Page 85 of The Happy Hour
‘Are you still taking a break?’ Wendy asked. ‘Will Felicity be waiting for you?’
‘Oh... yes. She will be.’
‘Take at least an hour, Jess. Get back here sometime before two.’
‘Thanks.’ She got her bag and left the shop. The market was heaving, the blue sky – unbroken by cloud – visible through the glass roof. She felt like a fawn skittering on new legs, everything unfamiliar and off-kilter. She had been convinced that, despite everything, Ash would turn up. A hopeful voice suggested he’d gone straight to Felicity’s, and Jess clung on to it the whole walk there.
But it wasn’t Ash who answered the door when she knocked, and it wasn’t Felicity.
‘Jess, my dude! Felicity thought you weren’t coming. Is that man of yours with you?’ Spade was in an old Proclaimers T-shirt, and without a hat his hair was especially wild.
‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ Jess said. ‘Ash isn’t here?’
‘Not yet. Come through.’
He walked back into the house and, when Jess followed, it took her a moment to register the difference. The hallway wasn’t clear, but there was a narrow pile of items along the wall, rather than a disorganised mountain range. She stepped into the living room, and couldn’t stifle her gasp. The fireplace was there in all its original glory, though it looked scuffedand in need of painting. The grey carpet was dirty and dusty, and would probably need to be replaced, but Jess could see it enough to notice, and that was huge.
‘Wow,’ she said, then thought of how Ash had always played it, his casual understatedness putting Felicity at ease. ‘Spade really fits in here, huh?’
He grinned, and Felicity turned from where she was examining the piles of stuff that still took over the back half of the room. ‘He offered to help me with a few things, and I thought it made sense, with you working so much and Ash only being available on Sundays. Spade has more...’
‘I’m a lazy layabout,’ he finished. ‘I don’t need to work any more, so I don’t – Market Misfits aside. But playing with Lola and Braden has given me a new enthusiasm for being part of the local scene, so I thought I could offer my services – which amounts to my two hands, my sturdy back and my smaller-than-normal brain – elsewhere. This seemed like a good enoughwhere.’ He glanced at Felicity, and from the way his eyes darted away again, the pinpoints of colour on his cheeks, Jess knew that Felicity was far more than just ‘a good enoughwhere’to him.
‘Nonsense,’ Felicity said.‘You’re a marvel, Steven.’
He chuckled. ‘Let’s not stand on ceremony. Spade, please.’
‘Steven?’ Jess shot him an amused glance.
‘A name from a different century.’ He gave a dismissive wave.
‘Is Ash coming?’ Felicity asked. ‘I had expected the two of you sooner. I’ve got the teapot out – with four of us here, I thoughtthatlevel of ceremony was warranted.’ The smile she gave Spade was so mischievous, so youthful, that Jess’s heart squeezed. She hated having to let Felicity down. She felt Ash’s absence keenly, but she knew she wouldn’t be the only one.
‘He’s not coming today.’ She perched on the sofa that was now fully uncovered, and currently home to tabby Artemis and the sleek black moggy Bond. ‘He’s tied up with something.’
‘Those life ties get you in a bind,’ Spade said cheerfully. ‘Shall I make the tea and open those fancy biscuits you bought, Felicity?’
‘If you can find them in amongst the nursery of dolls,’ she replied, and Spade loped out of the room, laughing.
Jess blinked. Felicity was makingjokesabout the hoarding now? She hadn’t just turned a corner, she’d gone through the entire maze and found the exit.
‘Ash is tied up with something?’ Felicity asked her gently. ‘Or you and he have had a falling out?’
Jess sagged, and Artemis, who ruled the back gardens of Greenwich with a sharp paw, raised his head and then crawled onto her lap, the sound of his purrs rivalling a low-flying aircraft. ‘Is it that obvious?’
Felicity put down the jacket she was holding. It was plum-coloured, with a jewelled brooch on the collar. Jess wondered how anyone could lose something like that, then reminded herself that she and Felicity were very different people. Today, the older woman was wearing jeans and a loose grey shirt, its shoulders far too baggy. Was it...? She tried to remember if she’d ever seen Spade wearing something like that, as opposed to one of his slogan T-shirts.
‘You look tired,’ Felicity said, ‘and your smile isn’t reaching your cheeks, let alone your eyes. There’s none of your usual perkiness, and you’re usually so punctual. Both of you. It’s not just that he’s busy doing something else, is it?’
Jess stroked the purring monster on her lap. ‘We had a fight – but all couples fight, don’t they? One argument shouldn’t mean the end.’
‘How do you know it’s the end?’
‘He’s not picking up my calls or answering my messages.’ After leaving Lola’s flat the night before, she had tried to contact him, but everything had gone unanswered. ‘And he didn’t come to the market today. It used to be his sanctuary, before... before the other thing he had to do, before we even met. But he’s not here.’
Felicity crouched in front of her. ‘Do you know that he didn’t go to the market today?’
‘I... Oh.’ Jess swallowed. ‘You mean he could have come as usual, and just avoided seeing me?’
