‘Arthur Wood.’
‘You live with Arthur?’
Isaac huffed with impatience. ‘We’re not twelve any more, Jessie. You should be past being freaked out by the Woods.’
Arthur’s family had provided the village with funeral services for three generations. Four, if you count Arthur.
‘Does he still work there?’
‘Why wouldn’t he?’
‘Because not everyone wants to end up working for their parents?’ Said me, who was about to come home and do precisely that.
Another pause. ‘Do you need picking up? I’m working on Saturday, but can do Sunday afternoon.’
‘No, it’s fine. Dad said he can give me a lift. On Friday, if that’s okay?’ I squeezed my eyes shut. ‘And, well, thanks Isaac.’
It was only after we’d hung up that I remembered the most important question.
How much is the rent?
It was a couple of hours before he replied to my message.
100 a week including bills
Any chance of a twin discount?
This time he replied straight away.
That IS the twin discount!
A hundred pounds a week would hurt. My parents had been beyond generous in offering me the role of Activities Coordinator at the day centre they ran in a converted barn, which everyone simply called the Barn. Particularly as I strongly suspected the role hadn’t existed until I’d mentioned I needed a new job. However, despite managing to allegedly get my life together in the three years I’d been living with my boyfriend, Seb, my bank account was still in recovery from the time that went before it. The compulsion to avoid settling too long in one place had led to years of flitting from one city to another, picking up crappy work and making impulsive decisions that had resulted in a somewhat precarious debt situation. The Debt Swamp, I called it. I’d finally made some real progress in dragging myself towards the edge of said swamp when everything got flipped upside down again.
I’d half wondered if Seb was going to propose when he’d taken me out for dinner. The coffee shop he managed had been wobbling on a knife edge since the start of the pandemic, but lately he’d seemed to shake off the despair and feel hopeful again.
It turned out that what he’d been feeling was mostly relief that the struggle was over.
‘Klara’s decided to cut her losses. We’re closing at the end of the month.’
‘Wow.’ I sat back, the news ricocheting about my head. I was the only other remaining employee, so both of us would be out of a job. Although, unlike Seb, I was no stranger to sudden unemployment. ‘You don’t seem devastated.’
He shrugged. ‘I knew it was coming, and I’ve been considering other options.’ A smile curled at the edge of his mouth. ‘I thought, why not take the opportunity to do some travelling?’
‘Oh. That’s a fantastic idea.’ I sat back, the surprise now tinged with a glimmer of excitement. ‘I’ve never been further than Spain. Have you thought about where we’ll go?’
He’d had the decency to look contrite when he put down his slice of pizza and explained that this was a voyage he needed to take alone. ‘You know I love you, Jess, and I’ll miss you. But the past couple of years have been a nightmare. I need some space to recover. I’ll be back, I promise, but this is something I have to do, before, well, before I commit to making things permanent. I mean, if that’s what you want?’
‘To make things permanent?’
He shrugged. ‘We love each other, don’t we?’
‘Is that a proposal?’
He laughed. I’d missed Seb’s laugh. ‘It’s a proposal to propose once I’m back. Let’s do this properly, yeah?’
‘How long will you be gone for?’
A few months at the most, he hoped. Long enough that it wasn’t worth him finding a new place to live. The manager’s role had included a one-bedroom apartment above the coffee shop, so we were losing our home as well as our livelihoods.
