”
“No.”
“Oh, my God, he’s a gangster.”
I laughed. “I don’t think so.”
“A drug dealer?”
I shook my head.
“Well, why won’t he tell you what he’s been up to, then?”
“I’ve no idea. But I trust him.”
“You trust someone who gets into fights and then won’t tell you what happened?”
“He’s been honest with me about everything else.”
“Has he? How do you know?”
Sylvia was entirely right. I knew that if he did have a job, the hours were irregular and he was often away for days at a time. I hadn’t met any of his friends, his family—having them all the way down in Cornwall was convenient, to say the least. I hadn’t even been to his flat.
“If you met him, you’d know. He says everything with his eyes.”
She hooted with laughter and kicked me under the table. “Get a grip on yourself!” She swirled the last of the coffee around in her cup and looked at me from under her eyelashes. “Well, it’s about time I did meet him anyway. Why don’t you bring him along to my farewell party?”
“What farewell party?”
The excitement of holding her news in bubbled over at last and Sylvia’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“I’ve gotten myself a job at the Daily Mail. I’m starting in January.”
“Shut up! No way!”
“Yes way. I am getting out of this town. Finally.”
Genuinely thrilled, I gave her a hug