The Love of Her Life by Harriet Evans

Author:Harriet Evans
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780007287703
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-12-31T22:00:00+00:00

It had happened three days ago, and even admitting she held the memory seemed deceitful, as if she were lying to Zoe, deceiving her herself … She and her ex-Woman’s World colleague Sophie had been visiting Georgina and her baby. Georgina had, slightly to everyone’s surprise, not least Claire’s, married Phil from the office (Charly had definitely not been invited to that wedding), and they were living in Hampstead, in a beautiful little house just off Keats Grove, behind the shops near the Heath. Sophie was a hearty type, now working for an off-the-beaten-track guide book publisher, who specialized in holidays through bits of the Amazon jungle that no human had ever been to before. It was she who’d suggested they walk across the Heath towards Gospel Oak station.

‘Fresh air,’ she’d said briskly, as they emerged from the once-chilly-now-frazzled Georgina’s house into a baby-free zone and each breathed an internal sigh of relief. ‘Do us good. Phew.’ She blew her short brown hair off her face. ‘Glad to be out of there, aren’t you?’ she said, slightly as if they’d just emerged from battle. Georgina, a super-efficient dynamo in the office, didn’t seem to understand why Ned, her sweet baby, didn’t want to organize himself in the same way her computer did, and wouldn’t stay silent when she wanted him to. All in all it had been a rather disheartening hour or so, and Kate and Sophie had both felt they were in the way. They were discussing this, and skirting by the Ponds, when Kate suddenly clutched Sophie’s arm.

‘What?’ said Sophie.

‘Nothing,’ said Kate. ‘Thought I was going to slip, that’s all. Sorry.’

Her heart was beating, she was red hot, she pulled her hat off, unwound her scarf and pretended to be listening as Sophie carried on telling her how she would deal with the apparently very simple demands of having a baby. But she wasn’t listening. No, of course not.

There, ahead of her, standing by a bench, facing each other, were Charly and Steve. She knew it was them, of course it was. He was holding her elbows, as if trying to restrain her, contain her, and she was yelling at him, her face angry, dirty with rage. Her beautiful brown hair was underneath a black crochet hat, a matching scarf wound round her neck, her long long legs still in her Charly wardrobe of jeans and high-heeled boots.

Kate watched as she broke free of his grasp and angrily kicked at the metal leg of the bench. She didn’t know what to do; they were walking towards them.

‘Ohmigod,’ said Sophie suddenly. ‘Shit.’

‘What?’ said Kate.

‘It’s Charly. Having some massive barney with some bloke. Oh god.’ Sophie turned to Kate. ‘Look, I know she’s your friend and everything, but …’

‘What?’

‘I really can’t face her, seriously, not while she’s in the middle of that, too. No way.’ She grabbed Kate’s arm. ‘Let’s cut through to the pond, go round the side. We’ll miss them.’ She shuddered. ‘Sorry, Kate. I’m being horrible. Do you mind?’

‘No,’ said Kate hurriedly.

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