‘She’s in the best place.’
Again, she had no idea if this was true, but it felt like the right thing to say. It was most odd, this high occasion, a moment she had known would come yet had been quite unable to imagine, her son dashing off to be with Holly, leaving his wife behind. Yet here they were.
‘I was going to go with him, but I think it will be tense enough without throwing me into the mix.’ Iris laid her hand on her husband’s arm, anchoring and reassuring him with no more than the lightest of touches. It was a lovely thing to witness.
‘We can have a nice cup of tea,’ Enya suggested.
Yet again, Iris was handling herself with grace and wasn’t allowing sentiment to cloud the practicality of what would indeed be a very tense time. Her behaviour displayed a maturity that was as impressive as it was endearing. A generosity and an understanding heart.
‘See you in a bit!’ Aiden planted a big kiss on his wife’s cheek and smiled briefly before dashing down the path back to their car, which had been left with the doors open.
‘What time is it?’ Enya rubbed her face.
‘A quarter to one.’ Iris yawned. ‘Shall I make the tea?’
‘Yes, lovely.’
It felt nice, having this time alone with her daughter-in-law, who pottered in the kitchen as if it were any other day or night. The two had fallen into an easy friendship over the months, very different women but with one all-encompassing thing in common: they both loved Aiden.
‘What a week!’ Iris yawned once more. ‘I wanted to tell you in person, my mum has met someone.’
‘Met someone?’ Enya was a little floored by the news.
‘I’m pleased for her.’ Iris nodded, her smile sincere. ‘I honestly believe it’s for the best, in the long run. I can see that Mum and Dad just couldn’t find a way to be happy. I get it, even though for me it’s the saddest thing. They had a lovely home, time that was their own, they’re in good health, and yet it counted for very little. It made me think that if they can’t be happy together with all of that, then they’re probably better off apart.’
‘Yes, it is the saddest thing. But it will all work out; these things always do.’
‘It’s weird for me, Enya, the next time I see Aiden, our lives will be different.’
‘I guess they will.’ It was hard for her to know what to say, quite unable to imagine sitting at home with Granny Brown while Jonathan went off with his ex to welcome a child. Her body gave an involuntary shiver at no more than the prospect.
‘I think Aiden’s very lucky to have you.’
Iris placed the teabags into the mugs and held Enya’s eyeline. ‘I’m lucky to have him. I thought it was all absolute fantasy, you know.’
‘What?’ Enya had, in her half-awake state, lost the thread a little.
‘Love at first sight, that instant attraction thing, being struck by the love bug, catching Cupid’s arrow, whatever you want to call it.’ She pulled a face.
It made Enya laugh. ‘What changed your mind?’ she asked, keen to hear Iris’s story, to learn a little more about her.
‘I’d been going out with a guy I knew from Bath, Jake. We saw each other occasionally. He was one of those men who on paper should have been gold. Like, whoa! He was good-looking, musical, funny, loved to travel, and was lovely, heislovely. But there wasn’t that...’ Iris, almost inadvertently, ran her palm over her stomach, as if this was where the magic, the whoosh, the instant and all-consuming pull of love was most felt. Right there in the base of her gut. ‘That moment when I felt...’ She sighed. ‘Do you know what I mean?’
‘I do,’ Enya whispered, not wanting to stray into waters where she might let slip her feelings for a man Iris knew better than most.
‘My friends were talking about diamonds and hen dos, only as a joke, but there was a subtlety to it, as if we were all aware that we were of that age! Jake and I weren’t even exclusive or anything like that. I kept him at arm’s length really, as if I knew he was only a rehearsal, and I didn’t want either of us to get hurt. I said I’d see him when I got back from Rome, but I don’t think I gave it that much thought. And then,’ she let out a low laugh and shook her head, as if the facts were still a little hard to understand, ‘I was sitting on the plane, I hate flying,’ this she addressed directly to Enya, curling her top lip, ‘the air was a little thick, I wasn’t comfortable at all, and I remember thinking that it was only a two-and-a-half-hour flight, even I could stand that. I got my water bottle out of my bag, stowed my book in the little pocket of the seat in front, I looked out of the window at the tarmac, and I now know those were the last three things I would do as the old me. Those simple actions before my life was changed forever.’
Iris paused to pour the hot water into the mugs.
‘And I guess the weirdest thing for me is that I never saw it coming. I would have thought that with a monumental change right around the corner, destiny about to smack me in the facewith a plank, I would have had some kind of warning, an inkling, an idea, but no, nothing. In fact, all I was thinking about was that I’d nearly managed to get on the plane and leave my purse behind.’
Enya felt the full blush of embarrassment on her cheeks; yes, she remembered the purse incident.
‘I had to call Dad, who’d dropped me off in the car park, luckily he was still there. He ran it around to the front of the airport. I dashed out from check-in to pick it up. So, that’s what I was thinking about; two things really, one how disastrous my trip might have been without access to money, credit cards and all the other things that make life possible. And two, how lucky I was to have my dad. Because he’s that kind of guy, Enya, he’s that kind of person. He’s smart and reliable. And Aiden’s like that too, kind, and reliable, just ask Holly.’ She let this settle but spoke without malice or irritation. ‘He sat down next to me, and I could barely speak. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It was as if Iknewhim, there was this bizarre feeling of familiarity. Thankfully, he spoke to me, and that two-and-a-half-hour plane journey lasted about five minutes. After we landed in Rome and stood in the aisle, waiting to get off the plane, I felt this kind of panic that I might never see him again, and even though he’d told me about Holly, I stopped him and said, what do we do now?’
Enya hadn’t heard this detail and was moved by the beauty of it, both respecting and envying the girl’s bravery.
‘He turned to me, and he said, “we figure it out”. That was it, we figure it out! And I didn’t let go of his hand and we walked like that down the steps, through the terminal, into a cab, not wanting to let go of each other’s hand, not wanting to waste a second! And it’s still like that, I just want to hold his hand while we figure it all out.’
