We Met in December by Rosie Curtis

Author:Rosie Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-08-16T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Alex

10th May

I get on the train to Canterbury. Not sure why it feels like the right thing to do, but it’s been nagging at me. I dunno, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but the last couple of times we’ve spoken on the phone Mum’s sounded a bit fragile: keen to tell me how busy she is, and how much she’s got on.

I stare out of the window as the train pulls away, watching the familiar landmarks. I’ve sat on this same train countless times. An older man in an expensive-looking suit clears his throat in the chair opposite and spreads his newspaper over the table, and I feel a stab of grief. Weird how it hits you. It’s not the anniversaries or the birthdays, it’s the way a stranger shakes their newspaper open, or a song on the radio at the nurses’ station, that reminds you of what you’ve lost. I rub my face with both hands, screwing up my eyes and then opening them wide. I can’t remember not being tired. Everything’s just a blur of—

I wake up as we pull into the station at Canterbury, because someone knocks me on the shoulder with their bag as they’re pulling it down from the racks overhead.

‘Sorry, mate.’

‘You’ve done me a favour,’ I say gratefully. I stand up, blearily, and pull my ticket out of my pocket as I get off the train.

I see my mother before she sees me – she’s sitting in the car, waiting in the pick-up area beside the car park.

‘Hello, darling,’ she says, and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

‘Mum.’

‘I thought we could get a bit of lunch before we head home – go to the Red Lion?’ she says, and we pull out of the car park.

The pub’s busy, despite it being a weekday. We squeeze into a table in the corner and scan the menus.

‘I spoke to Gwen the other day,’ my mum says, casually.

I sit up and put the menu down. Mum carries on looking through the lunch options, as if we didn’t both know that she was going to have the same thing she always has when she comes here – ploughman’s lunch, no pickled onion, and half a pint of shandy.

‘What for?’ I ask.

I feel weirdly uncomfortable about that. Alice’s mum was nice enough, but the idea of her ringing is … weird. Is it weird? Maybe it’s perfectly normal for them to stay in touch.

‘You were going to marry her,’ Mum says, clearly reading my thoughts. ‘They would have been family. I thought it was nice.’

I make a vague noise of agreement. The last time I’d seen Alice had been anything but nice; we’d had a massive argument, where she’d made it more than clear that I was throwing my life away, ruining hers, and giving up a good career to (and I quote) piss about wiping people’s backsides for the rest of my life.

I go up to the bar and place our order. We chat

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.