Ben from any further feelings of abandonment when Aidan disappears from his life very shortly. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to the dinner. Maybe we’re spending too much time together already. Maybe I shouldn’t be sledging and dining out and dining in with another woman’s husband, no matter how fragmented their marriage may seem from afar.
‘And when I asked Miss Tennyson if one person could really go to New York three hundred times, she laughed and—’
‘Hang on, honey, just a second,’ I say to Ben, quite literally stopping us both in our tracks as I look ahead.
Daylight has really dropped down fast as we approach Teapot Row. I see Aidan’s silver car parked in its now usual place under the yellow glow of the street lamp, but when I get closer I notice something is different, something is missing which makes me stop right there to take it all in.
It’s the For Sale sign outside Mabel’s house.
The For Sale sign is gone. Aidan, it seems, has changed his mind.
15.
I don’t set eyes on Aidan Murphy until it’s time to go next door as promised at five thirty the following day, which gives me the space I desperately needed to gather myself and build up some emotional strength from deep inside after sorting out Mabel’s belongings.
But even though I haven’t seen him, I did hear some rather heavy chat coming from next door when I was tidying at the back of my house, meaning he was either on a very intense and heated phone call, or he was letting off some steam to himself. I don’t know him well enough to decide which of the two it may have been, but he did sound very frustrated.
Ben and I, on the other hand, spent a very relaxing afternoon baking an apple pie, which was the only thing that prevented him from bounding next door ahead of our invited time. As we walk the short distance now to Mabel’s house, the heat of the pie in my hands and the warm, sweet smell of apples mixes with the crisp evening air and calms me right down, helping me regain some composure for the evening ahead.
‘Knock, knock!’ I shout, just like I always used to, hoping the moment I do it that Aidan doesn’t mind us letting ourselves in. I’d suggested we knock properly and wait, but Ben was already ahead of me and Aidan shouted a hello from the kitchen where he is still cooking up a storm.
The first thing I notice when Ben and I step across the threshold of Mabel’s cottage isn’t the smell of food or the sound of Aidan’s voice, but the black suitcase in the hallway all packed up and ready to go. I stop. I do a double-take and almost drop the masterpiece of dessert I’d spent so long making.
‘Is Aidan going home already?’ Ben asks me, but I can barely bring myself to answer. It’s for the best all round, I tell myself. It’s definitely for the best.
The next thing that hits me is the delicious smell of roast turkey and ham, and as it’s our first time inside this door since Mabel left us, I also can’t help but sense that already the whole house feels different even though it’s only just over a week since she was last here.
Photos that once lined the narrow little hallway, mostly of Mabel in her cabaret days and of her wedding day to Peter, have been removed, leaving a faint line of dust where they used to sit on the wall. The paint, a shade of green she used to describe in a posh voice as ‘pistachio’ was darker beneath where the framed photos once took pride of place, and the coat stand that stood in the corner is now empty and lonely without her vast collection of colourful coats to keep it company.
‘Come on in and have a seat. I’m almost ready to serve up,’ says Aidan, looking very much at ease considering he is cooking in someone else’s kitchen. He has a tea towel over his shoulder and wears a fitted navy T-shirt, blue denim jeans, and white tennis shoes. I try not to stare at his muscular back as he leads us inside.
‘I’ll just leave this here, but mind, the dish is still hot,’ I say, leaving the apple pie on the worktop. I have butterflies, but I’m glad at the same time that Aidan’s stay is coming to an end because the longer he