‘I think we’d better. Miss Barnes will want to go home.’ She grabbed her daughter’s hand and smiled at the teachers. ‘Nice seeing you again, Mark,’ she said, her voice cool and polite.
‘Wait, have you got time for a coffee?’
Beatrice blinked. He wanted to have coffee with her?Was this for old time’s sake?
‘Can’t. Sorry.’ She gestured towards her daughter.
‘Another time?’
‘Another time,’ she agreed.
‘When?’
‘Pardon?’
‘When would be best for you?’
‘Mummy, you could have coffee with Mr Stafford on Sunday, if you don’t want to take me and Taya.’ Sadie’s expression was hopeful. ‘But I don’t mind going now though. I could have a milkshake, and I promise to be quiet if you want to talk grown-up things. Taya will be good too.’
‘No, I—’ Beatrice began.
‘Sunday?’ Mark said.
Sadie announced, ‘We’re going to Daddy’s house.’
Beatrice closed her eyes briefly. Thanks, Sadie. ‘I’m busy on Sunday,’ she said.
‘She’s going to have a bath with bubbles, but it won’t take all day, will it, Mummy?’
Mark was staring at her, and Beatrice squirmed.
With a weak laugh, she said, ‘I look forward to a relaxing soak in the tub without kids knocking on the door every few seconds. You know how it is.’
‘Actually, I don’t. No kids.’
‘Oh.’
‘Sunday?’
‘I’m not sure.’ She was so tempted that it was almost a physical ache. But seeing him again would be so unwise.
‘It’s just a coffee, Bea.’
Oh, bugger! Now he was thinking that she was reading more into it than he’d meant. ‘Okay, eleven o’clock in Blake’s Cafe on the main street.’
‘See you there.’ He began to walk away, then paused. ‘Bea?’
‘Yes?’
‘Nice hat.’
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
Beatrice sank onto the sofa, put her mobile on speaker, and reached for the glass of dry white wine on the side table next to her. She didn’t make a habit of drinking on her own, and never on a weeknight, but this evening she felt the need to break her own rule.
‘He asked me to go for a coffee with him,’ she said, then winced as Lisa screeched,‘He asked you out?’
‘That’s not what I said. He didn’t ask me out. He asked me to go for a coffee.’
