‘Come on, of course you’re coming,’ she insisted. ‘All right, I’m heading out. I’ve had enough of today and I’ve got my kids back from my ex this week. I promised I’d take them to the pool this arvo.’

‘Good luck with that, it’s about to storm.’

Kelly wrinkled her nose. ‘Yeah, small issue there. Hoping it will pass quickly.’

Andrea said goodbye and continued on to her classroom. It would probably be another couple of hours before she escaped herself; she was still finalising her end-of-year reports. That was a bonus of choosing to be child-free — when she stayed late at school, there was no guilt because she wasn’t spending time with her kids or breaking promises to take them places.

She’d made the right choice.

*

Jill

Dear Frank,

What if there are more sins than I even realise? There are times when I wonder . . . where I’m afraid I might have . . . missed something along the way.

I will tell you one sin. Did you know that I kissed Alan McIntosh when you and I first started dating? It’s funny, I kept it a secret at the time because you hated Alan and I knew it would make you so mad. But my plan was always to tell you eventually. I thought we would laugh about it together. Instead, I’m sharing it in a letter and it’s not the same at all.

By the way, it wasn’t my fault. We were roller-skating and I lost my balance. He caught me, and before I knew it, he’d leaned in and kissed me! Cheeky sod. I don’t know what made me think about that.

I broke a tea cup today. One of my favourites. It was because I made myself a cup of tea and then forgot about it. By the time I remembered, it had gone cold. So I picked it up and threw it across the room. The cup broke into three sharp pieces and now there’s a brown stain on the carpet in the shape of Tasmania. I liked that cup. You know the one. From the set that Andrea bought me for my birthday three years ago. White with pretty purple butterflies.

What a silly thing to do! You would have looked at me like I’d gone mad if you’d been here to see it. Although if you had been here, I wouldn’t have done it.

Come back, would you?

Love,

Jill

*