Impossible to Forget(70)

Still, better late than never. Maggie was positively delighting in the buzz that she got each time her phone screen lit up. Even the surge of disappointment when it was someone other than Leon was kind of appealing. It made her feel more alive than she had in years. Leon was the first thing that she thought about when she woke up and, on the nights when she wasn’t actually with him, the last, delicious thought to scamper across her mind before she drifted off to sleep. And she was enjoying every moment.

Leon, it seemed, was as bad as she was and he could be quite romantic when he put his mind to it, his text messages all sprinkled with little hearts and kisses. Maggie had thought that he was teasing her to start with, but no, this appeared to be a whole new side to him that had previously been hidden under his down-to-earth manner. When they had been together a month, she had found a little note in her purse, handwritten on a tiny scrap of parchment paper. It was a simple heart with an arrow scored through its centre and their initials carefully added, just like you might see in any schoolgirl’s exercise books, but on the back he had written ‘One perfect month’. It was so corny, and at almost fifty years old she felt that she ought to be impervious to its charms, but actually she had been unfeasibly touched by it and had placed it carefully between two store cards so that it didn’t get bent or damaged. If she could have framed it and not looked like a love-sick fool, then she would have done.

There had been other little things since then. She had mentioned in passing that she was partial to Lady Grey tea, and the next time she went to his flat she had found a packet next to his habitual builder’s variety. He also had cleared a drawer for her in his bedroom, and then been so apologetic about his level of presumption that she had had to kiss him to stop him worrying that he had done the wrong thing.

They had spoken about it one night, in bed after sex.

‘Can I ask you something?’ Maggie asked, her head resting on his chest as his hand caressed her back. ‘It’s a bit embarrassing,’ she added.

‘Oh God,’ replied Leon. ‘Do I need to brace myself?’

‘No.’ Maggie laughed. ‘It’s just, I’d never really thought about us like this’ – she gestured at their naked bodies with an open hand – ‘until that first night. Had you?’

‘Have I always fancied you, you mean?’ he asked bluntly.

Maggie’s insides squirmed at the direct question. ‘Well, yes. I suppose so.’

There was a pause whilst he thought about it, which spoke volumes in itself. She should never have asked the question, she supposed, if she didn’t want to hear the answer.

‘Of course I fancied you,’ he said after a moment or two, ‘but I didn’t think there was much point. Between your studies and Tiger, I never seemed to get a look in.’

Had it really been that obvious, about Tiger? Maggie pushed herself up so that she could look into Leon’s face.

‘Nothing ever happened between me and Tiger,’ she said.

‘But you always wanted it to. Tell me I’m wrong.’

Maggie shrugged.

‘So, to answer your question, yes. I’ve always fancied you. Happy now?’

Maggie smiled and lay back down, grateful that he hadn’t asked her the same.



She made her way up Call Lane, so vibrant and teeming with life after dark, but always slightly edgy when the sun came up and you could see all the dark corners. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and plucked it out to read the message. It was from Angie.

Am invited to 30th birthday party on Saturday. A 30th!!! Get me – down with the kids! Know no one except the birthday girl. Fancy being my plus one?

Maggie’s first thought was it would be time that she would rather spend with Leon. Then again, they had no particular plans for Saturday night. She imagined that the evening would consist of food and a bottle of wine on either her sofa or his, followed by sex, languid and luxurious or urgent and frenzied, depending on their mood.

But Angie didn’t know this yet. Maggie wasn’t sure why they had kept the relationship secret and she felt bad. Since the reunion, Angie had sent her a relentless stream of texts and phone messages, and she had been unusually elusive, either dodging Angie’s questions or answering them with one of her own. The problem was just that Angie could be so very perceptive. She would see that there was something different about Maggie and have the details teased out of her in five minutes flat, and Maggie didn’t want that. She loved having a secret. Nobody in the whole world knew, or even suspected, what she and Leon had done.

But it wasn’t just that, Maggie knew. If Angie found out about her and Leon then she would mention Tiger, and Maggie didn’t want to think about Tiger, not just now. And worse than that, Angie would know what Maggie knew in her heart but was ignoring: that Leon was her second choice.

She looked again at Angie’s text message. Of course she should go to the party with Angie. Leon would still be there when she got back. And maybe she would tell Angie then, when they were in a crowded room.

That sounds fun, she typed. I’d love to come. Where and when?





36


‘So, what do I need to know before we get there?’ asked Maggie as she sat in Angie’s flat waiting for her to finish getting ready.

‘Her name is Hope,’ Angie called through from the bedroom. ‘I met her on that business course I did a couple of years back and we kept in touch. I don’t see much of her now, but we just clicked on the course. Similar ideas about stuff. Same sense of humour, that kind of thing.’