Page 110 of One Summer

‘I don’t know,’ she says in a German accent, giving me a slow look up and down. ‘Who are you exactly?’

‘Lindy.’

She looks blank.

‘I thought Caleb lived here,’ she says. ‘That’s what an old woman just told me. She pointed at this… McMansion.’

‘Villa,’ I murmur.

‘Yes, villa,’ she agrees, perhaps realising how dismissive and rude she just sounded. ‘Who are you?’

‘I’m Caleb’s… neighbour. I live right next door. In the house too close to the cliff.’

I’m rambling. I can hear myself saying words, but they don’t seem to be coming from me because they don’t have anything to do with what I’m thinking about now.

I need to stop this. I need to bring proceedings to a halt.

Achtung.

‘Oh, you are the woman who watches the metal-detecting videos on YouTube?’ she says, evidently pleased that she’s placed me.

‘Caleb, you have a VISITOR,’ I shout. ‘Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?’

I can hear banging from the bedroom, as if Caleb is hastily trying to get dressed.

‘Marlene. I am Caleb’s wife.’

Caleb is married.

I’ve just slept with a married man.

‘You were the one who bought Caleb all the funny clothes…’ I say mechanically, no intonation.

‘What?’ she says.

‘The T-shirts and hoodies with the weird slogans.’

‘Oh, that. Yes,’ she says, as if only just remembering. ‘Where is he?’

‘Just a minute,’ I say to her, and walk into the bedroom, where I find Caleb desperately trying to lay hands on clothes.

‘Your wife is here,’ I say, my voice thick with accusation.

He finds a T-shirt. There’s just one word on it.

HUMAN.

He looks at me, his cheeks flushed with colour.

‘I’d better go. I’m really sorry, Lindy. I promise I’ll explain everything later.’

I watch him grab his jacket and slide his feet into his trainers without putting on socks, and then the two of them are gone, going to the cliffs for a morning walk.

Caleb has never mentioned a wife. I’ve talked about my relationship with Max, but he’s never shared anything of his own romantic history, other than that his ex bought him all his clothes on her travels. And yet, at some point in his life, he made the ultimate commitment to a woman, and he’s still married to her now.

And, for some reason, he chose not to ever talk about this to me. Who does that?

Who gets close to a person and fails to reveal one of the most important things about themselves?

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