to check everything was still in what I laughably called “order” and to make sure no supernatural beings had busted in again while I was away. They hadn’t, which I almost took as an insult. Nothing said “slow inevitable slide towards irrelevance” like the point that mysterious creatures from the shadowy depths of the collective unconscious stop showing up where you work and try to hire and/or bang you.
Once I felt I’d given Eddie Baby an appropriate amount of time to do the decent thing and tell his wife why he’d run out on her, I hopped on a bus to Brentford and went to make sure she was okay. That and give her the bill. Because unlike about half the women in my life, I didn’t have mysteriously limitless resources.
When Galatea opened the door she looked—well there were no two ways about it, she looked like she was made of stone. She was still person-coloured but she’d gone back to that way Elise used to be when we first met where she only moved when she thought about it and didn’t think about it that often.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hello.”
“He’s called then.”
One nod, sharp and precise. Then she turned silently and led me inside.
Everything about her was eerily unchanged from the last time we’d met. Then again she didn’t need to eat or sleep or sit down or touch much of anything, so it wasn’t like she’d need to fix her hair or redo her makeup. Even her clothes were the same—Elise had changed outfits fairly regularly as she’d experimented with her identity, but Galatea clearly hadn’t considered the option.
I lowered myself onto the sofa, and she sat beside me. There was something I found weirdly upsetting about the gesture—if she was anything like Elise she’d have preferred to stand and it didn’t look like she used the furniture while she was alone, so she was clearly doing it for my benefit.
“How’d it go?” I asked.
She was motionless for a long time. “It was painful,” she admitted at last. “I’d thought I was doing well. I’d thought we were happy.”
“You were, for a while.” I didn’t know if that was true, but it seemed like what she needed to hear.
“He said he would let me keep the flat. That I could continue to draw money from our accounts, although I have few expenses. I thought that was kind of him.”
I wasn’t sure I did. It felt more like the bare fucking minimum to me, but I wasn’t about to go there. “Did he say anything else?” There were a couple of things I was angling for here, but I didn’t want to bring either of them up if I didn’t have to.
“He said there was—that there was somebody else. That was easier in a way. I wouldn’t have liked to think that he would rather be alone than be with me.”
There was a melancholy logic to that. And part of me wondered whether it wasn’t the loneliness that bothered her more than losing the specific guy. She’d been created to be a companion after all—I say companion, the less polite term would be fucktoy—it couldn’t have been easy for her to get used to the idea of living by herself.
“Did he”—this was going to be delicate and I was bad at delicate—“say anything about … about the state of your marriage going forwards.”
“Do you mean did he ask me for a divorce?”
“Yeah.”
Another moment of absolute stillness. “He said it would make things too complicated. Because of my—unusual status. His new partner isn’t especially keen to be married, so there isn’t any pressure there. I believe we will carry on as we are. Legally, at least.”
“And what about you?”
I thought the question confused her, but she made no outward sign of any emotion of any kind. “What about me?”
“Do you want to stay married to him?”
“I hadn’t given the matter much thought. Somehow it feels of little consequence. I’m not sure I’d want to marry again, not when it involves putting the person I would be marrying in legal jeopardy.”
She was probably right in a sense. The whole marriage gambit had been reckless from the start, and to give Mr Ed his due, there was no especial reason for him to do it unless he genuinely cared about her. “It’s not just a practical issue, though. I mean, I’m not at all qualified to talk about this because the longest relationship I’ve ever had is with my Netflix account, but if you