What colour eyes do you have?
What colour hair?
Warmest wishes,
Alex
Alex was just finishing off a paper sculpture bauble with an ice skating theme when she saw movement at the door. She looked up and smiled when she saw Violet.
‘Hello, my dear,’ Violet said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. ‘I was just meeting a friend for coffee upstairs and thought I’d pop in and say hello.’
‘Well, I’m very glad you did.’
‘Where’s Zara today?’
‘She’s at her friend Harley’s house. Her mum works from home so she can be there while the girls play.’
‘That’s nice.’
Alex noticed that Violet suddenly seemed nervous.
‘So, how’s the dating going?’ Violet asked.
‘Oh, umm…’ She really wanted to tell Violet about her and Quinn, but she wasn’t sure how she would react. Violet was trying to be supportive about her dating even though she was worried what it meant for her future relationship with Zara. At least Alex’s relationship with Quinn wouldn’t jeopardise that. But Alex had been married to one of her sons and was now having a semi-serious relationship with her other son. She wasn’t sure Violet would be OK with that. She decided she would wait for Quinn to be with her before she broke the news. She also wanted Quinn with her for when they told her about the night Liam died but maybe that could come later.
She thought carefully how to answer the question about her love life so she wasn’t directly lying to Violet. ‘I had two very bad dates and decided I didn’t want to date any more random men.’
‘Oh, that’s a shame. Cleo said you weren’t dating anyone right now but I wasn’t sure that was true.’
‘You and Cleo were talking about me?’
‘She’s worried about you,’ Violet said. ‘She told me she’s going to matchmake you with someone.’
‘Yeah, I really don’t want that.’
‘I tried to tell her that but she insisted she had the perfect man for you.’
‘I’ll talk to her.’ As Alex was seeing Cleo that night, she would very firmly put some boundaries in place.
There was silence then as Violet awkwardly fiddled with the strap on her bag. ‘I wanted to ask your advice actually. Hypothetical advice obviously.’
‘Umm, of course.’
‘So say you meet someone, it goes well, really well actually. At what point would you tell Zara? And how? Hypothetically.’
‘Well, I would probably just invite the man around a lot so Zara would get used to seeing the man around the house – this is obviously once I knew that I was serious about the man. Then once I knew she was comfortable with him, I’d probably tell her then.’
‘Hmm, right. I suppose exposure is key,’ Violet said, more to herself than to Alex. ‘Do it slowly. Maybe Christmas Day.’
‘Sorry?’
Violet blushed and Alex realised this wasn’t a conversation about Zara at all.
‘Violet, are you seeing someone?’
Violet dismissed it with a scoff. ‘Of course not.’ Then she sighed. ‘Yes, yes I am but I haven’t told anyone yet, least of all Quinn. Max sort of knows. I turned up on a date at Alberto’s the other night and he was working, but he knows better than to start telling people my private business.’
‘I thought I saw you there,’ Alex said.
