Where The Story Starts by Imogen Clark

Author:Imogen Clark [Clark, Imogen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2019-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

With tea cooked, eaten and cleared away and Noah bathed, read to and in bed, Clio and I settled down on the sofa. I was aware that Poppy was still loitering somewhere. She was at that age when she didn’t know whether she fitted with the children or the grown-ups. Of course, I knew exactly which camp she fell into, and this wasn’t going to be the kind of conversation that a thirteen-year-old needed to earwig on. Luckily Poppy seemed to get that too. She sloped off to her room and I heard her door close, firmly barred against intruders. We could chat without fear of interruption.

We started with Marlon.

‘Should I arrange another meet-up?’ asked Clio eagerly.

‘I can use a telephone!’ I said.

I’d meant it as a joke, but Clio seemed to pull back, like a snail into its shell.

‘Of course,’ she said quietly. ‘I didn’t mean to . . .’

‘I’m teasing,’ I said, and Clio smiled a little sheepishly at me, but there was a wariness in her eyes. She really didn’t want to mess this up, I could tell. It was so endearing and it made me feel far more special than I had any right to feel.

‘I think I would like to spend some more time with him,’ I continued. ‘Get to know him a bit better, but there’s no rush. I’ve got work and the kids. I can’t keep racing off on dates at the drop of a hat. And I don’t want to look too keen,’ I added with a grin.

‘I get it,’ she said.

‘And what about you?’ I asked, risking a more personal question now that my love life seemed to be fair conversational game. ‘Are you seeing anyone?’

‘No one special,’ she said, twisting her mouth downwards. ‘There’ve been a few over the years. I saw this guy Richie for a while. I think Mummy started to get excited about grandchildren. He was sweet, but in the end it didn’t work out. He’s married now.’

I saw that sadness again, the one I’d seen in the photographs.

‘The trouble is,’ she added, ‘they are either only in it for the kudos of going out with aristocracy, or I think they are and then they get offended. And going to an all-girls school, I never really got the hang of talking to men. The ones I met when I was younger were all friends of Hector’s and they were only interested in sex. And the people I know now are happily paired off and having babies. I never meet anyone single these days. I suppose if I had a job . . .’ She shrugged and let out a little sigh. ‘I think I might have missed the boat.’

‘Being in a couple isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,’ I said.

‘Well, I wouldn’t mind giving it a go,’ Clio replied. She tipped her head back against the sofa and looked up at the Anaglypta ceiling. ‘I realise that this might sound odd to you,’ she said. ‘So please forgive me.

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