No answer.
She was about to knock again when she heard footsteps, then the door opened and she met the eyes of the guy who was standing there.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey.’
‘I was wondering if you still had space on that couch for me?’
THE NEXT MORNING…
32
BERNADETTE – 22 FEBRUARY 2026
For the second morning in a row, as Bernadette gradually transitioned from a dream-filled sleep to the semi-awake awareness of a new chilly morning, her gaze didn’t fall on the empty space in the bed beside her.Or the light from the lamp post outside the window that was casting a beam through the still-dark morning.Nope.The first thing her eyes settled on was the pair of high-grade elastic, waist-to-knee, extra-firm control knickers that were draped over the chair in front of her dressing table.
And she groaned, just as she had yesterday.
She remembered having the brief thought last night that all she wanted to do this morning was lie in bed, sleep and watch feel good telly that would stop her mind from thinking about Jack, about Marge, about the past and about the absolutely exhausting twenty-four hours she’d just had.But now that she was awake, she knew the only thing that would make her feel better was to see Jack and her family.She just wished that Nina had given her a job to do this morning.Watch the kids.Check the flowers.Greet guests.Anything to take her mind off last night.But her daughter had insisted that everything was already organised, so all she had to do was get there.
It was probably just as well, because she wasn’t sure how efficient she could be after only a few hours of fitful dozing.
When she’d got home last night, she hadn’t been able to sleep.She’d thought about calling Nina to explain that Marge had passed away, but in the end, she’d decided not to.Marge wouldn’t approve of that at all.Nina and Stuart knew Marge, but only as their dad’s secretary and the person who’d helped them organise his funeral.Maybe later Bernadette would tell them everything else, but then again, she didn’t want to bring her own sadness to a day that should be full of joy for her family.
Marge would be the very first person to say pull yourself together and stick to the plan, and she’d be right.Bernadette couldn’t spoil her daughter’s day, or be the cause of a cloud over a celebration of Nina and Gerry’s marriage, just because she’d lost someone she cared about.There would be plenty of moments over the next days and weeks and months to think about Marge, to celebrate her life.
Instead, just after midnight, she’d called Clara and told her the news.Bernadette wasn’t sure what would happen next – that was up to Estelle – but she had no doubt at all that whatever it was, Clara would take care of her and make sure that she was ok.Marge had known what she was doing when she’d trusted Clara to do the right thing.
When she’d hung up, she’d put a message on the group chat of the other women who had met every year on yesterday’s date, since Kenneth’s funeral.
One by one, they’d got back to her, and they’d ended up swapping messages into the early hours of the morning.They’d even made a plan.As soon as they knew the arrangements for the funeral, there would be a new gathering every year on the same date as before, but it would no longer be called Cheat Day.It would henceforth be known as Marge Day.
Bernadette hadn’t called Jack, because much as his was the only voice she wanted to hear, she knew he’d be sleeping, and didn’t want to wake him when he had an early flight this morning.Stuart lived closest to the airport, and he’d already offered to pick Jack up on the way to the hotel – the same one Nina had married in all those years ago.
She tried not to think about the last time they were there.Kenneth had been in a foul mood on Nina’s wedding day, furious that she was defying him by marrying a man he didn’t approve of.But, of course, he’d been the epitome of charm to the guests, the perfect host, who had schmoozed the guests he’d invited, made a show of plying them with the best champagne and sumptuous food, made a beautifully worded, sentimental speech that melted everyone’s heart and left them all heading home that night thinking what a wonderful man he was.All bullshit.What they didn’t see was that he’d told Bernadette that her clothes were awful, that her wedding tears embarrassed him, that her conversations with the guests were pathetic.They wouldn’t know that she later found out he’d been sleeping with at least two of the women in attendance and when they’d got home that night, he’d gone into a full-scale rage and smashed every family picture on their walls.
That’s what Bernadette had survived.It had sat with her since, in her fear of commitment, her reluctance to give up her power to any man again.Until now.
A buzzer on her phone sounded and she realised she must have left yesterday’s alarm on repeat, because she had no memory of setting a new one before she finally fell asleep around 5a.m.Unless… She wondered if divine intervention included a nudge from the heavens to get out of bed and get a move on.‘Okay, Marge, I hear you.’
Her phone buzzed again with a second nudge from an earthlier source.A text from Jack.
Landed.See you soon.Xx.
The kisses surprised her.Maybe after four years he was getting the hang of this long-distance affection stuff.The thought sent her right back to yesterday morning again and the one thing that had been on her mind, other than the prospect of getting into that underwear.Jack.Their future.What they’d had for the last four years had been enough for her, but she knew it wasn’t any more.It was time for changes.Yesterday, she’d woken up contemplating whether she should ask him to make it more permanent and now she was sure she had the answer.It wasn’t something for today, though.Today was about Nina and Gerry.But tonight she was going to speak to Jack, to tell him her thoughts.She was ready to be more than she was now.She was ready to give up her life here, and move to him, and together they could figure out the logistics of it all.That is, if he was ready too.If he didn’t feel the same, she could be about to have her already fragile heart shattered but at least she would know.If Marge’s death had taught her one thing, it was that she should make plans and do everything today, because she had no idea how many tomorrows there would be.And as Marge’s final gift to Estelle had shown, there was power in knowing the full story.
Thinking about Estelle made her pick up the phone.She’d swapped numbers with Marge’s daughter last night and now she wanted to check on her.
Hello lovely.No need to respond, but I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you.Your mum told me many times over the years how wonderful you are and I was so glad to meet you and see just how right she was.We’ll all miss her so very much, and we’re here for you any time at all for anything you need, always.Sending much love and hugs to you, Bernadette x
Hopefully today Estelle would sleep and she would also let the people she loved take care of her.And Bernadette had a feeling that one of those people would be Amber.The love between them had been so obvious and it was more than just fate that they were in the same place at the same time.She replayed what Amber had said about coincidences being the universe’s way of pointing you in the right direction.Bernadette couldn’t agree more.
She put the phone back down on her bedside table, and, averting her eyes from the ominous shapewear knickers, she pushed back her white cotton duvet, ready now to face the day.
Half an hour later – twenty minutes to get showered, hair dried, put on some make-up, and then a full ten minutes to get the suction pants on – she was out of the door and into her car for the second time in under twenty-four hours.Nina had been right about the outfit though.The cream velvet dress did things to her body that could only be described as miraculous, and with the soft black jacket on top, Bernadette felt as fabulous as she ever had.
The clock had just clicked on to quarter to ten, when she pulled up outside the hotel.There were already many cars there: she spotted Stuart’s convertible, with the roof up of course – he only got to take advantage of the wind in his hair in the summer, and even then, in this part of the world, that could be touch-and-go.Val’s Jeep was there, parked squinty, with one wheel up on the kerb, as if she’d screeched to a halt and given chase to a criminal.Which, actually, probably wasn’t out of the question for her pal.Behind it was Gerry’s Range Rover.The irony of it all.The man Kenneth had disapproved of because he was a skint electrician had left the housing association he worked for, set up his own electrical business, grafted his socks off as he built it up to a team of ten, with a solid bank of major commercial contracts, and was probably now earning more than Kenneth ever had.Urgh, that would infuriate him.And the thought of that made Bernadette smile as she reached the doors, paused, took a breath, put all of the stresses and strains and sadnesses of yesterday out of her mind, and prepared to do everything she could to make Nina’s celebration perfect.
