Page 31 of The Runaway Wives

Tuesday morning

Babs woke up with a thumping head and a missed call and a message from Geoff asking her to phone him urgently, which had been sent almost an hour ago! Immediately she panicked. What had happened? Was he ill? Had Molly or Lennon had an accident?

Geoff answered on the second ring. ‘You took your time!’ he said belligerently.

‘I’ve just woken up. It was a late night.’ After Dee had made her cocktail – which really had a bite to it – Andi had made one too and they’d all been more than a bit sloshed by the time Andi got a taxi home, not trusting herself to make the ten-minute journey without falling over. Babs grinned, they’d had such a laugh. Andi was great company and it had been good to see Dee letting her hair down a bit. She longed to see more of the ‘old Dee’.

‘Out gallivanting and leaving me to cope with everything here.’ Geoff sounded very aggrieved. ‘I can’t believe that you’ve swanned off on holiday and left me to deal with all this, Babs. I didn’t think you could be so selfish.’

‘Me? Selfish?!’ she practically screamed the words out. The whole street would hear her at this rate! She lowered her voice. ‘What exactly are you coping with? What’s happened? Are the kids okay?’

‘What am I coping with? I’ve got another two viewers today. I’m trying to keep the house tidy, sort out all the paperwork and get ready for Spain on Friday and there you are sunbathing and living it up down in Cornwall.’ He paused. ‘What do you mean? Why wouldn’t the kids be okay?’

It’s a good job she wasn’t in the same room as him or she swore she’d have thrown a cushion at him. ‘Geoff, you messaged me to tell me to phone you urgently. I thought something had happened to you or the kids?’

‘Itisurgent. I told you, I’ve got two more viewers today. It’s too much for me on my own. You need to come back and help sort things out. We go away in three days. The flights are early on Saturday morning so we’re staying overnight at the airport.’

‘You mean thatyou’regoing away, Geoff. I’ve told you I’m not coming to Spain with you. And as for not being able to cope, you started all this, so you’re the only one who can stop it.’

‘I did it for us. I thought it was what you wanted too.’

She sucked in her breath. How could he tell such an outrageous lie! ‘You didnot. I’ve made it plain – multiple times – that I don’t want to go to Spain and you still went ahead.’

‘It was a misunderstanding. Look, please come home, Babs, and we can talk about it. We always talked things through. It’s not like you to run off like this.’

He was right, they had always talked things over, made joint decisions, but he was the one who had changed that, not her. It wasn’t even the fact that he’d gone behind her back to arrange a sightseeing trip to Spain and put the house on the market, although that was bad enough. It was that he’d told her it washishouse and he could do what he liked with it. She couldn’t forgive him for that. She had to admit that she would like to sort things out though, she missed him, and her home.

‘We’ve booked the cottage until the weekend, so I’m staying until then. That gives you time to take the house off the market and think of something else to keep yourself occupied now you’ve retired, because I’m telling you now Geoff Marston, I am not moving to Spain. Not now. Not ever. And if you try and sellmyhome from underneath me, I’ll get a solicitor and divorce you. Then you’ll see whether it’s your house or not!’

‘Divorce? No one said anything about divorce.’ She could hear a distinct wobble in Geoff’s voice.

‘Well, what else can we do when we both want to live in different countries?’ Babs demanded. ‘And your name might be on the deeds, but a lawyer would tell you that I’m still entitled to half of that house. So, when it’s sold you can take your half of the money and buy yourself a home at the top of a Spanish mountain, and I hope you’ll be very happy there.’

There was a shocked pause. Then Geoff asked, ‘What about you? What will you do?’

‘Don’t you worry about me. I’ll buy a little flat somewhere. Maybe down here!’ She ended the call before she burst into tears.

Her life seemed to be spiralling out of control. She’d always thought she and Geoff would be together forever and couldn’t believe what had happened over the past few days. Determined not to spoil Dee’s holiday, she pulled herself together and went downstairs. Dee was in the garden stroking Snowy.

‘I heard you shouting, so I guess that you haven’t made up?’ Dee asked gently.

‘Worse.’ Babs sniffed. ‘I told him that I want a divorce.’ She repeated the phone conversation to Dee.

Her shoulders shuddered and she started to cry.

‘Oh, Babs.’ Dee put Snowy down and wrapped Babs in a hug.

‘I’ll be okay.’ Babs pulled away, wiped her eyes and fixed a smile on her face. ‘I’m sure Geoff will come round when he realises I’m serious.’

Would he though? And did she even want to go back to him after this?

Was this really the end of her thirty-seven-year long marriage?

22

DEE

Babs cheered up after breakfast so they decided to take the trip to St Michael’s Mount that they’d planned yesterday, stopping off at Moira’s Café first. When they arrived there, a very flustered Andi was trying to cope with a café full of customers alone. There was no sign of Moira and the empty tables were cluttered with dirty cups, saucers and plates.

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