‘See.’ Lewis spoke softly. ‘I can do some things right.’
Gracie flipped to curt. ‘It’s only taken you a year.’
Lewis sighed. ‘I just can’t win with you at the moment, can I?’
‘No, Lewis, I’m afraid you can’t. Anyway, I’d better get on.’
‘So, whencanI see you?’ His voice was soft and low.
‘See me for what, Lewis? All we do is argue.’
She could feel his pain at the other end of the phone and softened slightly. ‘Look, why don’t I come round Saturday morning and I’ll put some of the stuff in my car. At least it’s out of your way then.’
‘OK. Before twelve would be good as I’m going to the cricket in the afternoon.’
‘Yep, fine, must get your priorities straight, eh, Lewis?’
Lewis said goodbye, hung up and sighed deeply.
However she behaved, it was as if Gracie was tied to him by an invisible thread and he couldn’t bear to cut her free.
At least there wasn’t the added stress of Annalize’s baby being his. What a bloody relief! That would for certain have been the end of anything he might still be able to salvage with Gracie. He wondered, too, how he would have coped if he had found out he had lost yet another baby.
Despite everything, he hoped that Annalize was feeling OK. For fear of getting his head bitten off, he hadn’t dared ask Gracie where she had seen her to be told the news.
He stretched out on the sofa. He felt tired of everything. He would see Gracie on Saturday, make his last attempt to win her back and then, maybe, he would do his best to move on. She was seeing somebody else after all.
In fact, he thought, maybe he should follow the age-old adage of setting her free. If she came back to him, then itwasmeant to be? Perhaps he should start dating other people, too. Maybe he was just hanging on to the good memories in their relationship. He took a slug of his now warm beer and flicked on the TV.
An advert came up for an online dating site.
Who was he bloody kidding? He hadn’t actually even thought about sex since the split, which was very unlike him. There was only one Gracie Davies in this world and he was going to do everything in his power to get her back.
SEVENTY-TWO
Ed was already halfway through a pint of Guinness when Gracie arrived at the pub. He stood up when he saw her and kissed her on the cheek.
‘Hey, sexy. Sit down. White wine?’
‘Yes, perfect; make it a large one.’
‘Bad day?’
‘You could say that.’
‘Aw, that’s no good. Take a seat, I’ll get you a drink.’
Ed put a glass of chilled wine down on the table. ‘Wanna talk about it? Your bad day, I mean.’
‘No, I don’t. I want to relax now I’m here.’ She didn’t want to go into the sorry details about Annalize and her conversation with Lewis.
‘Fair enough. You look great, by the way.’ Ed smiled warmly.
‘Thanks. But more importantly, how are you?’
‘Not so good either, to be honest. Cynthia Princeton can’t represent me anymore.’
Gracie frowned. Princeton? Now why did that ring a bell? Of course, it was the professor’s surname.
