Luke sent three wide-eye emoticons back.
I know, right! A pertinent name indeed.
What about the outfit? Did it work?
It was spot on. You were right!
I don't know why you are surprised, Juliette. I have my finger on the pulse of London fashion most of the time.
Funny. I’m just finishing up here at the museum and then I’m heading to the station. I'll let you know what train I'm on.
Fancy going out for dinner? I thought maybe a curry tonight or tomorrow?
Juliette contemplated it. Since the accident, she’d been to the market and now she’d been up to London, but unless she forced herself to, she really didn’t want to go out still. She’d said no to Luke’s suggestions so many times and they hadn’t been out for ages. She was surprised he hadn’t given up asking.
I don’t really fancy going out.
Okay, no dramas, see you when you get home.
Juliette headed to the seating area to check the times for the train and send a text to Daisy to check that Maggie was okay. As she sat down on a long sofa a loud, brash ringtone went off from a woman’s phone on the sofa next to her. The woman answered the phone putting it on speaker and started speaking loudly so that everyone in the vicinity could hear the whole thing. Grrrr Juliette thought, do you really think anyone wants to listen to your conversation?
‘The thing is, Joanne, I said to her, look, Eliza, you're going to lose him if you carry on like this.’
The other voice continued. ‘Really! Did you? You’re right, though. She’s been like it for, what, years? Can you imagine what it’s like living with her? Nightmare. What a miserable existence. Lazing around doing nothing. Always tired.’
‘I know. It was about time someone said something. Look at the times she’s let me down when we were meant to be meeting up. Let alone all the texts an hour before when she was supposed to be coming over for dinner, and I’d prepared everything. And twice I’ve been sitting in the pub waiting for her to arrive, and I get a message to say that she’s now changed her mind and she can’t come out. I know she had all that stuff going on, but at some point, you do have to give a little bit back to a relationship.’
‘You’re so right, Kirsty! Look what you did for her. Taking her children to school for over a year. Not even a bunch of flowers to say thank you. Blimey, without you where would she be?’
‘I know. I didn’t want flowers, and she did have a rough time, so I just wanted to help, but it’s merely got to the point where I’m all give, give, give and she’s all take, take, take.’
‘Yeah. There’s helping and there’s being taken for a ride.’
‘We all have our problems to deal with in life, Joanne. Look at me - arriving home to my husband on the kitchen worktop with the woman from the off-licence. That wasn’t pleasant, but I had to carry on. No one took my children to school every morning for a year. I had to turn up at the school gates and pretend not to notice the sniggering and the looks.’
‘Yeah. You’re a trooper. You were right to say something. John will get fed up with her too - he’s only been with her for a while. You have to keep the spark alive, right? Surely he’s going to pull the plug on that soon. Moping around in her dressing gown and lounging around...I mean really? It’s all got really old now. I reckon he’ll get fed up and do a runner sooner or later, find someone with a bit more energy, which won’t be hard.’
‘Well, I’ve said it now and I’m not doing anything else. She has to learn to help herself.’
Juliette finished checking the times for the train but couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation that had just played out in front of her.
She blinked her eyes and felt like someone had just hit her on the head with a sledgehammer. Maybe she really should think a little bit more about Luke and how he was feeling about the last few months.
Chapter 41
Juliette sat propped up on Maggie’s bed with her arm around Maggie, Delilah the dolly tucked in between them and finished reading Maggie a story.
‘Can I read for a while longer?’ Maggie asked as Juliette closed the shutters at the window and pulled Maggie’s curtains.
‘You can. I’ll pop up and check on you later. Night, darling.’
‘Night.’ Maggie said pulling a large picture book out from under her bed and cosying Delilah up next to her.
Juliette walked out of Maggie’s bedroom and went up to the next floor to her bedroom. She had a quick shower, put her hair up, spritzed herself with perfume and put some makeup on. She checked the time on her phone. An hour until Luke would be home - plenty of time for her to get everything ready.
Since she’d heard the woman sitting on the sofa behind her at the museum chatting to her friend, Juliette hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what they’d said about their friend. It had jolted Juliette into contemplating what Luke had been going through the last few months. Indeed, the time since she’d known him. Had it all been Juliette, Juliette, Juliette? She didn't need to spend too much time analysing the answer to that question. Yes, it unquestionably had.
She looked in the mirror at the pale blue floaty linen top with the ruffles on the sleeves and nodded to herself. It had. It absolutely had. She had been completely and utterly self-centred. First of all, there'd been the situation with her parents’ passing away. Luke had been a rock through that. He’d supported her every single step of the way. She couldn’t
