The Last Bookshop by Emma Young

Author:Emma Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘How was your day?’ James said that night on the phone. Was his tone perfunctory, or was she imagining it?

‘Fine,’ she said. The thought of telling him about today’s phone call from Lease Freedom, let alone about her visit with June, made her throat close over. She was already battling to eat. She tried another bite of her toast. ‘Yours?’ Macduff, who had stopped his galloping headlong around the house now he had reached stately middle age, but who still managed to appear quickly whenever there was food around, sat at her feet, watching hopefully.

‘Yeah, fine. Are you eating toast for dinner again?’

‘Nah,’ she said, trying to chew more quietly, and casting about for something more to say. She was sick of James nagging her to eat properly. ‘I had such a cute old lady in this morning.’

‘Yeah?’ His tone softened.

‘I asked her if I could help her and she said, “I need a dictionary. A good one – you know, one with all the rude words in it.”’ James laughed. ‘The two of us spent the next ten minutes looking up all the worst swearwords we could think of.’

‘Aw, that is cute. Listen, baby, I might not have time to stop by tomorrow. I have a work thing to deal with.’

‘Oh. That’s all right. Everything OK?’

‘Yeah. I just need to put in a good showing. If you’re not too tired, maybe we could do a late dinner on Friday?’

‘That’s fine. Hey, I’m going to go to bed. I love you.’

‘Love you too,’ he said, and hung up. He had not sounded loving. He had sounded distracted, and relieved that she hadn’t made a fuss about him cancelling. Well, she supposed it was nothing but a taste of her own medicine. Unless it was something else. Or someone else. Oh God, was it someone else? Don’t be stupid, she told herself. You’re imagining disasters around every corner now. You’ll talk properly on Friday. You’ll tell him about June, and about the rent. It’ll give you time to make some decisions.

Cait brushed toast crumbs from her lap onto Macduff’s head. He began sniffing around. She gave him the last charred fragment and stood up. He jumped ecstatically into the warm spot she had left, his prize clamped in his jaws.

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