It’s not over yet, though. Far from it. If you’re going to be a problem, I’m going to have to take action.

29

Thursday 6 February

I placated Cath by deciding not to start an argument, but telling her I’d bear her suspicions in mind. The last thing I want is to push her away again.

With the funeral out of the way, it feels as if life is finally starting to get back to normal. We’ve got Cath’s wedding coming up, but other than that things are starting to settle down. Until, that is, Tom drops another bombshell on me.

‘I’ve got to go away. For work,’ he says, over dinner.

‘Oh. When?’

‘Next Saturday. The morning after the wedding. Early.’

‘Where?’

‘Japan.’

‘Wow. Okay. How long for?’

‘Only a few days. Not long.’

I nod. ‘Is this to do with the big project and the guys that got sacked?’

‘No, that was China. This is a new client we’ve just taken on. A big one, actually. They want me to go over to meet the team. Should be a hell of a lot easier than the China one, to be honest. Fairly straightforward. It does mean I’ll have to be up really early on the Saturday, though, so I won’t drink at the wedding. I’ll drive.’

I shouldn’t, but I do feel a little disappointed at this. I’d been looking forward to us both being able to have a drink and let our hair down. Tom rarely drinks, and it’s always fun to see him relaxing a little when he’s got a beer or two inside him.

‘Do they often tend to give you such little notice?’ I ask.

‘Not always. It depends on the situation, to be honest. Sometimes we know in advance. Other times they’ll tell us they want us there the next day. Money talks, unfortunately. And with what these guys are paying us, if they say “jump” we ask “how high?”. Just the way it is.’

‘Well I hope they’re paying you handsomely for it.’

‘Oh yes. If all goes to plan, there’ll be a nice little bonus in it for me. Then I can get caught up on the mortgage money and even give you some in advance for the next few months,’ he says, almost as if he’s read my mind.

‘That’d be good. Things are getting pretty tight on that front.’

‘I know,’ he says, holding my hand. ‘But we’ll get through it. We always will.’

30

Friday 14 February

It’s the morning of the wedding and Tom’s trying to perform two jobs at once: getting dressed into his suit whilst simultaneously attempting to pack his case for his trip to Japan tomorrow.

He’s got an early flight, so will be up at the crack of dawn to head to the airport. I tried to suggest we could still get a taxi to and from the wedding and he could at least have one or two drinks, but he was steadfast in his refusal.