A car behind me beeped its horn. When I turned around, a driver who was parked to my right indicated that he wanted to drive off and I was in the way. ‘Looks like I’d better get going too. Best of luck with the move, Janet,’ I said and reversed back up the street. I felt shocked. Stuart leaving? I couldn’t imagine him not being around. Why hadn’t he told me? I asked myself as I turned the car and drove away. Truth was, Stuart and Janet seemed an odd match. She was a neat woman, always beautifully turned out in navy or grey, but she appeared to lack humour; she was certainly not someone you could have fun with. They say opposites attract. Stuart seemed to be all the things she wasn’t: slightly dishevelled in his dress, kind, thoughtful, good company and he had a quirky sense of humour on occasions. On the times I’d been to their home, I’d noticed that Janet bossed him around as if he was her personal and slightly dim slave and she was his superior. I’d told myself that every marriage has its own dynamic agreed to by both parties, but it made me feel uncomfortable to witness him being diminished by her as though she didn’t really appreciate what she had. And now they were leaving. The thought made me overwhelmingly sad.

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I’ve always felt that Bea is not aware of her own beauty. She’s not conventionally good looking, could never appear on the catwalk or in Vogue, but she has a tremendous sense of style and looks interesting, the kind of person you’d want to hang out with. I would anyway. Not that she is unattractive, far from it. She has fine features, soulful eyes, and it is the spirit that shines through them that draws me in; though sometimes it is as if there is a shadow over her, a sadness or regret that I have seen from time to time. I’d like to see her come out of that shadow into the full sun where she belongs. She deserves to be loved and I hope that she will allow me to be the one who does just that. Not long now until I play my hand. Slightly scary stuff. Will she feel the same way? And what the hell will I do if she doesn’t?

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