As was commonpractice on Fridays, Gemma had left work early and so was in goodtime. She sat on a bench across from the Arun View Inn and closedher eyes to the late afternoon sun, waiting for Mark to turn up asarranged. It was hotter than Gemma had thought and even meritedsome suntan lotion, on her face at least. As she rummaged throughher bag for the familiar plastic blue bottle she noticed twoseagulls fighting over the remains of an ice cream cornet, andbeing watched by a lone sparrow, on the off chance they’d leavesomething behind. Gemma had enjoyed her time in Littlehamptonbefore the move to Petworth. There was no way she was going to livewith her mother after her father died and the probation job thatcame along just as she completed her degree had had its moments,although she had never intended it to be long-term. She wondered ifher dad had realised just how badly he’d been treated; but even ifhe had not, it was up to her to make amends. Gemma was sure hewould have understood and supported her. She had to take it slowly,of course, but she was going to sort things, to get what shedeserved and what she was sure her dad would be happy with, ifthere really was any chance he could ever actually know forhimself. Even though it seemed to her highly improbable and to flyin the face of any logic, Gemma had never been able to quitedismiss the idea that there really might be life after death andshe reckoned he would have been devastated if his daughter’sinheritance was ever hijacked by some futurestep-father.
So far thingshad gone well enough. She was almost twenty-five, and could set ayear or two as a rough target and the time to have it all workedout and through. The move to Petworth had paved the way forbringing Mark and her mother into contact; and she quite likedliving with Mark anyway, he was pretty good company and not bad onthe eye too; and so what if he wasn’t long-term? She let the sunplay on her eyelids. She wasn’t a bad person, but her mother hadbeen. It might seem like she was using Mark but she would make surehe got what he deserved too. Gemma knew she was never going to rideoff into the sunset with Mark but she prided herself on being afair person; if he helped her she’d be as generous as she could andshe’d do her best to let him down gently when it came toit.
Recently shehad become somewhat concerned that Mark hadn’t settled into muchsince his release; and perhaps not surprisingly he appeared to begetting increasingly down about things and even a little insecureabout their relationship. It wasn’t an overly obvious or desperateneediness but his desire to please her was beginning to verge onthe oppressive; she was thankful that at least he hadn’t mentionedmarriage. Anyway, she wasn’t about to take responsibility for hisemotional state. From her point of view they were partners in moreways than one and things were going along fine; after all, he was agrown up and knew there were no guarantees.
She heard acar pull in to the pub car park across from the harbour and hopedit was Mark. It had been good of him to drive her to work and ameal out was always nice. Although they hadn’t got round to makingany detailed plans, there was a sort of implicit agreement thatAnne, her mother, had to be separated from her wealth one way oranother and certainly before she had ensnared a second husband.Mark was pretty hopeless at keeping anything to himself and had letit slip that he was going to check out recent crime stories at thelibrary. Mind you, she was surprised he was bothered about keepinganything to himself – surely he’d realised they were both thinkingalong the same lines. Perhaps being too obvious and brazen aboutthings didn’t seem right, or perhaps he just liked a littlesubterfuge for the sake of it – after all there was a kind ofseductiveness to secrecy. Maybe tonight’s meal would be the time todevelop a proper plan of some type, to bring into the open whatthey had basically already agreed on.
***
Sure enough,it was Mark. She watched him lock the car and cross over to herbench.
‘I haven’t kept youwaiting too long have I? The traffic out of Chichester was mad asusual.’
‘No, that’sfine, it’s a lovely afternoon and I like it down here by theharbour. You know, I did actually quite enjoy living inLittlehampton; and we had some good times here, didn’twe?’
They’d beenregular visitors to the Arun View when they’d lived inLittlehampton and even though the menu was pretty limited andtypical, the fish and chips was usually a safe bet and tastyenough, and Gemma went for that. They were on nodding terms withthe landlord and Mark followed his advice and ordered the lambcutlets, peas and chips followed by Black Forest gateau. There wasno shortage of tables and they took their drinks over to oneoverlooking the harbour. Gemma got straight